Ernesto Petti to sing Lord Enrico Ashton in Basel

Ernesto Petti (Photos courtesy of singer and Theater Basel)

Italian barihunk Ernesto Petti will take on the role of Lord Enrico Ashton at the Theater Basel beginning on October 19th. The staging will be led by the noted French director, actor and writer Olivier Py. Tickets and additional information is available online.

Make sure to follow him on Facebook. 

Petti answered a few questions about the performance for Theater Basel:

🎵 What is the best part of the stage setting/best part of costume/best prop?

Petti: In my personal opinion the most beautiful scene is the beginning of the opera: The director re-enacts a famous painting from the late 19th century that depicts a medical examination of a woman, who is ill with hysteria, by Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot in front of a medical audience. And I’d like to compliment the costume department for the wonderful costumes. 

🎵 Why shouldn’t one miss this show?

Petti: This show is absolutely not to be missed. The reading of each character is quite profound and the initial point of the director’s interpretation is very interesting: He compares Lucia’s madness to Augustine’s hysteria - one of Charcot’s famous hysteria patients. The staging perfectly follows the magnificent musical interpretation of the conductor. 

That’s why this will be a great show and the audience will love it! 

🎵 What do you do in your free time?

Petti: During my free time I love walking around the city, visiting open spaces like parks or rivers and I also like to do workouts in the gym. Until a few days ago I loved to relax by swimming in the Rhine!

Thomas Tatzl's pa-pa-pa-passionate Papageno

Thomas Tatzl as Papageno (photos by Sandra Then)

Austrian barihunk Thomas Tatzl is one of the few singers who has performed Papageno by two different composers, having frequently sung Mozart's in Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), but also Peter von Winter’s in his production of Das Labyrith at the Salzburger Festspiele. Now he's also one of the few singers to have performed the role in a dress (topless with a chorus of transsexual nuns!) .

Tatzl, who has sung 10 Mozart roles in his young career, will perform Papageno through March 28th at the Theater Basel. He'll be singing some additional Mozart at Sage One in Newcastle, England on February 5th when he performs the composer's Mass in C-minor with an all-star cast that includes Sally Matthews, Rosemary Joshua and Stuart Jackson with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus.

Tickets for the Magic Flute are available online.

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Seth Carrico, Cyril Rovery & Patrick Egersborg

Zachary Altman's sexy shepherd in Daphne

Zach Altman (center) and a dancer in Basel

Barihunk Zach Altman is appearing in German director Christof Loy's regie theater production of Richard Strauss' Daphne at the Basel Theater. Loy, who Loy was voted "Director of the Year" by the critics of the German music magazine Opernwelt is well-known in Germany for his "contemporary" productions of masterpieces like Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and La bohème.

Altman, who appears as one of the shepherds certainly holds his own with any of the members of the Basel dance troupe, all of whom appear in the opera bedecked only in white shorts.

Dancers with soprano Agneta Eichenholz

Zach Altman (center)

We won't bore you with too many words and we'll let the pictures do the talking. The opera runs through June 23rd. Altman will be appearing as Tarquinius in their upcoming production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Altman better stay in shape, as Cosi is directed by Calixto Bieito, who is known for showing some skin in his productions.