Six Low Male Voices Amongst 20 Finalists at Cardiff Singer of the World

Leonardo Lee and Patrick Guetti

Low male voices will be well represented at the 36th BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, as they comprise six of the final twenty competitors. Competing for the prestigious prize from June 15-22 will be baritone Jorge Espino from Mexico, baritone Badral Chuluunbaatar from Mongolia, baritone Leonardo Lee from South Korea, baritone Andrei Kymach from Ukraine, bass Patrick Guetti from the United States  and bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba from the United States.

Winners of the Singer of the Year Prize and Song Prize will receive £20,000 and £10,000 respectively. An Audience Prize of £2,500 will also be awarded. 

This year's panel of judges will be opera director David Pountney, tenor José Cura, soprano Dame Felicity Lott, mezzo-soprano Federica von Stade, and Grange Park Opera founder Wasfi Kani.

Richard Ollarsaba sings "Se vuol ballare" from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro:

A number of operas most famous low voices were winners at Cardiff, most famously Dmitri Hvorostovsky who won the Main Prize in 1989 and Bryn Terfel who won the Song Prize that same year. Other winners have included Mongolian baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar who was co-winner of the Song Prize in 2017, Tommi Hakala who won the Main Prize in 2003, Christopher Maltman who won the Song Prize in 1997, Paul Whelan who won the Song Prize in 1993 and Jacques Imbrailo who won the coveted Audience Prize in 2007.

The other 2019 competitors are Guadalupe Barrientos, Lauren Fagan, Camila Titinger, Mingjie Lei, Katie Bray, Adriana Gonzalez, Luis Gomes, Roman Arndt, Karina Kherunts, Yulia Mennibaeva, Owen Metsileng, Sooyeon Lee, Lena Belkina and Angharad Lyddon.

Kyle Ketelsen as Sexual Revolution-era Escamillo

Barihunk Kyle Ketelsen is starring in Minnesota Opera's updated version of Carmen, which is running through May 10th. Director Michael Cavanagh has set the opera in 1975, when Spain was coming out from under 40 years of oppressive rule by the dictator Francisco Franco. The opera is set in Seville in the heart of the sexual revolution, when many in the western world were embracing romantic freedoms, while Spain was still mired in an era of repressive misogyny.

Ketelsen is joined in the opera by two other familiar singers to readers of this site, Christian Zaremba as Zuniga and Andrew Lovato as El Dancaïre. Richard Ollarsaba, a 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions grand finalist, will perform the role of Escamillo on May 1, 3, 8 and 9.

Ketelsen's Escamillo next travels to the Théâtre antique d'Orange this Summer, where he'll be joined by hunkentenor superstar Jonas Kaufmann and mezzo Kate Aldrich.

BREAKING NEWS: 6 of 10 Met Audition finalists are BARITONES!!!

Richard Ollarsaba

If there was any doubt remaining that we're in the "Golden Age of Baritones," it was put to rest today at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions semi-finals. An astonishing six of the ten singers advancing to next Sunday's finals are baritones or basses. Those singers include Matthew Anchel of the Eastern Region, Brandon Cedel of the Middle Atlantic Region, Musa Ngqungwana of the Middle Atlantic Region, Richard Ollarsaba of the Upper Midwest Region, Thomas Richards of the Central Region and Efraín Solís of the Western Region.

The ten winners will now perform on March 10 at 3 p.m at the Grand Finals Concert accompanied by the Met Orchestra. The singers will have a week of preparation with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the concert, which is open to the public.   Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert may be purchased at the Met Box Office, by phone at 212-362-6000, or online atwww.metopera.org.

Efraín Solís

Other singers advancing are tenor Michael Brandenburg of the Central Region, soprano Tracy Cox of the Western Region, soprano Sydney Mancasola of the New England Region and Rebecca Pedersen of the Rocky Mountain Region.  Barihunks would like to congratulate all of the finalists and wish them well (but we will unabashedly be pulling for the baritones!).

Met Competition Finalists Arrive in NY: Includes Seven Baritones

Brandon Cedel showing off his barihunk cred

Twenty singers, including seven baritones, who won regional competitions around the United States arrived in New York yesterday to begin rehearsals for the semi-finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The Met Auditions, this year celebrating their 60^th anniversary, are a major stepping stone to a career as an opera singer and were crucial in introducing many of today's best-known stars, such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Samuel Ramey, Deborah Voigt, and Dolora Zajick.

We were thrilled that over a third of the semi-finalists are baritones, who we will be rooting for. They include: Matthew Anchel, bass (Eastern Region; New York, NY); Brandon Cedel, bass-baritone (Middle Atlantic Region; Edward Nelson, baritone (Mid-South Region; Los Angeles, CA); Musa Ngqungwana, bass-baritone (Middle Atlantic Region; Richard Ollarsaba, bass-baritone (Upper Midwest Region; Tempe, AZ); Thomas Richards, bass-baritone (Central Region; Burnsville, MN); and, Efrain Solis, baritone (Western Region; Santa Ana, CA).

The semi-finalists will rehearse with the company's music staff for two days in preparation for the Semi-Finals competition on Sunday, March 3. The winners of that event will go on to sing in the Grand Finals Concert accompanied by the Met Orchestra on March 10 at 3 p.m. The finalists will have a week of preparation with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the Concert, which is open to the public. 

Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert may be purchased at the Met Box Office, by phone at 212-362-6000, or online atwww.metopera.org. 

Other finalists include: Michael Brandenburg, tenor (Central Region; Austin, IN);  Hershey, PA); Tracy Cox, soprano (Western Region; Dallas, TX); William Davenport,  tenor (Middle Atlantic Region; Rockville, MD); Hye Jung Lee, soprano (Gulf Coast Region; Seoul, South Korea); Juan José de León, tenor (Great Lakes Region; Corpus Christi, TX); Christopher Lowrey, countertenor (New England Region; Johnston, RI); Sydney Mancasola, soprano (New England Region; Redding, CA); Felicia Moore, soprano (Eastern Region; Princeton, NJ);  Port Elizabeth, South Africa);  Rebecca Pedersen, soprano (Rocky Mountain Region; Bountiful, UT);  Jessica Strong, soprano (Northwest Region; Winnipeg, Manitoba); Karen Vuong, soprano (Eastern Region; Los Angeles, CA); Benjamin Werley, tenor (Midwest Region; Pittsburgh, PA); and,  Melinda Whittington, soprano (Southeast Region; Charlotte, NC).