American barihunk Steven LaBrie will make his European stage debut in Dvořák's Rusalka with the Tiroler Festspiele Erl on December 26th.
A rusalka is a water sprite from Slavic mythology, usually inhabiting a
lake or river. Rusalka was the ninth opera Dvořák composed and remains his most popular, as well as one of the most frequently performed Czech operas worldwide.
Rusalka is based on the fairy-tale The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen which itself goes back to the Undine and Melusine sagas of the 14th and 12th centuries. In bewitchingly beautiful melodies, characteristic rhythms and richly nuanced and sensuous sounds, rooted in Slav folk music, the work poses questions which are still relevant: questions as to one’s own identity, the limitation of space to live and be free, the relationship between human beings and nature.
Steven LaBrie sings "Cruda fuensta smania" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lamermoor:
LaBrie will sing the roles of Game Keeper and the Hunter. He'll be joined in the cast by Karen Vuong as Rusalka, Gerard Schneider as the Prince, Thomas Faulkner as the Water Man and Judita Nagyová as Ježibaba. There are additional performances on December 28 and 30. Tickets are available online.
In the Spring, LaBrie will make his role debut as Mr. Maguire in Tobias Picker's Emmeline at the Tulsa Opera. The cast includes a number of singers who have appeared on this site, including Jarrett Porter as Simon Fenton, Andrew Potter as Pastor Avery and Nathan Stark as Henry Mosher. Soprano Madison Leonard will sing the title role.
Barihunk Steven LaBrie is the latest singer to take on the role of the gay son Charlie in Jake Heggie's chamber opera Three Decembers. His role debut will be at the San Diego Opera on March 8, 9 and 10 at the Patrick Henry Performing Arts Center.
The role of Charlie has become a barihunk vehicle with Matthew Worth, Jesse Blumberg, Carlton Ford, Keith Phares, Wes Mason, Daniel Teadt and Jarrett Ott all taking on the role.
Daniel Teadt sings Charlie's Act 1 aria:
Three Decembers tells the story of a famous stage actress –
Madeline Mitchell – and her two adult children: Beatrice and Charlie.
Both children resent their mother's long absences on the road and her
lack of concern for the tragedies in their lives. Charlie believes his
mother is distant because he is gay, even as his partner, Burt, is dying
of AIDS. Meanwhile, Beatrice, trapped in an unhappy marriage, feels
Madeline resents her enduring affection for their deceased father. As
the story unfolds over the decades, long-simmering resentments surface,
accusations are hurled, and family secrets revealed, leading ultimately
to a hard-won peace and forgiveness for both the living and the dead.
Frederica Von Stade will sing the role of
the mother Madeline Mitchell, which the composer wrote for her, while Kristin Clayton portrays the other sibling
Beatrice.
Before heading to San Diego, Steven LaBrie can be heard singing Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Omaha Opera on February 15 and 17.
Barihunk Steven LaBrie will make his Tulsa Opera debut as the title character in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” which opens the company’s 2018-2019 season on October 19th.
LaBrie is familiar with the opera, having first sung Fiorello at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and then making his professional debut as Figaro with the Lyric Opera Baltimore in 2015. He has also performed the role with Opera Hong Kong.
Steven LaBrie sings "A tanto amor" from Donizetti's La favorita:
He'll be joined in the cast by hunkentenor Aaron Blake as Almaviva, Sarah Coburn as Rosina and Peter Strummer as Dr. Bartolo.
Upcoming performances for LaBrie include Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore with Opera Omaha on February 15 and 17 and Jake Heggie's Three Decembers with the San Diego Opera on March 8, 9 and 10 with Frederica von Stade.
The Barihunks family lost one of its favorite people in the music industry this week, Glen Roven, a multi-talented composer, conductor, arranger, producer and two-time Emmy Award-winner. He was a fan of our site from day one and always dreamed of producing a barihunk concert, which he recently accomplished when he joined Steven Labrie, Jarrett Ott and Tobias Greenhalgh at Carnegie Hall.
Roven was a tireless promoter of music across all genres, including for his beloved friend Florence Henderson, as well as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Julie Andrews, Melissa Etheridge, Aretha Franklin, Leon Fleisher, Kenny G., Whitney Houston, Dick Hyman, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Kermit the Frog, Patti LaBelle, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, TRAIN and others.
His collection of three-dozen song cycles and art songs are performed all around in the world, including concerts by Daniel Okulitch, who would devote a half-program to his music and Mark Stone who performed an all-Roven set at Carnegie Hall. He loved translating great works into English and wrote a version of Schubert's Winterreise for David Adam Moore and had his English version of Mahler's Kindertodenlieder performed by Christopher Herbert. Randal Turner made his West Coast recital debut singing Roven's "Four Melancholy Songs, Opus 16, No. 1" based on poetry by William Butler Yeats. The list is endless, which is a testament to his prolific abilities.
Daniel Okulitch recorded "Stop all the Clocks" from Roven's "Songs From the Underground,"
based on Auden's famous poem in 2011. However, Roven could never
perform the piece again after his partner Robin died as he got too
emotional. You can listen to Okulitch and Roven perform it HERE.
When we met with Roven in New York in 2015, he was about to premiere Songs That Make Grown Men Cry, Opus 41, based on texts from a collection of poetry edited by Anthony Holden and Ben Holden. The concert featured barihunks Jonathan Hare, Kenneth Kellogg and Jarrett Ott along with the NY New Music Collective and tenors Andrew Fuchs, Glen Seven Allen and Myles Mykkanen and a choral quartet. He would tear up whenever talking about the text.
Speaking of text, Roven had an undying love and devotion to poetry, and produced "Poetic License: 100 Poems/100 Performers," which became the best selling poetry album of all time. The album included readings by Catherine Zeta-Jones, Patti LuPone, Jason Alexander, Cynthia Nixon, Florence Henderson, Christine Baranski, Brent Barrett, Barry Humphries, Daniel Okulitch, Tyne Daly, Doug Carpenter and Glenn Seven Allen.
After the election of Donald Trump, the composer needed a way to channel is anger, so he wrote The Hillary Speeches, based on the announcement of her candidacy on January 7, 2007, and her presidential concession speech on November 9, 2017. The concert was streamed from the National Sawdust and included performances by David Adam Moore, Kyle Ketelsen, Nathan Gunn, Sidney Outlaw, Daniel
Sumegi, Lester Lynch, Andrew Garland, Michael Kelly, Isabel Leonard, Patricia Racette, Lawrence Brownlee, Matthew
Polenzani, Carin Gilfy, Laquita Mitchell, Glenn Seven Allen, Dominic
Armstrong, Jonathan Blalock and others.
Roven also tirelessly devoted his time to penning music for charitable
causes, including "An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope," a recording
that raised funds for amfAR and featured Joyce DiDonato, Jamie Barton,
Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani, Susanne Phillips Yo-Yo Ma, Ansel
Elgort, Sharon Stone and others.
One of our favorite compositions by Roven is a setting of wine tasting notes that was written for bass Aaron Sorensen and performed in California's Sonoma County wine region.
Roven was always busy doing something, and at the time of his death, he was at work on a new movie-musical for Dolly Parton for Netflix, had just completed his "Symphony of Songs," penned a new opera called Addressee Unknown, wrote a new Broadway Musical World War Me, and produced an all-Verdi aria CD for Hui He.
A funeral service will be held Friday, July 27th at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 180 West 76th Street in New York City at 11 AM, with a memorial tribute being planned for Fall 2018.
Three of the greatest young singers and hottest barihunks singing
today will be performing in the "Three Baritones" concert together at
Carnegie Hall on May 22nd.
Tobias Greenhalgh will perform Glen Roven's Four Surreal Songs with poetry by Paul Éluard, Steven LaBrie will sing Benjamin C. S. Boyle's Le passage des rêves with poetry by Paul Valéry and Lori Laitman's The Joy of Uncreating, and Jarrett Ott will perform Jake Heggie's Of Laughter and Farewell and Jennifer Higdon's Lilac with poetry by Walt Whitman.
The trio will also join forces for a medley of baritone aria greatest hits arranged by Glen Roven.
Tickets are on sale online. Barihunks readers can use the discount code RRR41517.
Two production of Daniel Catán's exotic opera Florencia en el Amazonas are happening almost simultaneously in two very different parts of the United States. Both productions will feature barihunks, with the Madison Opera featuring Nmon Ford and Florida Grand Opera starring Steven LaBrie as Riolobo.
Florida Grand Opera will present five performances between April 28-May 5. Tickets and additional cast information is available online. The Madison Opera will present two performances on April 27 and 29, with tickets and additional cast information available online.
The role of Riolobo has become a popular barihunk vehicle, with such notables as Nathan Gunn, Gabriel Preisser, Shannon De Vine, Luis Alejandro Orozco, Norman Garrett, José Carbó, Joseph Lattanzi and Keith Miller all taking on the role of the ship's mate, who is the focus of the magical realism of the piece.
Andrew Garland sings Riolobo's Invocation from Florencia:
The two-act opera Florencia en al Amazonas is set on the steamboat El
Dorado in 1910, where the famous opera singer Florencia is traveling
down the Amazon to perform in Manaus. Florencia desires to encounter her
lost love, a butterfly hunter who entered the jungle and never
returned. The dramas aboard the steamboat weave love, conflict, loss, a
violent storm, and ultimately a cholera epidemic that keeps the
passengers quarantined and Florencia’s dream apparently dashed.
In 1996, Florencia en al Amazonas was the first Spanish-language opera to be commissioned by a major American opera house. It premiered at the Houston Grand Opera, and was subsequently performed at the Los Angeles Opera and the Seattle Opera. Daniel Catán died in 2011 at age 62, shortly after the premiere of his last opera, Il Postino, based on the popular Italian film. At the time of his death, he was at work on a new piece, Meet John Doe, inspired by Frank Capra’s classic film of the same title.
Three of the greatest young singers and hottest barihunks singing today will be performing in the "Three Baritones" concert together at Carnegie Hall on May 22nd.
Tobias Greenhalgh will perform Glen Roven's Four Surreal Songs with poetry by Paul Éluard, Steven LaBrie will sing Benjamin C. S. Boyle's Le passage des rêves with poetry by Paul Valéry and Lori Laitman's The Joy of Uncreating, and Jarrett Ott will perform Jake Heggie's Of Laughter and Farewell and Jennifer Higdon's Lilac with poetry by Walt Whitman.
The trio will also join forces for a medley of baritone aria greatest hits arranged by Glen Roven.
Tickets go on sale on February 22nd, so mark your calendars.
Jarrett Ott sings Glen Roven's After Great Pain:
Tobias Greenhalgh will be singing Maximilian in Bernstein's Candide with Palm Beach Opera from February 23-25 and Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Theater an der Wien from April 15-25.
Steven LaBrie is singing Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at Sarasota Opera from February 17 to March 24 and Riolobo in Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas at Florida Grand Opera from April 28 to May 5.
Jarrett Ott is singing the title role in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City from April 28 to May 6.
Los Angeles Opera this weekend.
The
French bass-baritone Nicolas Testé lost his voice in Offenbach’s Tales
of Hoffman and no instant sub was available. He had to mime the role on
stage while an understudy sang from the pit.
Nicolas Testé’s wife, the German soprano Diana Damrau, was able only to sing one-third of her part.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2017/03/in-la-a-singing-couple-comes-unstuck/#sthash.3NcRpX1C.dpuf
Los Angeles Opera this weekend.
The
French bass-baritone Nicolas Testé lost his voice in Offenbach’s Tales
of Hoffman and no instant sub was available. He had to mime the role on
stage while an understudy sang from the pit.
Nicolas Testé’s wife, the German soprano Diana Damrau, was able only to sing one-third of her part.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2017/03/in-la-a-singing-couple-comes-unstuck/#sthash.3NcRpX1C.dpuf
Los Angeles Opera this weekend.
The
French bass-baritone Nicolas Testé lost his voice in Offenbach’s Tales
of Hoffman and no instant sub was available. He had to mime the role on
stage while an understudy sang from the pit.
Nicolas Testé’s wife, the German soprano Diana Damrau, was able only to sing one-third of her part.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2017/03/in-la-a-singing-couple-comes-unstuck/#sthash.3NcRpX1C.dpuf
Barihunks Wayne Tigges and Steven Labrie
There was a bit of drama at the Los Angeles Opera this weekend when French bass-baritone Nicolas Testé lost his voice. He was scheduled to sing the Four Villains in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman along with his wife soprano Diana Damrau.
Unfortunately, no substitute was available, so the company called barihunk Wayne Tigges in Chicago and asked him to sing the role. Tigges would only agree if he could use a score, which was accommodated when Testé agreed to lip synch the role from the stage. Tigges hopped on a plane and from our accounts in Los Angeles, Tigges was a huge success with the audience.
The regular cast also includes barihunk Theo Hoffman as Hermann (no relation to the title character).
Additional performances are on April 2, 6, 9 and 15.
David Pershall who recently performed Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème and Lord Cecil in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Metropolitan Opera, has won one of the top prizes at the 2016 George London Foundation Competition. Also taking away top honors was fellow barihunk Steven LaBrie, who just wrapped up a performance of Ginastera's Estancia with the New York City Ballet. He will tour with the Ballet to Paris in July performing the same program.
Other top winners included soprano Antonina Chehovska, tenor A.J. Glueckert, soprano Kirsten MacKinnon and soprano Claudia Rosenthal. Winners receeived $10,000 each Other baritones and basses taking encouragement prizes included Colin Ramsey, Justin Austin, Jared Bybee, Michael Sumuel and John Viscardi. Encouragement Prize winners received $1,000 each.
Pershall performed Starbuck's aria from Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick.
Steven LaBrie sings Largo al factotum from the Barber of Seville:
Pershal has previously won 1st Prize in the Marcello Giordani Foundation International Vocal
Competition, 1st Prize in the New Jersey Verismo Competition, 1st Prize
in the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, 1st Prize in the
Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, 1st Prize in
the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, 1st Prize in the Hugo Kauder
Competition for Voice, the Presser Music Foundation Award, and the
Thomas Stewart Award for Vocal Excellence.
LaBrie won the 2013 Encouragement Award at the George London Foundation Competition, second places in both the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and the Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition as well as the Judges Award with the Opera Index Competition. In 2010, he was an encouragement award winner in Washington, DC, for the Metropolitan Opera National Council.
David Pershall performs Starbuck's aria in 2012:
Pershall can next be seen in Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Vienna State Opera. Roucher in Giordano's Andrea Chenier at the San Francisco Opera and Albert in Massenett's Werther at The Met.
LaBrie can next be seen singing the title role in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with Lyric Opera Baltimore on March 11 and 13.
Perhall is a graduate of the Merola Opera program at San Francisco Opera and the
Virginia Opera Resident Artist program. He holds a Bachelor of Music
from Baylor University, as well as a Master of Music and an Artist
Diploma from Yale School of Music.
Steven LaBrie is a recent graduate of The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.
Today is über-barihunk Steven LaBrie's birthday, which reminded us that he's about to open in Dallas Opera's production of Puccini's La boheme with a barihunk trio that also includs Alexander Vinogradov and Jonathan Beyer. LaBrie will be singing Schaunard, Vinogradov takes on Colline and Beyer sings Marcello. Performances run from March 13-29 and tickets are available online.
After Dallas, Labrie heads off to Washington D.C. to sing the fiendishly difficult baritone part in Orff's Carmina Burana at the Kennedy Center on April 12th. The performance celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at Catholic University and features their symphony orchestra and chorus.
Alexander Vinogradov and Jonathan Beyer
We originally featured Russian bass Alexander Vinogradov back in 2009. After this performance, he heads off to Geneva where he'll charm the Carmen of Sonia Ganassi from May 8-17th.
Jonathan Beyer will grab some scissors as he takes on Figaro in The Barber of Seville with the Opera Theater of Saint Louis form May 23-June 27th. You can check out Beyer's la la la-ing his way through Largo al factotum on his website, along with many other great sound clips.
The Dallas Opera season wraps up with Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. Tickets and additional cast information is available on the Dallas Opera website.
The Dallas Opera is under new leadership this season, but fortunately some of our favorite barihunks are still on the roster.
The season is kicking off with one of Italy's best exports, bass-barihunk Mirco Palazzi who debuted with the company in 2010 as Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni. That performance was also his U.S. debut and the cast for that John Pascoe production featured three barihunks, with Paulo Szot as the Don and Ben Wager as Masetto.
We're thrilled that Dallas is bring him back to sing Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in an all-star cast that features Joshua Hopkins, Nicole Car, Emily Fons, Diana Montague and Kevin Langan. Performances will run from October 24 through November 9th.
On October 30th, bass-barihunk Greer Grimsley will make his company debut opposite the Salome of Deborah Voigt in Richard Strauss' masterpiece. The production in being directed by the queen mother of barihunks, Francesca Zambello.
That production will be followed by a double-bill of Catalani's rarely performed opera La Wally and the world premiere of Joby Talbot's Everest. We did an extensive feature on Everest, which featured barihunk calendar model Craig Verm.
Jonathan Beyer, Steven LaBrie and Alexander Vinogradov (L-R)
In March, the company brings another barihunk trio to the stage, when they present Puccini's La boheme with Alexander Vinogradov, Jonathan Beyer and Steven LaBrie. We featured Alexander Vinogradov back in 2009 when we identified him as an emerging talent to watch.
The season wraps up with Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. Tickets and additional cast information is available on the Dallas Opera website.
There are still two opportunities to see one of the comic masterpieces of the operatic canon, Rossini's Le Comte Ory, which is playing tonight and on July 18th at the Des Moines Metro Opera.
Barihunk and MAC model Steven LaBrie as Raimbaud heads a brilliantly talented cast that includes tenor Taylor Stayton as Le Comte Ory, Sydney Mancasola as Comtesse Adèle, Wayne Tigges as the tutor and Margaret Lattimore as Ragonde. Tickets are available online.
"Sister" Steven LaBrie in Le Comte Ory
The opera was first performed on August 20, 1828 at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera. It's American premiere was on December 16, 1830 at the Théâtre d'Orléans in New Orleans. Often described as either a comedy or a farce, it is rapidly gaining in popularity throughout the world and is now considered one of the finest comedies in the repertory.
The story centers around Count Ory, who is determined to win the countess Adèle. He will do anything
to get access to the castle where the women are, including disguising
himself and his men as nuns.
The Metropolitan Opera had a huge hit with the opera in 2011 with a cast that included Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and barihunk Stéphane Degout. The performance has been released on DVD.
Anyone who has ever seen or heard barihunk John Chest, with his golden locks and golden voice, immediately thinks of him as the perfect Billy Budd. Fortunately, conductor Donald Runnicles had a chance to hear and see Chest while they were both in San Francisco. The two are being reunited at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for five performances of Benjamin Britten's masterpiece running from May 22th-June 6th. Tickets are available online.
John Chest is a recent graduate of the Opera Studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper,
where he sang over eighty performances including Fiorello in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Schaunard in Puccini's La Bohème with Anja Harteros, Dandiniin Rossini's La Cenerentola, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Lovec in Dvorak's Rusalka, Petrucci in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia with Edita Gruberova, Bizet's Carmen with Jonas Kaufmann.
Chest is now part of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he has sung Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Il Conte Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Albert in Massenet's Werther. In November, he'll return to the U.S. to perform Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème at the Washington National Opera with fellow barihunks Joshua Bloom as Colline and Steven LaBrie as Schaunard.
Sarah Larsen with Michael Todd Simpson, Steven LaBrie, Joseph Lattanzi, and Colin Ramsey (Photo by Elise Bakketun)
We recently posted about the barihunk foursome performing in Menotti's The Consul at the Seattle Opera. The opera stars Michael Todd Simpson as John Sorel, Steven
LaBrie as the Police Agent, Joseph Lattanzi as Assan and Colin Ramsey as Mr.
Kofner. The four singers agreed to don their Barihunk tee shirts and take some shots on the set with soprano Sarah Larsen, who plays the secretary.
Sarah Larsen with Michael Todd Simpson, Steven LaBrie, Joseph Lattanzi, and Colin Ramsey (Photo by Elise Bakketun)
The Consul was a huge hit during its initial Broadway run, earning both the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for
Best Musical and the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The original production featured the legendary performances of Patricia Neway as Magda Sorel and Marie Powers as the mother. The great Verdi baritone Cornell MacNeil sang the role of John Sorel.
The story is about a devoted wife and
mother who clashes with the bureaucracy of a nameless police state while
trying to obtain an exit visa for her family.
Sarah Larsen with Michael Todd Simpson, Steven LaBrie, Joseph Lattanzi, and Colin Ramsey (Photo by Elise Bakketun)
The opera runs from February 22nd to March 7 and tickets are available online.
Michael Todd Simpson will be joining three of the hottest barihunks on the scene in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul at the Seattle Opera,which runs from February 22nd to March 7. Michael Todd Simpson takes on the major role of John Sorel, Steven LaBrie makes his company debut as the Police Agent, Joseph
Lattanzi performs Assan and Colin Ramsey also makes his company debut as Mr. Kofner. We can't remember many instances when there's been this much pulchritude on the stage at one time.
Michael Todd Simpson is also the featured singer on the Seattle Opera blog where you can read an extensive interview with the Seattle based performer.
Colin Ramsey will reprise the role of Mr. Kofner in a different production of The Consul
with Opera Santa Barbara on March 25 and 27. That production will
feature barihunk Joshua Jeremiah as John Sorel.
Colin Ramsey in L'incoronazione de Poppea at Opera NEO
We introduced bass-barihunk Colin Ramsey last summer as one of the guys on the Operaticus fitness site on Facebook. He just finished a run yesterday as Collatinus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia with Vespertine Opera in Seattle. We didn't have any pictures from the production, which is a shame, as it's one of our favorite operas to showcase barihunk talent. If some emerge, we promise to post them.
However, we did find a few amazing pictures of Colin Ramsey as Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea with Opera NEO, the summer opera festival and young artist workshop in San Diego, California.
Colin Ramsey & Alyssa Packard in L’incoronazione di Poppea:
If you missed this emerging barihunk, you'll have another shot when Ramsey makes his debut with the Seattle Opera as Mr. Kofner in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul. The opera runs from February 22-March 7. If you attend operas based on the Barihunk Quotient, then The Consul is a "must see" production, as it features barihunks Michael Todd Simpson as John Sorel, Steven LaBrie as the Secret Police Agent and Joseph Lattanzi as Assan.
Ramsey will reprise the role of Mr. Kofner in a different production of The Consul with Opera Santa Barbara on March 25 and 27. That production will feature barihunk Joshua Jeremiah as John Sorel. In May, he moves back a few centuries to portray Somnus and Cadmus in the Pacific Musicworks's production of Handel's Semele in cooperation with the University of Washington.
Colin Ramsey in The Marriage Tango (L) and L'incoronazione de Poppea (R)
Ramsey graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 2011, where he
received the Hugh Ross Award, awarded to singers with "unusual promise."
An award winner with the Pasadena Opera Guild, he went on to become a
studio artist at Opera Santa Barbara and the Seattle Opera Young Artist
Program.
He made his debut with Opera Santa Barbara singing the Doganiere in La Boheme. At Wolf Trap Opera he was featured as Hermann in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, Jonas Fogg in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and as Figaro and Alidoro in a program of scenes.
Steven LaBrie appearing with Light Opera of New York
Barihunk and part-time MAC model Steven LaBrie is going to be part of Light Opera of New York's concert "Operetta and the Silver Screen" on Wednesday, January 15th. He'll be joined by soprano Brittany Robinson, soprano Lauren Jelenkovich, tenor Matthew Mane and Gerald Martin Moore at the piano.
The concert will be at The Players, the club founded by Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth in 1847 and designed by noted architect Stanford White. Tickets are $50 and are available online.
You can catch LaBrie onstage this year in Menotti's The Consul at the Seattle Opera from February 22-March 7 and in Rossini's Le Comte Ory at the Des Moines Metro Opera from July 5-18.
Barihunk Steven LaBrie probably never guessed that he'd have something in common with drag icon RuPaul, but they are now both models for M∙A∙C Cosmetics.
Last month, the New York City-based company posted a notice that they were looking for a "classically trained male
opera singer that has a young, hip, edgy appearance...Theatrical flair
encouraged. Acting ability a plus." We were all but certain that a barihunk would be selected and even offered a few suggestions. We heard from at least a dozen barihunks who applied and eagerly awaited word back to hear if they landed their biggest non-operatic role.
Steven Labrie sans makeup
We're trying to get more information about how M∙A∙C will be using LaBrie and we will update the information as it becomes available. It appears that he'll be part of their “Indulge” roll-out, which is being launched across the country. According to their website, "Indulge is a beautiful, 1920’s-esque collection, so expect to see darker, bow lips and gorgeous, smoky kohls. This look is not for the faint-hearted. You may be stepping outside of your comfort zone but you will be in the hands of professional artists."
Peggy Lloyd
If you're not into attending a cosmetic campaign launch, LaBrie can next be seen on September 10th with the Ocean City Pops as they celebrate Peggy Lloyd's 100th birthday. Peggy Lloyd served on the Board of the Ocean City Arts Center for many
years where she arranged frequent fund raising bus trips to major art
exhibits. She is a financial supporter of the Arts Center and Ocean City
Pops Orchestra, but is best known as the woman who escorted Miss
America for twelve years.
LaBrie will be joined by the young violin prodigy
Joseph Hsai and soprano Chloe Moore. Tickets are $10 and $15 and are available online.
financial
supporter of the Arts Center and Ocean City Pops Orchestra. - See more
at:
http://www.oceancityvacation.com/blog/peggy-lloyd-named-grand-marshal-of-citys-baby-parade/#sthash.TcUIkfgj.dpuf
financial
supporter of the Arts Center and Ocean City Pops Orchestra. - See more
at:
http://www.oceancityvacation.com/blog/peggy-lloyd-named-grand-marshal-of-citys-baby-parade/#sthash.TcUIkfgj.dpuf
served
on the Board of the Ocean City Arts Center for many years where she
arranges frequent fund raising bus trips to major art exhibits. - See
more at:
http://www.oceancityvacation.com/blog/peggy-lloyd-named-grand-marshal-of-citys-baby-parade/#sthash.TcUIkfgj.dpuf
served
on the Board of the Ocean City Arts Center for many years where she
arranges frequent fund raising bus trips to major art exhibits. - See
more at:
http://www.oceancityvacation.com/blog/peggy-lloyd-named-grand-marshal-of-citys-baby-parade/#sthash.TcUIkfgj.dpuf
served
on the Board of the Ocean City Arts Center for many years where she
arranges frequent fund raising bus trips to major art exhibits. - See
more at:
http://www.oceancityvacation.com/blog/peggy-lloyd-named-grand-marshal-of-citys-baby-parade/#sthash.TcUIkfgj.dpuf
Malin Christensson and Edwin Crossley-Mercer in Los Angeles (Lawrence K. Ho, Los Angeles Times)
We posted about the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Mozart -Da Ponte Trilogy awhile back. If you missed getting tickets for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, you missed some serious eye-candy, with three barihunks who have been on this site. Leading the way was the sexy Figaro of Edwin Crossley-Mercer.
The LA Times wrote, "Baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer was a distant, angry, virile yet, as Alaïa dressed him, metrosexual Figaro." After seeing the pictures, we would have added "smoking hot" to the list of superlatives. Also in the cast is Christopher Maltman as the Count. The LA Times wrote, "Maltman [wore] tight whites that only a powerful man could get away with, but Maltman is a magnetic baritone scarily uncowed. When outwitted, he still holds all the power, and he sang that way." In the small role of Antonio is Barihunk calendar model Brandon Cedel.
Dorothea Röschmann and Christopher Maltman(Genaro Molina)
There are still two performances remaining on May 23 and May 25. Conducting wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel is leading the orchestra. Visit their website for tickets.
If you want to catch Crossley-Mercer in the United States, you may want to catch one of these performances. When he wraps up on May 25th, he heads back to Europe for a series of concerts and operas in France and Germany. He kicks of on June 9th at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch Partenkirchen before heading to the Théâtre des Champs Élysées on June 20th for Fauré's Pénélope. There are no other U.S. performances listed on his schedule.
If you want to catch Brandon Cedel, he'll be appearing at the Wolf Trap Opera beginning on June 21st in Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims. That production also includes barihunks Aaron Sorensen, Norman Garrett and Steven LaBrie. Additional information is available online.
The 42nd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition was held Friday night and baritones took two of the top prized and three of the encouragement awards. Nicholas Pallesen and Jamez McCorkle both were awarded the top prize which comes with a $10,000 financial gift. Encouragement awards went to John Brancy, who received the Theodor Uppman memorial award; Steven LaBrie won the Herbert J. Frank memorial award; and, a final baritone winner was Jonathan Michie. Aubrey Allicock, who has been featured on this site along with Pallesen, Brancy and LaBrie, was awarded an Honorable Mention.
The competition took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. A total of $82,000 was given in awards. After three days of preliminary auditions during which ninety singers were heard, 24 were selected as finalists. Of these, seven were selected as winners of George London Awards of $10,000 each and seven were given George London Foundation Encouragement Awards of $1,000 each. The remaining 10 finalists received $500 Honorable Mention awards.
Theodor Uppman as Billy Budd in 1951
Other winners of the $10,000 top prize included tenor Dominic Armstrong, tenor Noah Baetge, soprano Felicia Moore, soprano Jessica Muirhead, and Additional $1,000 encouragement awards went to tenor Adam Bonanni, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb, soprano Marina Costa - Jackson, and mezzo-soprano Shirin Eskandani.
This year’s panel of judges included soprano Harolyn Blackwell, mezzo-soprano Nedda Casei, opera stage director Bruce Donnell, former Metropolitan Opera administrator Alfred F. Hubay, George London Foundation President Nora London, former Metropolitan Opera leading tenor and current voice professor George Shirley, and performing arts consultant Thurmond Smithgall.
Since 1971, the annual competition of The George London Foundation for Singers has been giving its George London Awards, and a total of more than $2 million, to an outstanding roster of young American and Canadian opera singers who have gone on to international stardom – the list of past winners includes Christine Brewer, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, and Dawn Upshaw.
