William Berger in Joshua with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

William Berger

We celebrated International Redhead Day yesterday and included barihunk William Berger in our post. Somehow we overlooked his upcoming as Caleb in Handel's Joshua with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Handel's oratorio Joshua was completed in 1747 and is the last of a consecutive run of four oratorios with military themes (the others are The Occasional Oratorio, Judas Maccabaeus, and Alexander Balus). The libretto by Thomas Morell is taken from the Old Testament book of Joshua, and conflates a number of episodes that relate to the hero's campaigns against Jericho, Ai, and the five Kings. To avoid what would otherwise have been an almost continuous succession of warlike episodes, Morell expands the biblical roles of the young warrior Othniel and his betrothed Achsah, the daughter of the elderly patriarchal warrior Caleb.

James Rutherford sings "Shall I in Mamre's fertile plain":

Joshua is divided into three acts, the first of which immediately establishes the grand scale of the work in the opening scenes celebrating the Jews' miraculous passage across the Jordan, the conclusion of 40 years in the wilderness. In Act II, Joshua is in the process of laying siege to Jericho, and orders the famous final trumpet call and the walls fall. Act III includes some of Handel's best music, including Caleb's "Shall I in Mamre's fertile plain" and the great choral showstopper "See the conq'ring hero comes." It also includes one of the composer's most famous arias, Achsah's "Oh! had I Jubel's lyre."

Performances are on December 1 in San Francisco Friday December 2 in Palo Alto, December 3 in Berkeley and December 4 in Lafayette. Tickets are available online

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William Berger's HOT new look

William Berger (photo by Paul Foster-Williams)

There's one thing that we've learned in our five years of existence: Barihunks has a loyal group of ginger lovers. Every time we post a redhead on the site, we seem to get a half-dozen emails touting another "strawberry blond" singer.

A recent email came from a friend and it was about a wonderfully gifted singer who we both had seen many times on stage.  It began, "Have you seen William Berger lately? Not sure what's he's done, but he's looking really H-O-T these days."

We're not sure either, but it looks like he's lost a stone or two and adopted a distinctly stylish new look. Whatever he's done, we agree that he looks as great as he sounds. We've seen other singers go through some amazing transformations recently, most notably the very public evolution of Michael Mayes from Bari-Chunk to Bari-Hunk, which remains one of our most visited and inspirational posts.

William Berger sings "Revenge Timotheus Cries" from Handel's Alexander's Feast)

Berger is an amazing talented baritone who sings with an incredible depth of emotion and colors his phrases beautifully. We still remember his performances with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra where he sang Aeneas opposite the great Susan Graham's Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas under maestro Nicholas McGegan. Even though he has no real aria the beauty of his singing was unforgettable.

He was also a successful Papageno for Garsington Opera last year, a role he'll be reprising next year at L'opéra de Toulon.

 William Berger sings Mozart's "Abendempfindung"

Berger and McGegan are also releasing a recording of late 18th-century operatic arias with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Berger also has a highly-acclaimed new recording out called "Insomnia" and we encourage you to read Berger's own thoughts on this very personal project.

Duncan Rock becomes first winner of Chilcott Award

Duncan Rock

Scooping up a prize fund of £10,000, 28-year-old barihunk Duncan Rock has become the first recipient of the Chilcott Award for young British opera singers. The award is given to the British singer who shows most promise and potential for an international singing career.

Named after the late singer Susan Chilcott, the prize money is specifically meant to further advanced learning and career development. Rock will be spending his on having singing lessons with eminent performer Robert Dean, as well as French and German language lessons.

Rock has previously appeared as Don Giovanni for the Welsh National Opera, alongside several roles at Glyndebourne and Longborough Festival Opera. Duncan just opened a month long run as Papageno with the English National Opera where he is performing Papageno in The Magic Flute. He returns to ENO on November 21 for a run as Morales in Bizet's Carmen opposite the Escamillo of fellow barihunk Leigh Melrose.

The Susan Chilcott Scholarship, which offers the prize fund, was founded in 2005 in memory of the late singer, who died in 2003.

Andrew Garland wins National Association of Teachers Competition

Andrew Garland has kept the barihunk winning streak alive in vocal competitions, as he won the National Association of Teachers Competition this weekend.

Garland will receive $10,000 in cash and prizes including $5000 in cash, a $2500 winner’s recital at the 2014 National Conference in Boston,  and $2500 towards personal expenses for a New York solo recital debut sponsored by the Distinguished Concerts International New York. He also receives a full tuition scholarship to AIMS in Graz, Austria and a $1,000 gift certificate for music from Hal Leonard Corporation.

Judges for the finals were Christopher Arneson, Jane Eaglen, Lynn Helding, Beverley Rinaldi, and Donald Simonson.

Garland can next be seen on July 28th at the South Shore Concert series in Hingham, Massachusetts performing music from opera and operetta.

Garland sings Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" 

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Two Red-Headed Barihunks: Ágúst Ólafsson and Gregory Gerbrandt

[Top photo of Ágúst Ólafsson; Bottom photo of Gregory Gerbrandt]

Perhaps the memory of opera’s most famous redhead, Beverly Sills, is going to live on in the world of barihunks. Gregory Gerbrandt and Ágúst Ólafsson are two thrilling young redheads who Ms. Sills would have loved.

Gerbrandt voice is probably too low to land a bunch of traditional barihunks roles, but he’s been acclaimed as a Marcello (see video), Silvio, Almaviva in Nozze and as a concert artist. He also is a volunteer firefighter, which makes it all the more likely that Bubbles would have loved him. Sills released an album called “Up in Central Park” with a Sigmund Romberg song entitled “The Fireman’s Bride.” The song was full of sexual innuendo: she “clings to the hose” and “lies flat on her hide,” because she is the “naughty Fireman’s bride.”

Our other carrot top is Ágúst Ólafsson, who is a regular with the Icelandic Opera. He studied with the great Jorma Hynninen and Sauli Tiilikainen at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. He went on to win second prize in the international Hugo Wolf Academy Lied competition. Ólafsson, like Gerbrandt has also scored a huge success in the crossover title role of Sweeney Todd (Does anyone else think these two look like brothers?). On the opera stage Ólafsson is becoming a bit of a Mozart specialist, so we expect to see more of him on this site.

For some reason, we've had a run on redheads lately. If you're a fan, you might want to check out our recent post of Ryan de Ryke, as well, at: http://barihunks.blogspot.com/2009/02/red-headed-ryan-de-ryke.html.

This site can be contacted at barihunks@gmail.com

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