Bring your opera glasses if Andrea Concetti is performing one of his many roles where he's shirtless or in a various state being undressed. The 47-year-old Italian keeps getting better and sexier with age, much like his counterparts Nathan Gunn and Simon Keenlyside. His performances exude sensuality and sexuality that only enhance the stereotype of Italian men. His shirtless romp with fellow barihunk in Pier Luigi Pizzi's "Don Giovanni" has become legendary in opera circles and on the internet.
Interview with Andrea Concetti:
Concetti is returning to the Macerata Opera Festival in Sferisterio this year to perform Colline in Puccini's La boheme. Performance will run from July 21-August 10. The festival, which always has entertaining productions, will also be performing Bizet's Carmen and Verdi's La Traviata. Visit their website for additional cast and performance information.
Andrea Concetti as Leporello
We're amazed that Stefano de Peppo hasn't made it onto our site before. It's often difficult to gauge the sexiness of singers who are known for character roles. He's established an international career singing regularly in Europe, the United States and Latin America. He recently wrapped up a run as Bartolo with the New Jersey State Opera. He will also sing Bartolo with the Miami Lyric Opera opening on August 18 and in Mexico City in October.
Stefano de Peppo sings Handel's "Ombra mai fu"
A native Italian, de Peppo began his musical career as a member of the Children's Chorus of Teatro alla Scala of Milan for seven years before taking up voice at the Civic School of Music in Milan. He has become associated with the character roles of Donizetti, Rossini, and Mozart, including Don Pasquale, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore, Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Mustafa in L’Italiana in Algeri, Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Alphonso in Cosi fan tutte.
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:
Our post about Luca Dall'Amico led one of our readers to alert us to another very sexy performance at the Sferesterio Festival in Macerata, Italy. Barihunk Nmon Ford is singing the title role in another early Verdi opera, Attila. Ford was named by the German magazine Bild as the most beautiful baritone in the world and these pictures show why!
There is one remaining performance on August 10th.
Of course, Ford isn't the first singer to perform the role shirtless. Samuel Ramey was a noted interpreter of the role who sang Attila showing some skin. We'll be watching for video of Nmon Ford from this production, but in the meantime here is a clip of Ramey from 1987.
For comparison, here is Homero Pérez-Miranda, who has also been featured on this site.
