We recently ran a post about Philippe Sly singing in Peter von Winter's "Das Labyrinth" or the "Other Magic Flute," which was just performed at the Salzburg Festival. Sly sang the role of Sithos. The opera also included barihunk Thomas Tatzl as Papageno.
You can watch the entire opera below:
Tickets are already on sale for Sly's Guglielmo in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" at the San Francisco. Visit their website for tickets and additional performance information.
We never get tired of singing the praises of Canadian barihunk Philippe Sly, who wowed the judges at both the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Concours Musical International de Montreal (MIMC) where he took away the top honors. We're convinced that he's one of the most amazing talents to come along in the last decade. We've posted his intensely moving account of Schubert's Der Erlkönig a few times, which has received a remarkable 45,000 hits on YouTube.
After finishing a year with the esteemed Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, he was signed by by the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. He will also be touring Canada in recital series with the Debut Atlantic Series. He also returns to San Francisco, where he will appear in the mainstage production of Mozart's Così fan tutte under music director Nicola Luisotti.
Overture to "Das Labyrinth" by Peter von Winter aka "Magic Flute 2":
He's currently with the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival in Austria where he is singing Part 2 of the Magic Flute as Sithos in Peter von Winter’s 'Das Labyrinth' under the baton of Ivor Bolton. After Mozart's "Magic Flute" had a successful run of 200 performances, the composer's librettist Emanuel Schikaneder had the idea of commissioning a second part called The Labyrinth, or "The Struggle with the Elements." The opera was successful enough to have 42 performances over the next year. The performance is being recorded and will be broadcast on Unitel Classica at 8:15 PM Salzburg time on August 7th (2:15 PM EST/11:15 AM PST).
Philippe Sly sings Schumann's "Am Leuchtenden Sommermorgen":
Sly recently finished recording his first album "In Dreams," which is schudeled for release on the Analekta label in September. The recording includes Schumann's Dichterliebe, Ravel's Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, Ropartz's 4 Poèmes de l'intermezzo and the world premiere recording of Jonathan Dove's Three Tennyson Songs. If you're like us and you can never get enough of this young singer, you'll be thrilled to know that he's back in the recording studio next month for his next album, which will be of Rameau cantatas.
On another matter related to Unitel Classica, they will be broadcasting the Don Giovanni from Sferesterio wilth Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and Andrea Concetti that features a liberal amount of skin. We previously posted about the sexy production:
For all of you BariChunk lovers: Kurt Rydl as Osmin in Salzburg
Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premiered on this date in 1782. We often don't focus a lot on the bass end of the barihunk range, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity. The opera contains three arias for Osmin and the music goes down to the lowest reaches of the bass range.
Mozart wrote the role of Osmin for the formidable bass Ludwig Fischer, who was a friend of the composer. Mozart also wrote the aria "Alcandro, lo confesso…Non sò, d'onde viene" (K. 512) for the singer and some other concert arias. This is significant, because he had primarily written these concert show pieces for sopranos and the occasional tenor.
Ludwig Fischer
A letter between Mozart and his father dated September 26, 1781 shows that Osmin originally had very little music.
"In the original libretto Osmin has only [one] short song and nothing
else to sing, except in the trio and the finale; so he has been given an
aria in Act 1, and he is to have another in Act 2. I have explained to
Stephanie [the librettist] the words I require for the aria ['Solche
hergelaufne Laffen'] - indeed, I had finished composing most of the
music for it before Stephanie knew anything whatever about it. I am
enclosing only the beginning and the end, which is bound to have a good
effect. Osmin's rage is rendered comical by the use of the Turkish
music. In working out the aria I have allowed Fischer's beautiful deep
notes to glow. The passage 'Drum beim Barte des Propheten' is indeed in
the same tempo, but with quick notes; and as Osmin's rage gradually
increases, there comes (just when the aria seems to be at an end) the
Allegro assai, which is in a totally different metre and in a different
key; this is bound to be very effective. For just as a man in such a
towering rage oversteps all the bounds of order, moderation and
propriety and completely forgets himself, so must the music too forget
itself. But since passions, whether violent or not, must never be
expressed to the point of exciting disgust, and as music, even in the
most terrible situation, must never offend the ear, but must please the
listener, or in other words must never cease to be music, so I have not
chosen a key foreign to F (in which the aria is written) but one related
to it - not the nearest, D minor, but the more remote A minor."
The first aria is "Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden," which advises the listener to reward your loved one with kisses and make her life great, as well as to locking up your woman's other lovers, lest they tempt her to forget her faithfulness.
Gottlob Frick sings "Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden":
In the aria "Solche hergelaufne Laffen" Osmin graphically explains why he does not like Pedrillo. It's is mainly because Osmin and Pedrillo are both in love with Blondchen and Pedrillo is in better favor with both Blondchen and the Pasha.
Gottlob Frick sings "Solche hergelaufne Laffen":
After Pedrillo, Belmonte, Blondchen, and Konstanze are captured trying
to escape, Osmin sings of the delight that he will have when they are
all hanged in the aria "O wie will ich triumphieren."
Kurt Moll sings "O wie will ich triumphieren":
Ezio Pinza sings the aria in Italian:
Since the aria contains one of the lowest notes in the standard repertory, we thought that it would be fun to compare some of the greatest basses and their low D's (the aria goes from D2 to D4).
In chronological order: 1. Ezio Pinza 1947 (in Italian) 2. Mihaly Szekely 1959 (in Hungarian) 3. Gottlob Frick 1966 4. Kurt Moll 1974 5. Marti Talvela 1984 6. Matti Salminen 1987 7. Jaako Ryhänen 1988 8. Robert Lloyd 1991 9. Cornelius Hauptmann 1992 10. Franz Hawlata 2006 11. Kurt Rydl 2006
Erwin Schrott is in the middle of a successful run of Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro" at the Salzburg Festival. He is playing Figaro opposite the Count of fellow barihunk Simon Keenlyside. The performance was broadcast worldwide yesterday to great acclaim and Schrott remains a fan favorite in the Austrian city.
So it came as a surprise when Schrott and his soprano wife, the equally beautiful Anna Netrebko, gave an interview to the German magazine NEWS and revealed that they are being nixed from future performances after Netrebko's upcoming Boheme.
NEWS: Weshalb kommt in Ihren Plänen für die nächsten Jahre Salzburg nicht vor? Schrott: Ganz einfach deshalb, weil in Pereiras Plänen kein Platz für mich ist. Aber ich habe viele andere Projekte anderswo.
NEWS: Aber Sie, Frau Netrebko, singen nächstes Jahr die Mimi in Puccinis „Bohème“. Wie geht es dann weiter? Netrebko: Danach gibt es auch für mich keine Projekte in Salzburg.
NEWS: Schmerzt das nicht? Netrebko: Ja, das tut es. Schrott: Ja, das tut es.
The worst part of the interview is that they both said that the obvious slight hurts. Netrebko and Schrott are not only rock stars in Austria and at Salzburg in particular, but they have become global ambassadors for the art form. If you want to see Schrott in what appears to be his final performances at Salzburg for awhile there are still limited tickets available for August 4, 11 and 13.
Schrott with the Susanna of Marlis Petersen at Salzburg
The couple also revealed that they plan on opening up a restaurant in Vienna in the near future. The couple joked that they didn't know yet if the menu would include Churrasco from Schrott's native Uraguay or Borscht from Netrebko's Russia.
Here is Schrott at Covent Garden performing "se vuol ballare":
Operetta always seems like the most appropriate way to ring in the New Year. We're a week late with this, but it's worth it to hear these two great singers perform "Lippen Schweigen" at such a luxuriously languorous pace.
Maltman will be trading in operetta for plenty of Mozart in 2011. Two of the highlights will be his Papageno under Colin Davis' baton at the Royal Opera House in London. He will be joined by two amazing young singers, Joseph Kaiser as Tamino and Kate Royal as Pamina.
Maltman as Guglielmo in Seattle
In August, he will reprise his famous Guglielmo in Cosi under Marc Minkowski in Salzburg. The cast includes fellow barihunk Bo Skovhus as Don Alfonso and the gifted young tenor Alek Shrader.
Don't forget to vote in our poll to the right and let us know what you like best about Barihunks. You can also contact us with tips, photos, schedules and comments at Barihunks@gmail.com
We received an email from Germany informing us that barihunks Bo Skovhus and Christopher Maltman would be performing Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" and that Erwin Schrott and Simon Keenlyside would be perfoming "Le Nozze di Figaro" at the Salzburg Festival in Austria. Those performances will be in August 2011 and July 2011 respectively, so we have plenty time of time to cover it.
At the end of the email they asked us if we were familiar with Andre Schuen. They raved about his voice and incredible fidelity to the text. We thought that he was good enough and sexy enough to introduce him to the site. Let us know what you think at Barihunks@gmail.com.
[Dorothea Roeschmann as Donna Elvira and Erwin Schrott as Leporello]
Two of our favorite barihunks, Christopher Maltman and Erwin Schrott, are joining forces as Don Giovanni and Leporello respectivley. This somewhat controversial production of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" is returning to the 2010 Salzburg Festival and opens on August 9th.
Astute readers of this site may recall our post of the two singers together in this production from 2008.
So this is what people mean by a singer having a "beautiful chest voice." Here are two shots of Christopher Maltman from Salzburg's Don Giovanni displaying his stunning chest voice.
One would think it would be difficult to go wrong with two barihunks in one production. Unless, of course, you handed over the production to a crazy German director. The reviews were universally pretty brutal, but the photos are great!
Here is the review from the Kleine Zeitung:
[Claus Guth´s Don Giovanni] is mainly about greed of life and fear of death. With set designer Christian Schmidt he has relocated the entire action to a the middle of a dark forest [into which Don Giovanni flees after his fight with the Commendatore], where surprisingly there also is a bus-stop. Don Giovanni and Leporello inject drugs via syringes and are quickly in ecstasy...
Claus Guth, who received far more booh´s at the final curtain call than the conductor, virtually shows the final three hours of Don Giovanni´s life in "real time", as Don Giovanni in this version was seriously injured during the duel with the Commendatore...
Guth´s Don Giovanni is not a great seducer, but the object of a desire created by Donna Anna, Donna Elvira and Zerlina. As Donna Anna realizes that no lasting happiness may be found with this Giovanni, she commits suicide - only possible since the "Vienna version" without the final sextet is played here in Salzburg.
Musically it was mediocre. Conductor Bertrand de Billy succeeded only with the two introductory D-minor chords and the final scene. In between, he usually applied fast and sloppy tempi, under-challenging the Vienna Philharmonics.
Overall the vocal quality was disappointing. Only Dorothea Röschmann´s expressive Elvira and Christopher Maltman subtle Don Giovanni , though with little erotic radiance, delivered performances worthy of the Salzburg Festival. [Erwin Schrott] .. a somewhat uninteresting Leporello. Annette Dasch was fighting with technical problems as Donna Anna, Matthew Polenzani as Don Ottavio has a cultivated, but not very engaging tenor.
