Reader Submission: Italian Bass-Barihunk Riccardo Fassi

Riccardo Fassi

Our latest reader submission is Italian bass-barihunk Riccardo Fassi, who a reader spotted as Colline in Puccini's La bohème at Austria's Stadttheaters Klagenfurt. He has additional performances this year on December 29 and 31, and from January 2-17 next year. Tickets and cast information is available online.

Fassi has been majoring in Vocal Chamber Music and Opera Singing at the Conservatory “G. Verdi” in Milan. He made his debut in 2014 at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman singing Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Despite his youth, he's already performed on a number of major opera stages, including Papageno at Milan's La scala, Mozart's Figaro at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Pistola at the Wiener Staatsoper and the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Theater Basel.

Next up for Fassi is the role of Balthazar in Donizetti's La favorite at the Teatro Massimo, which he will rotate with fellow barihunk Marko Mimica. Léonor will be sung by the exciting young mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis. Fassi performs on February 2 and 27 and additional cast and ticket information is available online.

Justin Hopkins making Opera Vlaanderen debut as Lord Krishna

Justin Hopkins (Photo @Ellen Appel) and Satygraha (photo @Koen Broos)

American bass-barihunk Justin Hopkins is at Opera Vlaanderen this month, where he'll make his company debut singing Lord Krishna and Parsi Rustomji in Philip Glass' Satygraha in an all-star cast headed by the fearless tenor Peter Tantsits, the lush voiced mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, Rihab Chaieb, Denzil Delaere, Tineke Van Ingelgem and barihunk Robin Adams as Mr. Kellenbach. 

Satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth force”) is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s early years in South Africa, where he developed his groundbreaking ideas about nonviolent political resistance. Loosely based on the life of Gandhi, it forms the second part of Glass's "Portrait Trilogy" of operas about men who changed the world, which includes Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten. 

The text is taken from the Bhagavad Gita and is sung in the original Sanskrit

Performances run from November 18-December 2. Tickets and additional information is available online.

Barihunks Lawson Anderson and Benjamin Taylor win George London top honors

Benjamin Taylor and Lawson Anderson

Barihunks Lawson Anderson and Benjamin Taylor shared top honors at the 2018 George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers. The two singers will receive $10,000 each, along with fellow winners Raehann Bryce-Davis, Rihab Chaieb, Emily D'Angelo and Lauren Margison.

The George London Foundation and George London Awards are named for the great American bass-baritone (1920-1985), who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young singers. The announcement of the winners was made by George London's widow, Nora London.

The George London Foundation's 2017-18 season concludes with a duo recital featuring past winners Heidi Melton and Kyle van Schoonhoven on March 4th at The Morgan Library & Museum.

Benjamin Taylor and Lawson Anderson

Lawson Anderson can next be seen as Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio on March 16th and 18th with the Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional de México.

Benjamin Taylor is a first-year Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist, where is scheduled to perform Sciarrone in Puccini's Tosca, Brian in Jeremy Howard Beck's The Long Walk, and Captain Gardiner in Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick.

Brent Michael Smith part of Michigan Opera Theatre's first training program

Brent Michael Smith

Bass-barihunk Brent Michael Smith will be part of the inaugural group of singers at the newly formed Michigan Opera Theatre Studio. He'll be singing Colline in Puccini's La bohème at the Michigan Opera Theatre on Oct 17, 21, 24 and 25. Tickets are available online.

He'll be joined in the program by soprano Angela Theis, mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, tenor Joseph Michael Brent, baritone Jeff Byrnes and coach/accompanist Gordon Craig Schermer.

 Brent Michael Smith sings Mozart's "O Isis und Osiris" from The Magic Flute:

Other roles during his time in the training program include the Second SS Officer in Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger from Nov. 14-22.Grandpa Moss in Aaron Copland's The Tender Land from March 12- 20. The Doctor in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth from ​April 16-24 and The Speaker
in Mozart's The Magic Flute​ from May 14-22.

Smith is a first-place winner of both the Grand Rapids Opera Competition and the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition: Great Lakes Region. 

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