Rufus Wainwright's "Hadrian" to premiere with adult warning

Thomas Hampson and David Leigh (costume sketch courtesy of Canadian Opera)

Rufus Wainwright's second opera, "Hadrian," will open on October 13th at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. The opera is about a gay relationship in ancient Rome between the Roman emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous. Daniel MacIvor's libretto was inspired by Marguerite Yourcenar's novel "Memoirs of Hadrian," which Wainwright read twenty years ago.

"Antinous and Hadrian," an opera based on the same story, was recently completed by composer Clint Borzoni and librettist Edward Ficklin, and was presented in New York in 2017 in concert form. You can hear the beautiful love scene HERE.

This is pop singer Rufus Wainwright's second attempt at opera, after "Prima Donna," which premiered at the New York City Opera in 2009, featuring barihunk Randal Turner.

Wainwright's "Hadrian" comes with an adult warning and features a musical interlude where Hadrian and Antinous make love. The cast includes the ageless barihunk Thomas Hampson as Hadrian, tenor Isaiah Bell as his lover Antinous, Karita Mattila as Plotina, bass-barihunk David Leigh as Turbo, Ambur Braid as Sabina and Ben Heppner as Dinarchus. The piece is sung in English and Latin.

The story is about Emperor Hadrian, who is devastated after his lover Antinous drowns in the Nile River. While matters of state encroach on his grief and advisers clamor for war against a radical new threat to the Empire, Hadrian slips out of time to re-encounter the vision and reality of Antinous—and learn the truth about what happened on the Nile.

There are seven performances between October 13-27 and tickets are available online.

"Prima Donna" Opens at New York City Opera Today

Rufus Wainwright, Randal Turner & Melody Moore

The New York City Opera is about to pull off an operatic trifecta when it opens Rufus Wainwright's debut opera "Prima Donna" today at 1:30 PM EST. The opera was originally supposed to make its New York debut at the Metropolitan Opera, but they wouldn't schedule it until 2014. So Wainwright took it across the plaza (which is now at BAM, but that's a whole different story). Not only is City Opera winning the battle over "Prima Donna," but both rising superstar Melody Moore and barihunk sensation Randal Turner will be making their debuts with City Opera before they step on the Met stage. These are two singers who are not to be missed on stage, as they both combine great singing with amazing dramatic instincts.

Someone better call Peter Gelb at the Met!

The opera is making its much-awaited U.S. debut after runs at the Manchester International Festival, Sadler’s Wells and Toronto’s Luminato Festival.

The story of Prima Donna revolves around an aging opera singer who is attempting to revive her career amidst self-doubt, failed romance and crippling loneliness. The opera, sung in French, is set in Paris, 1970. The story is very much inspired by Maria Callas' later years in Paris where she was known to lock herself inside her room and listen to old opera recordings.

We wish everyone well on opening day!



Performances run through February 25 and all remaining tickets are just $25. Click HERE to purchase tickets.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

NYCO "Prima Donna" Preview at Guggenheim SOLD OUT; Watch it LIVE online; $25 Seats For All Shows

Composer/Singer Rufus Wainwright & Barihunk Randal Turner

Opera fans can put to rest any concerns that New York City Opera couldn't bounce back after a contentious work stoppage. Tonight's preview performance at the Guggenheim is completely SOLD OUT. City Opera General Director George Steel will moderate a discussion with Rufus Wainwright and members of the creative team. Singers will also perform excerpts from the show, including barihunk Randal Turner.

The sudden buzz about City Opera reopening their doors is great news for anyone who believes that New York City should have two major opera companies. If you don't have tickets or don't live in New York, you have three options to enjoy the preview. Standby tickets will be made available as space allows and can be obtained by calling the box office at 212-423-3587. You can view the live broadcast of the performance and discussion by clicking HERE or you can follow the discussion on Twitter at @WorksandProcess and use the hashtag #WPlive. All three start at 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PST.

City Opera also got some good financial news when the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation bought all of the remaining seats for all performances at BAM. City Opera is now offering those seats at a special price of $25 to celebrate the upcoming season. Click HERE to buy your $25 tickets for Prima Donna, La traviata, Cosi fan tutte or Orpheus.

Prima Donna will be performed February 19–25 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The post-performance reception for this program will take place in the theater lobbies.

Watch Rufus Wainwright perform "Hallelujah." FYI, he does not sing in Prima Donna:

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Happy Birthday, Randal Turner! 生日快樂

Randal Turner is about to debut in China

We'd like to wish Randal Turner a very special birthday.

We've met some amazing talents and incredible singers since starting Barihunks and Randal Turner counts among our favorites. He is one of many talented singers who we discovered singing in Europe who had yet to appear in the United States. Like Luca Grassi who made his belated U.S. debut at the Dallas Opera tonight, the American-born Turner didn't appear on stage in the U.S. until 2010 when he was cast as the title character in Don Giovanni at the Michigan Opera Theater.

Turner followed his critical success in Detroit with his West Coast recital debut in San Francisco, which has been recorded and is for sale on this site.  He was recently engaged by the Washington National Opera to cover Placido Domingo in Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride and will be making his debut at the New York City Opera in February 2012 in Rufus Wainwright's "Prima Donna." Turner was also named the world's sexiest Don Giovanni in a reader poll on this site, beating out international superstars like Simon Keenlyside and Mariusz Kwiecien.

Ads heralding Randal Turner's US Debut in Detroit

The legendary conductor Loren Maazel is now taking Randal Turner to China to make his Asian debut as the title character in Rossini's Barber of Seville. The performance is a co-production between the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts and Maazel's Castleton Festival. Performances run from November 24-27.

Listen to Randal Turner:

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New York Observer Profiles Luca Pisaroni; Thoughts on a Kwiecien Replacement

A Leporello who should get the girl: Luca Pisaroni

Zachary Woolfe of the New York Observer has written a wonderful profile of Luca Pisaroni, who is appearing as Leporello opposite Mariusz Kwiecien Peter Mattei in the Met's Don Giovanni. You can read it on the Observer website.

For the legions of fans who were disappointed by Kwiecien's injury and cancellation, Pisaroni is a nice consolation prize as Leporello. Who knows, maybe Leporello will get the girl(s) this time.

Randal Turner: The logical replacement for Kwiecien

By the way, we were hoping that the Met would scoop City Opera and bring in Randal Turner to take over for Kwiecien. He's the only Don who can match Kwiecien's raw sexuality in this role. Turner will be making his New York stage debut in February in Rufus Wainwright's "Prima Donna."

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In Praise of NY City Opera; Randal Turner Among Debuts

Rufus Wainwright & Randal Turner

We don't review singers or performances on this site and we try to stay positive, leaving the usual "opera queen" bitchiness to other sites. Our goal is to promote opera and opera singers. However, it was difficult for us over the last year to watch the criticism of New York City Opera and see the blogosphere, Facebook and Twitter full of venomous comments about the company that former Mayor Fiorella La Guardia called the "People's Opera."

We want to use the formal announcement of their new season as an opportunity to say a few words of long-overdue praise about New York City Opera. Like many opera companies, City Opera has faced some difficult financial challenges over the last year. Unlike many companies who cut performances by dropping anything that didn't sell like Butterfly, Boheme or Carmen, City Opera continued to take chances with repertory, singers and productions. They even took chances with the standard repertory and delivered a sexy "Don Giovanni" that was an artistic success in every way imaginable.

A lot of people were upset that City Opera decided to leave their home at Lincoln Center. The move out of Lincoln Center and into the Lynch Theater at John Jay College, El Teatro at El Museo del Barrio and the Brooklyn Academy of Music will save the company $4.5 million and bring opera back to the people, as La Guardia first imagined. It's not Lincoln Center that makes opera great, it's a company's creativity and dedication to great art that makes opera great.

The new City Opera season will feature more than twenty artist debuts, including the New York debut of Randal Turner, one of the most compelling and gifted performers in opera. As they have done throughout history with other notable debuts, they have trumped the more prestigious and better funded Metropolitan Opera in securing the Zurich-based American singer, who will be performing Philippe in Rufus Wainwright's U.S. debut of "Prima Donna."

Rod Gilfry, Daniel Teadt and Kelly Markgraf

There are a number of barihunk debuts other than Randal Turner that we're also excited about, including Rod Gilfry performing Don Alfonso in "Cosi fan tutte" and Daniel Teadt in the title role of Telemann’s "Orpheus." Cosi also includes the return of barihunk Philip Cutlip, who will be singing Guglielmo and "Orpheus" which will feature Kelly Markgraf at Pluto. Other debuts we're particularly excited about are soprano Amanda Majeski and tenor Taylor Stayton.

The 2011/12 spring season will open on Sunday, February 12 with La Traviata at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. "Prima Donna" will open on Sunday, February 19 also at BAM. For additional cast and performance information visit the NYCO website.

We're urging all of our readers to help City Opera survive and flourish by making an extra effort to attend their performances this year.


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