Waltteri Torikka during the finale of Tähdet, Tähdet
Finnish barihunk Waltteri Torikka won MTV's singing competition Tähdet, Tähdet (Stars, Stars) garnering 58% of the vote and bringing the audience to its feet with his own hip swinging rendition of Ricky Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca. Sunday's finale culminated a two month journey that included performances of Whitesnake's Still of Night, a country version of "Ring of Fire," the punk rock song "Hei hei mitä kuuluu," a Finnish tango, and even an Ozzy Osbourne-esque version of Scarpia from Tosca!
Waltteri Torikka sings Livin' La Vida Loca:
Waltteri Torikka finished ahead of Laura Voutilainen. Both finalists performed three songs during the finale. Torikka was a relatively unknown opera singers to most Finns when the competition began, but quickly became a fan favorite with his energetic and often sexually charged renditions of pieces.
He now heads to the Rijeka Opera in Croatia to sing the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni from May 21-29. Fans in the UK can see him on August 29th at the Proms, where he will be performing Jean Sibelius' Kullervo.
The barihunk winning streak continues, as Australian Morgan Pearse just took the top prize at the Royal Over-Seas League singing competition in London.
For fifty years, the Royal Over-Seas League Arts division has been devoted to the career development of talented young professional artists and musicians from the UK and the Commonwealth. The organization provides scholarships and provides career and performance opportunities for musicians.
Pearse performed Finzi's "The clock of the years," Korngold's "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen," Mozart's "Hai gia vinta la causa...Vedro mentr'io sospiro" and his "Deh, vieni alla finestra," and three Schumann songs, "Meine Rose," "Belsatzar," and "Der
Kontrabandiste."
Pearse earned his first class honours degree from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and then moved to London late last year to commence a Masters in Performance at the Royal College of Music. He is the inaugural Joan Sutherland Scholar at the College, where he is studying with baritone Russell Smythe.
You can next see Pearse on February 19th at the Queen’s Gate Terrace in South Kensington. U.K. He'll be one of four artists performing in "Lied in London." a concert of Goethe settings by Schubert and Wolf. Suggested donations are £15 (students £5) and includes wine and cheese.
Pearse will be performing the Count in the Royal College of Music's Le nozze di Figaroin June and then return to Australia to perform Apollo and Pluto in a national tour of Monteverdi's Orfeo with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. He will also perform the title role in Handel's Imeneo at the London Handel Festival on March 11 and 13, a Cadogan Hall recital in June, and the title role in the Australian premiere of Britten's Owen Wingrave in August with Sydney Chamber Opera.
We went online to check out the new video of the Australian Singing Competition 2009 Mathy Awards winners. We knew that Barihunks regular Hadleigh Adams was competing and we were rooting for him. But were we ever thrilled to discover that of the five finalists, three were barihunks. Adams was joined by Lachlan Scott and Sam Roberts-Smith, who won the competition.
Here is the video from the competition and some bios of the three hunks from Down Under:
Sam Roberts-Smith is a 22-year-old barihunk who was born in Perth, Australia. He completed a Bachelor of Music at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Roberts-Smith was a Finalist in the McDonald’s Operatic Aria and a recipient of The Michelle Robinson Scholarship for voice; the McCaw-Marsh Entry Scholarship; the Lionel Edgerton Scholarship and the Joan Sutherland Society of Sydney Scholarship, 2006. He was recently selected as a Finalist in the New York Study Award.
His WAAPA Repertoire includes: Harry Easter: Street Scene (Kurt Weill), Maxamillian: Candide (Leonard Bernstein), Boniface: Angelique (Jaques Ibert) Demetrius: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Benjamin Britten). Other roles: Guglielmo: Così fan tutte (Mozart) – Pacific Opera, Batavia (Richard Mills) – WAO.
Roberts-Smith appeared as a Soloist with The Sydney Symphony Youth Orchestra and The Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra and Chorale. His broadcasts for ABC Classic FM include Rising Stars and Sunday Live.
Adelaide-born Bass Lachlan Scott completed a Bachelor of Music in Classical Voice Performance at the Elder Conservatorium in 2007, culminating a 15-year relationship with renowned Bass-Baritone Robert Dawe.
For State Opera of South Australia he has performed the roles of Sid in La Fanciulla del West and Caronte in their acclaimed studio production of Underneath, based on Monteverdi’s Orfeo, and has covered the roles of The Mandarin (Turandot) and Count Ceprano (Rigoletto). He has also sung regularly with the SOSA chorus since their 2004 production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. He performed a principal role in each of the Elder Conservatorium opera productions from 2003-2007, including Doctor Bartolo (Figaro), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), and Don Alfonso (Cosi fan Tutte). For Co-Opera, he will perform the role of Don Basilio in Barbiere di Siviglia in late 2009.
He has extensive oratorio experience, performing bass arias and solos for a variety of Adelaide-based groups in Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, and the Mozart and Fauré Requiem masses.
Also an experienced chorister, he has been a core member of the award-winning and internationally recognised Adelaide Chamber Singers, directed by Carl Crossin, since 2005.
New Zealand bass baritone Hadleigh Adams was born in Palmerston North, and completed a Bachelor of Music degree in 2006 under the tutelage of Dr Te Oti Rakena at the University of Auckland . He went on to complete his Masters degree in Music, studying with Margaret Medlyn and Jenny Wollerman at the New Zealand School of Music, graduating in 2007. In February 2009, Hadleigh relocated to Australia, to take up his position as the Gertrude Johnson Scholar at Australia’s new opera studio, The Opera School - Melbourne.
In New Zealand, Hadleigh has already forged an impressive operatic and concert career. He has been a member of the NBR New Zealand Opera since 2004, and since this time has performed in all main stage productions with the company. In 2006 he was invited to begin understudying principal roles, and perform minor lead roles. Throughout 2007/2008 he was the PwC Dame Malvina Major Emerging artist with the NBR New Zealand Opera, during which time he was awarded the prestigious Circle100 Scholarship.
Hadleigh was a finalist in The Australian Singing Competition Mathy Award, and was a national finalist in the 2009 Final Opera Australia Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Auditions. The recipient of many other awards and scholarships, Hadleigh has also received scholarship offers for postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Scottish Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and has been accepted to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
In 2009 Hadleigh has enjoyed a busy concert schedule, both in Australia and New Zealand. Opera roles include Papageno in The Magic Flute; Coppelius in Les Contes d’Hoffmann; Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas; Baritone in Four Note Opera and Bob in The Old Maid & the Thief. Concert engagements will include; Purcell’s Come Ye Sons of Art (Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra); J.S. Bach’s St John Passion (The Orpheus Choir); David Hamilton’s Breaking the Quiet (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra); and Handel’s Messiah (RMPS, and Napier Civic Choir).
