Edward Laurenson to sing Tarquinius in San Francisco

Edward Laurenson

The last we featured New Zealand barihunk Edward Laurenson three years ago, he was off to London to commence his Masters in Music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has now landed across the globe in California, where he's studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has now studied on three continents in three years!

On December 8th and December 10th, he'll be performing Tarquinius in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at the Conservatory. He'll be joined by fellow barihunk Jorge Ruvalcaba as Junius, Brandon Bell as Collatinus, Molly Boggess as Lucretia, Esther Tonea as the Female Chorus, Ricky Garcia as the Male Chorus, Jessie Barnett as Bianca, and Meagan Rao as Lucia. [Click on the dates for tickets].

The fully-staged production is part of the Conservatory's thematic programming surrounding the institution's centennial celebrations for the 2017-18 season, which is comprised of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire.

Jorge Ruvalcaba (left and center), Edward Laurenson and Brandon Bell

Laurenson was an Emerging Artist with The Dame Malvina Major Foundation, as well as Vocal National Young Performer of the Year at Performing Arts Competitions Association of New Zealand, won the Lieder prize at the New Zealand Aria competition, won the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Award, the Australian Opera Awards Committee’s Sheila Prior Memorial Prize, the Phoebe Patrick Award and the David Harper Award.

Mexican baritone Jorge Ruvalcaba is new to this site. He was the winner of the Coppel Prize VIII in the  Concurso Internacional de Canto Sinaloa in 2016, the Edgar Mason Kneedler Memorial Prize Opera San Miguel 2015, won special prizes for best interpretation of Mozart and for the best interpretation of aria at the XIX Maritza Alemán Singing Contest. He has performed Marcello at Opera de Oazaca, the title role of Don Giovanni a the Escuela Superior de Música and Papageno at the Teatro Alameda.

ONLY 29 DAYS LEFT TO ORDER our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!

Cameron McPhail's beefy Rape of Lucretia

Cameron McPhail in The Rape of Lucretia at Yale

We recently included Cameron McPhail in a post about the nine baritones performing in the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions at Merkin Hall in New York City on November 18 and 19. After the post went up, we were told about some sexy pictures of him as Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at Yale during the 2011-12 season. 

Of course, we had to find them and provide a better introduction to this fast rising Canadian baritone, who holds both an Artist Diploma in Voice and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from The University of British Columbia. He spent the 2011-12 season completing his Masters of Music at the Yale Opera Studio where he studied with American bass Richard Cross.

A 2014 winner of the George London Foundation Competition, McPhail joined the Canadian Opera Company for the 2012-13 season as a member of the Ensemble Studio where he made his company debut as the Premiere Officer in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites. During the 2013-14 season he returned to Canadian Opera Company with mainstage appearances as Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, and Silvano in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.

He just finished four performances of Orff's Carmina Burana with the Florida Orchestra under the baton of Danail Rachev. He returns to his native Canada on December 5th for Handel's Messiah with the Edmonton Symphony. On February 25, 2015, he'll create the role of Reverend Colgate in a world premiere concert staging of Gregory Vajda’s comic opera Georgia Bottoms with the Huntsville Symphony. The opera about the modern South, is based on the national best-seller by Alabama author Mark Childress.

If you want to enjoy 19 of opera's sexiest and most talented singers all year, make sure to order your own copy of the 2015 Barihunks Calendar by clicking below.

Duncan Rock to make U.S. stage debut with Boston Lyric Opera

The highly-anticipated U.S. stage debut of British Barihunk sensation Duncan Rock will occur not far from another rock, Plymouth Rock. The Boston Lyric Opera has snagged the charismatic fan favorite to portray the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni next season.

Fans will have to wait a year, as the opera runs from May 1-10, 2015, but we assure you it will be worth the wait. To order a tickets, call 617-542-6772 or email boxoffice@blo.org. The remainder of their upcoming season includes Verdi’s La Traviata, Frank Martin’s The Love Potion and Janáček’s Kátya Kabanová.

At rehearsals of La bohème at English National Opera

We first discovered Duncan Rock when he was in Britten's Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and then as Moralès in a sexy production of Bizet's Carmen directed by Calixto Bieto at the English National Opera. In his young career, Rock has developed a reputation as both a gifted singer and riveting stage presence. His gender bending performance in Don Giovanni: The Opera at London's famous nightclub Heaven was a sensation. He followed that with an portrayal as an often shirtless Tarquinius in Benjmain Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne, where Irish actress and theatre and opera director Fiona Shaw pushed him to new dramatic limits. His performance prompted Tim Ashley, of the Guardian to comment, "Rock undercuts Tarquinius's raffish allure with unnerving intimations of psychotic violence."
 
Duncan Rock recently finished a successful run as Marcello in Puccini's La bohème with the English National Opera in a production that was updated to 1950s Paris. European fans can catch him as the waiter in Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice at the Teatro Real in Madrid from December 4-23. The cast also includes the amazing countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo as the voice of Apollo. Tickets are available online.

Duncan Rock as Tarquinius on BBC3

Allan Clayton (Male Chorus), Duncan Rock (Tarquinius), Claudia Huckle (Lucretia), Kate Valentine (Female Chorus)

In our "Best of 2013" feature earlier this month we named Duncan Rock's performance in Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" at the Glyndebourne Festival as one of the best live performances of the year.  Critic Edward Bhesania in The Stage wrote, "Duncan Rock is a bold, rich-toned and physically beefy Tarquinius." We couldn't have agreed more, as he delivered a perfect combination of great singing and barihunk sexiness.

Duncan Rock as Tarquinius

A broadcast of the performance is now available on BBC3 radio by clicking HERE. We hope that a video will be available someday.

A stunning Duncan Rock as Tarquinius at Glyndebourne

Duncan Rock in The Rape of Lucretia (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

We've been following the amazing career of barihunk Duncan Rock and watched with great delight how quickly he's developed a devoted following amongst opera goers. We love his willingness to push his artistic boundaries, appearing in everything from Billy Budd at Glynebourne to an updated, gender bending Don Giovanni: The Opera at London's famous nightclub Heaven.

We received more mail about him after he appeared in last year's Barihunks calendar, than any other singer. He has quickly become the perfect example of what opera companies are often looking for today: Great voice, great appearance and great acting. In the pantheon of young baritone talent, he has more people talking than almost any other singer.

Duncan Rock in The Rape of Lucretia (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

He's currently turning heads and receiving rave reviews for his portrayal as an often shirtless Tarquinius in Benjmain Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne. In this production, he is being directed by the great Irish actress and theatre and opera director Fiona Shaw, who is undoubtedly pushing him to even higher artistic standards. Tim Ashley, of the Guardian commented, "Rock undercuts Tarquinius's raffish allure with unnerving intimations of psychotic violence."

The Rape of Lucretia was first performed at Glyndebourne in 1946. It tells the story of Lucretia, who is raped by the tyrant Tarquinius Superbus, ruler of Rome. Unable to live with the shame, Lucretia  commits suicide. The action of the opera is commented on throughout by a Male and Female Chorus who occupy another dimension, at times narrating the story and at times voicing the thoughts of the different characters.

Duncan Rock in The Rape of Lucretia (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

There are three remaining performances at Glyndebourne on October 22, 25 and November 28, as well as a tour to Woking, Norwich, Canterbury and Plymouth. A recording of this production will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on December 28th.

For tickets, call 01273 815000 or visit the Glyndebourne website.

Reader Submission: Scott Beasley gets in shape for Tarquinius in Rape of Lucretia

Scott Beasley onstage and prepariing for Tarquinius at the gym

A colleague of barihunk Scott Beasley was mighty impressed with the singer's dedication to his CrossFit routine in preparation for performing Tarquinius in Benjamin Britten's The Rape Of Lucretia at the University of Tennessee Opera Theater.  The production was double cast with Beasley alternation the role with Ryan Olson.

Beasley is currently studying voice at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and singing as a baritone soloist at the First Presbyterian Church.

Scott Beasley prepariing for Tarquinius at the gym and as Tarquinius

Unfortunately, the performances all wrapped up last weekend, but we'll be keeping an eye on this emerging talent. The local reviewer commented on Beasley's "marvelous physical strength," so all that CrossFit training seemed to pay off.

Other singers in the production included Aaron Dunn as Junius, and Ian Richardson and Peter Johnson alternating as Collatinus.

"Top Gunn" is still "Top Tarquinius"

Gunn heats up the stage in Vienna

We posted earlier this week about Nathan Gunn returning to his signature role of Tarquinius in Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" at the Theater an der Wien.  We posted some pictures from Philadelphia and were wondering if he was still as sexy as ever for this role. From these pictures, it looks like he can keep this role in his repertory for years to come.

Top Gunn

We also learned that Gunn will be performing the title role in Billy Budd next season at the Metropolitan Opera. If he looks this good and continues to own the role vocally, it should be the hit of the season.

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Nathan Gunn Returns to Tarquinius

Nathan Gunn as Tarquinius in Philadelphia

The role of Tarquinius in in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia is usually cast with young barihunks, so it's impressive that the 40-year-old Nathan Gunn has been able to keep it in his repertory and still look great. He revisits the role from February 17-27 at the Theater an der Wien. Click HERE for additional cast and performance information.

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A Barber Well "Worth" Attending

Matthew Worth (r) as Figaro (photo by

David Bachman - Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette)

One of our favorites barihunks, Matthew Worth, is in Pittsburgh where he is being lauded for his wonderful stage presence. We fell in love with the budding young star when he rose to the difficult challenge of singing in Benjamin Britten's "Rape of Lucretia," where he practically stole the show. Worth has also scored major successes with two other Britten operas, Owen Wingrave and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Californians will get the opportunity to see him reprise his definitive portrayal as Tarquinius with fellow barihunk Michael Rice with Cal Performances in Berkeley on March 24 and 25.

Barihunk Michael Rice coming to Berkeley

Readers of this site might also recall that he created a bit of a sensation as Don Giovanni at the Virginia Opera, so it appears that he's equally adept at drama, comedy and portraying seductive rakes.

Matthew Worth: Sexy in a tee

Fans of Matthew Worth in the Pittsburgh area can see him in the Barber again tonight, Friday, October 15 or Sunday, October 17. Visit the Pittsburgh Opera website for ticket information.

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Another Sexy Tarquinius: Philip Cutlip

We haven't featured barihunk Philip Cutlip in awhile, so it was great to see that he was singing Tarquinius at the Toledo Opera. The underrated Benjamin Britten opera always delivers in the "skin" department, as we've seen from previous posts of Christopher Maltman, Matthew Worth, David Krohn, Michael Krzankowski, Grzegorz Pazik, Nathan Gunn and Phillip Addis.

Here's a shot of Philip Cutlip looking as hot as any Tarquinius in the world today. The Toledo Blade wrote, "As the bad boy Etruscan prince, Tarquinius, Philip Cutlip is menacing and macho."

We hope to see more of Cutlip in this role and we welcome him to the family of sexy barihunks who have taken on Tarquinius. In the meantime, you can see Cutlip perform Ariodate in the Houston Grand Opera production of Xerxes running from April 30 through May 2.

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See David Krohn for FREE (but with his shirt on)

For those of you in the New York area, you can go see barihunk David Krohn for free at his Julliard recital concert. It will take place on November 17 in Julliard's Paul Hall at 8 PM.

He'll be performing Handel's "Dalla Guerra Amorosa", Schubert's "3 Gesänge des Harfners" and Ravel's "Histoires Naturelles."

Krohn has been featured on Barihunks three times before and he's building quite a following as he launches his career.

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The sexiest Tarquinius?

We have always maintained that Matthew Worth is the sexiest Tarquinius in the world today, but Christopher Maltman offers up quite a challenge in this performance from the Aldeburgh Festival. He also sings this music as beautifully as we've heard. Here's a clip from what may be the most glorious five minutes of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.








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Where Chest Voice Comes From

BRIAN LEERHUBER

ERIC T DUBIN

At Barihunks we're not interested in academic arguments involving glottal cycles, laryngeal cartilage and anything else involving where the voice comes from. John Chest (his real name), got us thinking about barihunks with great chests, not great chest voices. Many of the more established singers with great chests were featured in our recent hottest Billy Budd contest.

There are two younger singers who we think have great chests: Eric T. Dubin and Brian Leerhuber. We'll leave the chest voice question to the vocal experts.

Eric Dubin was suggested to us via email by somebody with a very funny email nom de plume. He's a graduate of The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, whose graduates seem to send us more suggestions than anyone else. [Keep them coming!]

He's already performed in the Barihunk standard, Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, and we hope that he showed off his chest (and chest voice).

Brian Leerhuber has been on our list of potential barihunks forever and we've just been waiting for the opportunity to post him shirtless. The problem has been that he's been cast in some pretty unsexy roles, an obvious waste of his non-singing talents. Can you get any unsexier than Robert E. Lee, Schaunard, Dandini and Marco in Gianni Schicchi?

We're really, really, really hoping that someone at a major opera house sees this and says, "That's the guy we need to cast shirtless opposite Angela Gheorgiu." If anyone at San Francisco Opera is reading this, keep casting him but spice it up from Marcello and a Civil War general!

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Birthday Barihunks

[Top photo: David Krohn; Bottom photo: Gregory Gerbrandt]

We'd like to wish a Happy Birthday to two of our emerging barihunks, Gregory Gerbrandt and David Krohn.

We've been touting Krohn as Matthew Worth's only real competition as Tarquinius in Britten's "Rape of Lucretia." The 25-year-old just finished a well-received run at the Aspen Music Festival as Tarquinius and is definitely a hunk to watch.

Gregory Gerbrandt just stole the show at the Ash Lawn Opera Festival singing the Count in the "Marriage of Figaro." His bio says that he also serves as a volunteer fireman, which sounds pretty hot.

One thing that we know for sure is that these birthday babes both look good in tee shirts.

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It's HOT in Santa Fe And It's Not Just The Weather

Barihunks was partially inspired by the wonderful site Parterre Box, who entered the term into the English language. Parterre Box defined a barihunk as one who likely was an apprentice artist at Santa Fe Opera, which has undeniably produced their fair share of good looking singers.

This year is no exception, as you can see from the three barihunks features below. Another current apprentice artist, Tom Corbeil, has been featured prominently on this site.

This is Tom Forde, who has a great face and physical presence for the stage. I would hope that anyone casting the Mozart "Big 3" (Cosi, Nozze, Giovanni) would think about casting this charming young barihunk. He would be ideal. Forde has also appeared here before.



Mike Nyby also caught our eye before. He is originally from Canada and grew up in New Jersey. I can see him becoming the next great Billy Budd, as he totally looks the part. He's also be an interesting Tarquinius, which would surely guarantee a repeat appearance on this site. You can hear him sing a wonderful Escamillo excerpt on his website with the talented Kirt Pavitt on piano.




Matthew Morris is new to this site and he is absolutely adorable. He is a natural on stage, having studied some dance and already has an impressive resume outside of opera, having been a dancer in the movie "The Producers" and a performing a cameo on TV's "Law & Order." If opera doesn't work out he could easily be a star on a soap opera or a leading man on Broadway.


We're glad that Santa Fe continues to be a launching pad for barihunks.

For ticket information click here.

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Tarquinius Challenge

[Photos: Project Opera of Manhattan, © 2008 Ken Howard]

Within hours after posting David Krohn as Tarquinius, this picture of Michael Krzankowski appeared from a former colleague of his in Seattle. This person claims that Krzankowski is hotter than Krohn or Matthew Worth, who we have hailed as the ultimate Tarquinius.

Krzankowski is from Chicago and earned his Master’s degree from the acclaimed Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. He is currently performing Barone Douphol in Glimmerglass Opera’s production of La Traviata. In November, he will return to the Seattle Opera's Young Artist's Program to perform Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte and Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos.

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Upcoming Barihunk Jacques Imbrailo

Now that the Hottest Barihunk competition is over it's time to dig through my emails and see what hotties I've missed. South African Jacques Imbrailo seems to have a lot of fans around the globe. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music with Ryland Davies and won a number of vocal competitions.

I have a feeling that we're going to see a number of hot pictures of Imbrailo, as he sings a number of barihunk operas including Rape of Lucretia, Carmen, Iphigenie en Tauride, Midsummer Night's Dream and a number of Mozart operas.

He's also scheduled to debut his Billy Budd at the Glyndebourne Festival in the summer of 2010. Let's hope it's shirtless.

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Quirijn de Lang

Barihunks readers will remember Quirijn de Lang from the steamy photos on this site from his portrayal as Escamillo in La Tragédie de Carmen. He is currently singing Count Robinson in Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto at the Scottish Opera in Glasgow.

I recently discovered his MySpace page where you can enjoy his singing while staring at these lovely pictures.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=403897582