Craig Verm stars in "film noir" version of Don Giovanni

Craig Verm and Rachelle Durkin (Photo: David Bachman)

The Pittsburgh Opera is kicking off its new season on October 12 with barihunk Craig Verm in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Director Kristine McIntyre has reinvisioned the opera in the style of film noir. Film noir was popular in the 1940s and 1950s and explored dark stories of crime, sexual motives and deceit. What could be darker and more deceitful than the noted Lothario Don Giovanni, the charming sexual predator who preys on women of all social classes, including the vengeful Donna Anna, leading to a fight that results in her father’s death?

Some of the greatest film noir movies included Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, Otto Preminger's Laura, Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep, Charles Vidor's Gilda and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. Film noir was a response to World War II and at the dawn of the Cold War, which generated stories of espionage and betrayals.

Verm will be joined by Musa Ngqungwana as Leporello, Tyler Zimmerman as Masetto, Brian Kontes as the Commendatore, Rachelle Durkin as Donna Anna, Corrie Stallings as Donna Elvira, Kang Wang as Don Ottavio and Antonia Botti-Lodovico as Zerlina. Performances are on October 12, 15, 18 and 20. Tickets are available online.

Brandon Cedel wins Annenberg Fellowship Fund career grant

Brandon Cedel before Met's Manon Lescaust & stretching before Barber of Seville

Bass-baritone Brandon Cedel was one of nine early-career artists awarded a grant from the prestigious Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts. The Fund  awards $50,000 a year for up to two years to help promising artists make a breakthrough in their careers, broaden their skills, and achieve professional success.

In addition to Cedel, fellowships totaling $450,000 were awarded to violinist Robyn Bollinger; actors Jeremie Harris, Miriam Hyman and David Pegram; cellist and conductor Nico Olarte-Hayes; visual artist Nyugen Smith; ballet dancer Devon Teuscher; and musician and musicologist Daniel Walden.

The Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund has paid or pledged more than $5.5 million in career-development grants to artists, including the current group, over the last nine years. The funding has enabled promising artists with world-class talent to film a movie, record new music, experiment in performance, afford studio time or training, buy materials, pay for living expenses and pay down student debt. The fellows, selected in consultation with partners such as The Public Theater, American Ballet Theatre, and the Perlman Music Program, work with mentors chosen by the partners and the Leonore Annenberg Fund.

Cedel just appeared in the Pittsburgh Opera production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville with his husband, fellow barihunk Jonathan Beyer. Upcoming performances include Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Philadelphia, Masetto in Don Giovanni at the Münchner Opernfestspiele, and Leporello at Glyndebourne.

Cedel will join Oper Frankfurt in 2016 when he completes his third year of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, which sponsored him. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Cedel won a Grand Prize at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2013) and a Richard Tucker Career Grant (2015). The New Yorker's music critic Alex Ross wrote of Cedel: "Capable of singing anything from Cavalli to Wagner, he may be destined for stardom."  

Barihunk couple Brandon Cedel & Jonathan Beyer team up for three operas

Brandon Cedel and Jonathan Beyer

Barihunk Jonathan Beyer and Brandon Cedel, who appeared together in our 2011 Charity Calendar, will be together onstage again from April 2-10 at the Pittsburgh Opera in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. The cast includes Emily Fons as Rosina and Michele Angelini as Almaviva. Tickets are available online.

They'll join forces again on June 3rd, when the Detroit Symphony presents Richard Strauss' Salome with and all-star cast that includes Lise Lindstrom as Salome, Chris Merritt  as Herod and Jane Henschel as Herodias. Tickets are available online.

They'll also join forces in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Castleton Festival with Cedel as Figaro and Beyer as the Count.

Upcoming performances for Cedel include Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Philadelphia, Masetto in Don Giovanni at the Münchner Opernfestspiele, and Leporello at Glyndebourne.

Another barihunk couple, Dan Kempson and Zachary Altman, have also appeared together onstage, including in a recent performance of Puccini's Turandot with the Pacific Symphony. They also performed a Valentine's Day concert with the West Edge Opera in Berkeley.

Hadleigh Adams joins cast of Pittsburgh Cosi fan tutte

Hadleigh Adams (right) at Pittsburgh Opera and in Bajazet (left)

Barihunk Hadleigh Adams has joined the cast as Guglielmo for Pittsburgh Opera's Così fan tutte. This summer, he was a smash hit in the title role of Pinchgut Opera's production of Vivaldi's Bajazet.

In Pittsburgh, he will join one of the most legendary baritones in recent decades, Sir Thomas Allen, who will direct the opera as well as sing the role of Don Alfonso.  The opera will be set on the Italian seaside.

The cast includes hunkentenor Christopher Tiesi as Ferrando, Sari Gruber as Despina, Danielle Pastin as Fiordiligi and Jennifer Holloway as Dorabella.  The production runs from November 7-15 and tickets are available online.

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Matthew Worth debuts new website: Moby-Dick on the horizon

As we mentioned in a previous post, barihunk Matthew Worth will be making his debut with the Washington National Opera as Starbuck in Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick. Worth will take on the role that fellow barihunk Morgan Smith performed in the premiere and which is featured on DVD. That performance was named "Best Opera on DVD" in our "Best of 2013" feature last month.

Matthew Worth

We can't wait to hear the sublimely gifted Worth take on the critical role of Captain Ahab's first mate Starbuck, the family man who tries desperately to dissuade Ahab from his single-minded, suicidal pursuit of Moby-Dick. The role includes more beautiful baritone music from Jake Heggie in the aria "Captain Ahab? I must Speak with you."

Matthew Worth performs Schumann's Dichterliebe (complete):

In anticipation of this major debut, the Connecticut native has launched a new website, which features a generous supply of photos and two videos. You can check out the site HERE.

In addition to two upcoming recitals, he will return to the Pittsburgh Opera in April as title character in Philip Glass' Orphée, a role that he received critical acclaim performing at the Virginia Opera last year. He was joined in that production by fellow barihunk Christopher Temporelli and one of our Barihunks Calendar grantees for 2013, tenor Jonathan Blalock.

Pittsburgh's KDKA Features Don Giovanni Barihunks (and the Barihunks Calendar)

Two screen shots of KDKA's "Don Giovanni" feature

Pittsburgh Opera is opening their new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni on Saturday, November 3rd with a stellar young cast led by barihunk Michael Todd Simpson in the title role.

Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate KDKA Channel 2 ran a seven minute feature with Simpson and his sidekick Leporello, Wayne Tigges. In the middle of the feature, the conversation turned to the growing need for singers to look the part. The hosts then popped up an image of the 2013 Barihunks calendar as the female host ooh-ed and ahh-ed as shirtless and muscular pictures of Michael Todd Simpson flashed across the screen.

Don Giovanni will have four performances on November 3, 6, 9 and 11. The cast also includes tenor hunk Sean Panikkar as Don Ottavio, Joseph Barron as Masetto, Caitlyn Lynch as Donna Anna, Jennifer Holloway as Donna Elvira, Sari Gruber as Zerlina and Hao Jiang Tang as the Commendatore. Additional information is available at the Pittsburgh Opera website.

Barihunks will be traveling to the Seattle Opera in February 2013 to see Michael Todd Simpson in Puccini's La boheme, where he'll be joined by fellow barihunk Andrew Garland. Wayne Tigges can next be seen as the Superintendent Budd in Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring at the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse in January 2013.

Barihunk Craig Verm's Rock Hard Pecs Coming to Steel City

Craig Verm (left), Hotter than the ad model?

American barihunk Craig Verm is returning to the Pittsburgh Opera as Zurga in Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers." The role of Zurga made Nathan Gunn's pecs famous and helped launch the term "barihunk" into general usage. We have a feeling that Verm's Zurga is going to make him a household name. How often is the singer in a role as hot or hotter than the model used by the marketing department?

Internationally-renowned fashion designer Zandra Rhodes who wowed audiences in San Francisco with her Aida has been brought on to design the costumes for one of opera's most exotic spectacles.

Verm returns to the Pittsburgh Opera after a successful run in Ricky Ian Gordon's "The Grapes of Wrath" in 2008. Verm will be joined by tenor sensation Sean Panikkar in the famous duet “Au fond du temple saint.”

Craig Verm

Performances run from November 12-20 and tickets are available on the Pittsburgh Opera website. 

Here is the now legendary performance of the duet from The Pearl Fishers with Nathan Gunn and William Burden:



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Dan Kempson: Britten & Glass

Dan Kempson: Sexy with our without a shirt

Our recent post of a shirtless Dan Kempson enjoying some ice cream has proved quite popular. Here's a video of him talking about his participation in Britten's "Rape of Lucretia" during Pittsburgh Opera's 2009-2010 season.



We just learned that Kempson will be at Ft. Worth Opera's upcoming season in Philip Glass' "Hydrogen Jukebox." Performances will run from May 24 to June 5, 2011. Visit the Ft. Worth Opera website for more information.

Hydrogen Jukebox is the result of a collaboration between Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg and Philip Glass. It premiered in 1990 at the Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, SC. The original production had six members in its cast, each one representative of an American archetype. The idea was to present a portrait of America, from Ginsberg and Glass's point of view, from the 1950s to the late 1980s.

Fort Worth Opera's version of Hydrogen Jukebox will vary from its original production. It will be performed in a very small space and we are exploring ways of integrating the audience into the piece, if not physically, then mentally and emotionally. It will also include imagery of "journey" – both the journey of the poet as well as the country. It will not be a literal setting of a journey as an arc of the entire piece; rather, there will be re-occurrences of journey and/or travel as a common theme among the poems.



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Sexy & Shirtless Dan Kempson

Sexy & Shirtless Dan Kempson

Barihunk Dan Kempson just wrapped up a run of Fiorello's opposite fellow barihunk Matthew Worth in the "Barber of Seville" at the Pittsburgh Opera.  Kempson also took on the title role in the student matinee performances.

Kempson is a second-year Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera where he returned after a successful stint with San Francisco Opera's acclaimed Merola Opera program. He can next be seen in a free concert of arias and duets with soprano Lindsay Ammann at the Pittsburgh Opera headquarters, 2425 Liberty Avenue. Kempson on October 24th. He will return to the mainstage when he portrays Argante in Handel's "Rinaldo" opening on January 29, 2011.

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A Barber Well "Worth" Attending

Matthew Worth (r) as Figaro (photo by

David Bachman - Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette)

One of our favorites barihunks, Matthew Worth, is in Pittsburgh where he is being lauded for his wonderful stage presence. We fell in love with the budding young star when he rose to the difficult challenge of singing in Benjamin Britten's "Rape of Lucretia," where he practically stole the show. Worth has also scored major successes with two other Britten operas, Owen Wingrave and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Californians will get the opportunity to see him reprise his definitive portrayal as Tarquinius with fellow barihunk Michael Rice with Cal Performances in Berkeley on March 24 and 25.

Barihunk Michael Rice coming to Berkeley

Readers of this site might also recall that he created a bit of a sensation as Don Giovanni at the Virginia Opera, so it appears that he's equally adept at drama, comedy and portraying seductive rakes.

Matthew Worth: Sexy in a tee

Fans of Matthew Worth in the Pittsburgh area can see him in the Barber again tonight, Friday, October 15 or Sunday, October 17. Visit the Pittsburgh Opera website for ticket information.

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Pittsburgh Opera's Barihunk Tradition Continues

[Top photo: Barihunks Dan Kempson, Craig Verm & Liam Moran; bottom photo Liam Moran; photos courtesy of Pittsburgh Opera]

In January and February of this year the Pittsburgh Opera performed Benjamin Britten's opera "Rape of Lucretia" with their young artists. As always, Lucretia seems to attract the hunkiest singers around and Pittsburgh's production was no exception. Craig Verm cut a dashing figure as Junius, Dan Kempson a matinee idol Tarquinius and Liam Moran was a total stud as Collatinus.

If you missed this performance, the Pittsburgh Opera has some barihunks on their upcoming schedule. Matthew Worth will perform Figaro in the "Barber of Seville," Denis Sedov will portray Raimondo in "Lucia di Lammermoor," and Craig Verm will be back as Ping in "Turandot."
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Was Billy Budd Married?

[CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE]

One of the worst trends in operas is letting singers wear their wedding rings on stage, especially when the character is single and particularly when they are in pursuit of another character (Don Giovanni was a recent example that we spotted). One character who definitely isn't married is Billy Budd in Britten's opera of the same name.

However, the Pittsburgh Opera issued this picture of barihunk Nathan Gunn for their production two years ago. Of course, Top Gunn is awfully cute, ring or no ring.

Barihunks next feature will be a poll to determine the hottest Billy Budd of all time. Send your nominations to barihunks@gmail.com or leave it under COMMENTS below (although we understand that it's not working for many readers).

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Liam Moran sings "How strange she is tonight" - Karenin's Aria

Hair or no hair? He's pretty sexy either way, but how do you prefer emerging barihunk Liam Moran?

Moran is currently a resident artist with the Pittsburgh Opera where he made his debut last season as the Bonze in Madama Butterfly.

He has performed in some Barihunk opera already, including Zuniga in Carmen and the Speaker in Die Zauberflote. We can't wait to see him as Escamillo or Papageno (if it isn't too light for his voice). The former Merola student was also a prize winner of the Florida Grand Opera Competition and Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions/New England region. Moran completed his studies at McGill University in Montreal and the Yale School of Music.

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Craig Verm

Craig Verm established his reputation with the Pittsburgh Opera and set hearts aflutter with his shirtless portrayal of the Novice’s Friend in Britten’s Billy Budd [center photo]. That same season he portrayed Mercutio in Gounod’s Romeo & Juliette with the company, who has one of the better eyes for barihunk talent.

After a run of Gordon’s Grapes of Wrath in Pittsburgh, he heads to Italy to sing in two of our favorite operas at Barihunks, Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.

We hope to see a lot more of Verm and thank a reader for tipping us off to this up and comer. If you have a barihunk that you'd like to see on the site, email me at barihunks@gmail.com.

Phillip Sulzberger

German barihunk Philipp Sulzberger studied at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Munich, the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and at the University of Nebraska. He studied with longtime Met soprano Ariel Bybee.

It seems like Pittsburgh is joinging Sante Fe as a hotbed for barihunks, as Sulzberger has become a regular with the Pittsburgh Opera. Pittsburgh has already invited back Nathan Gunn and previously hosted Greer Grimsley and Michael Todd Simpson, all of whom can be seen on this blog. Sulzberger's barihunk roles thus far are Escamillo and Papageno.