WSJ: "As Met's Fall Season Opens, Booming Basses Take Center Stage"

Ildar Abdrazakov (Julie Platner, The Wall Street Journal)

In opera, tenors are the men falling in love, singing their hearts out and basking in ovations after hitting the high notes.

But operatic basses, with low voices suited to kings, gods and villains, rarely get the girls—or popular attention. Which can lead to some friendly ribbing.

"Tenors always cry like babies," said Ildar Abdrazakov, a bass, who rolls his eyes at all the onstage whining from his artistic frenemies. "Wimps."

On Monday, Mr. Abdrazakov will hit a career milestone: He is the title character in the Metropolitan Opera's season opener, a new production of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro. "

At age 37, the Russian-born Mr. Abdrazakov's relative youth makes his ascent atypical, since the bass voice typically reaches maturity later in life. He has already anchored major productions at the Met, including Verdi's "Attila" and Borodin's "Prince Igor," and he is now marketable enough that he was featured in the Met's advertising for the 2014-15 season.

"Ildar is unusual because he has been singing leading roles for years," said the Met's general manager, Peter Gelb. "With Ildar, you have the new great bass."

There will be plenty of opportunities for comparison, with several other basement-rattling voices featured this season. For the first time since 1984, the Met is presenting a bass in concert: the 50-year-old René Pape, who sings on Sept. 28 in addition to appearing in "Macbeth" and "The Magic Flute." Then in March comes "Don Carlo," which will include two basses: Ferruccio Furlanetto and James Morris, both in their 60s.

[CONTINUE AT WALL STREET JOURNAL]

The "Three Barihunks" appear at Richard Tucker Gala

Erwin Schrott, Sherill Milnes, Dmitri Hvorstovsky & Ildar Abrazakov (Dario Acosta Photography/Richard Tucker Music Foundation)

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation gala on November 11th turned into a veritable Barihunks Gala, with three of the hottest an most popular barihunks performing: Erwin Schrott, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ildar Abrazakov. The three singers even joined their legendary predecessor Sherill Milnes for a photo op.

The "Three Barihunks" (I see a DVD in their future), were featured along with many of today’s biggest names in opera,  including fellow baritones Gerald Finley and Quinn Kelsey, mezzo-sopranos Olga Borodina and Jamie Barton, tenors Marcello Giordani and Stephen Costello under the baton of maestro Patrick Summers and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The gala also honored soprano Ailyn Pérez, the 2012 Richard Tucker Award-winner.

The concert will be broadcast in the United States on December 13th as part of the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center series on PBS. The telecast will include a feature on Ailyn Pérez and performances by the featured guest singers.

The "Three Barihunks" will also be featured prominently on the Metropolitan Opera stage this season. Ildar Abdrazakov is singing the title roles in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni,
Dmitri Hvorostovsky stars in the new production of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera and later in its revival of Verdi's Don Carlo, and Erwin Schrott will sing Leporello to Abdrazakov’s Don Giovanni and Dulcamara in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore opposite his real-life partner, Anna Netrebko. 

Buy you Barihunks Charity Calendar today, so that you can mark December 13th as the date of the Richard Tucker gala telecast. Click below:

Marie Claire Italia features Sexiest Men in Opera

Clockwise from left: David Fray, Erwin Schrott, Mirco, Mirco Palazzi, Stephen Costello, Noah Stewart & Jonas Kaufmann

Marie Claire Italia has a feature out on the sexiest men in opera, which includes barihunks Erwin Schrott and Mirco Palazzi, as well as tenors Noah Stewart, Stephen Costello and Jonas Kaufmann. (Astute readers of the site might have noticed that those three tenors have snuck into some of our posts and video features.)

They even threw in David Fray, who they seemingly just couldn't resist. As an aside, we had a conversation with a world renowned conductor recently who said that he's noticed that violinists and pianists who he's working with look increasingly like models from European fashion magazines.

Marie Claire makes the case that we've been pleading for years, which is that opera has to compete with Hollywood for audiences. They also mention the increased popularity of high-definition broadcasts of opera where audiences want singers who are believable and nice to look at on the big screen. You can read the entire article online. The article manages to throw in a little humor, as well, saying Schrott's only shortcoming is that he's unavailable because he's married to the equally stunning soprano Anna Netrebko.

Mirco Palazzi and some hot pool boys in Rossini's "Il viaggio a Reims":

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Men in Tights: David Adam Moore & Co.

The San Diego Opera has been promoting their current production of Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet" by touting the real life married couple of Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez. They are both young, attractive and extremely talented, but we think the big draw is barihunk David Adam Moore and his fellow crew of men in tights. There is still a matinee performance this Sunday. For more information visit the San Diego Opera's website.

[David Adam Moore and tenor Stephen Costello]


Moore is one of our favorite barihunks in the world today and he often appears on stage shirtless in pieces like Billy Budd, Angels in America and Soldier Stories. We received two emails bemoaning the fact that Moore doesn't remove his shirt in R&J, but that he's still the hottest man on the stage. So in order not to disappoint, here is one of Moore's sexier shots, which also happens to be the homepage of his recently redesigned website.



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Marketing Men

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[Pictures of Paolo Pecchioli from www.pecchiolipaolo.com]

As a follow up to our June post about the Dallas Opera using barihunk Michael Todd Simpson to promote their Marriage of Figaro, it is encouraging to see that they are using divos to promote their entire season. Keep in mind that uber-barihunk Daniel Okulitch didn't even make the promo cut! He's playing opposite Simpson in the Marriage of Figaro. Maybe they think that we saw too much of him in The Fly.

Their campaign features hunkentenors as well as barihunks, primarily William Burden and the adorable and talented Stephen Costello. (I still think that Dallas Opera's Roberto Devereux is one of the hottest opera tickets in the country this year. He's singing opposite the amazing Hasmik Papian). If you're traveling to see some great "O" this year, I'd recommend this performance. Check out their entire season at www.dallasopera.org. They are also featuring hunkentenor James Valenti in La Boheme.

Underappreciated barihunk Wolfgang Holzmair is singing in Fledermaus and Paolo Pecchioli is featured in L'Italiana in Algieri. Let's face it, lieder singers get no respect on this site. Pecchioli has been featured on this site before. His signature role is Colline in La Boheme and he doesn't have any barihunk roles in his repertoire, although he's about to star in Giulio Cesare and we're praying for a sassy German director like Willy Decker.

I'm not sure what's going on in Texas, but both the Dallas and Ft. Worth operas seem to be marketing male singers better than almost any other opera company. It's a great trend that I believe can be traced back the Three Tenors. Before that media onslaught, one rarely saw divos as part of ad campaigns. The Dallas Opera needs to be commended for one of the best and most original ad campaigns of the year. By the way, they've dubbed it "Lovers and Scoundrels." I guess someone in their marketing department really understands men.

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