Jacques Imbrailo and Borja Quiza in Billy Budd at the Teatro Real
The advertisement for Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at the Teatro Real in Madrid looks like it was written by Bariunks: "100% Masculine, 8 baritones, 1 bass-baritone and 3 basses..." [and some tenors, etc.]. The production, which is part of their bicentenary celebration, includes a veritable "who's who" of barihunks, including Jacques Imbrailo as Billy Budd, Thomas Oliemans as Mr. Redburn, Duncan Rock as Donald, Torben Jürgens as Lieutenant Ratcliffe and Borja Quiza as The Novice's Friend.
Teatro Real's sexy ad for Billy Budd
The libretto is based on the novel with the same name by Herman Melville and takes place aboard a ship of the British Royal Navy. The opera tells the story of the sailor Billy Budd: a beautiful youth who is loyal, generous, strong, naive and kind. Billy’s physical attributes and charisma disarm the ship's master-at-arms who is incapable of controlling the situation and in the end, he sacrifices the innocent lad without compunction.
The Teatro Real certainly plays up these aspects in their production, which runs through February 25. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.
Eva-Marie Westbroek & Karin Strobos (left); Tenor Frank van Aken and Thomas Oliemans
The 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar made quite a splash on Dutch TV's Podium Witteman broadcast, which presents famous musicians and emerging talent on their show. This week, the show featured Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek and the rising young mezzo Karin Strobos.
Host Paul Witteman and his sidekick Floris Kortie presented the two divas with their very own copies of the 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar. Westbroek seemed particularly impressed with March, featuring barihunks Malte Roesner, Zach Altman and Brandon Cedel with dogs. Westbroek brought her own dog (and her tenor husband Frank van Aken) to the show. Also on the show was Dutch barihunk Thomas Oliemans who performed the Neapolitan song "Dicitencello vuie."
The 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar on Podium Witteman
Also appearing on the show were jazz singer Kim Hoorweg with pianist Mike Boddé and
members of the Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra. Dutch barihunk Robert Brouwer was featured in this year's calendar, as well. Karin Strobos performed "My Man's Gone Now" from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, while Westbroek performed Thomas Oliemans will open on January 31 as Mr Redburn in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at the Teatro Real in Madrid with Jacques Imbrailo in the title role. Eva-Maria Westbroek will be singing Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre at the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden. You can watch the hour-long broadcast online.
Thomas Weinhappel is back in Ostrava in the Czech Republic singing the title role in Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet on April 16, May 10 and 17, and June 2 and 15. Performances are at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre and tickets are available online.
In between performances of Hamlet, Weinhappel heads to the Opéra Massy in Paris to sing Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
on March 31, and April 1,2 and 3, which then plays at the Théâtre
Montansier in Versailles on April 5, at the Théâtre Alain Joneman in Le
Vésinet on April 6 and at the Théâtre Alexandre Dumas in Saint Germain
on April 8. He'll return to Ostrava in the Fall for more performances of
Hamlet.
Thomas Weinhappel as Hamlet
Thomas Oliemans as Hamlet
Barihunk Thomas Oliemans is also performing the role at the Göteborgs Opera through May 21 with fellow barihunk Paul Whelan as Claudius. In this production, on different nights they will present the two alternate endings that Ambroise Thomas wrote. At the very first
performance in Paris the opera concluded with Hamlet being crowned King,
and Queen Gertrud entering a nunnery. For the premiere at Covent Garden
in England, Thomas composed a more Shakespearean ending in which Hamlet
takes his own life. Tickets are available online.
Weinappel and Oliemans join an illustrious group of baritones who have sung the title role in recent years, including Sherrill Milnes, Thomas Allen, Thomas Hampson, Bo Skovhus, Simon Keenlyside, Liam Bonner, Wes Mason, Franco Pomponi and Stéphane Degout.
Thomas Weinhappel sings Hamlet's Drinking Song:
When Ambroise Thomas chose Shakespeare’s Hamlet as the subject of his new opera, France had been under the spell of the English bard for many years, and Ophelia had inspired romantic artists. The librettists Carré and Barbier distilled a straightforward story from Shakespeare’s abundant characters and situations. Many Anglo-Saxon critics have dismissed the opera because the libretto is so far removed from the original, despite Thomas having created a musical masterpiece.
The opera is played out between the opposite poles of real and feigned madness, love and avenge. After the murder of his father, Hamlet opposes the marriage of his mother and his uncle, at the expense of his beloved and himself.
Dutch barihunk Thomas Oliemans is starring in the world premiere of Martijn Padding's new opera Laika at the Dutch National Opera in a co-production with the Holland Festival 2014.
Martijn Padding and librettist P.F. Thomése poke fun at the superficiality of ratings-obsessed television programs. Oliemans stars as Robbert, a famous TV personality who is tired of his fame and popularity and his superficial life.
Behind the scenes at Laika with Martijn Padding & Thomas Oliemans:
Robbert still lives with his domineering mother, who keeps the embalmed body of his father on display in the living room. He dreams of abandoning TV and aspires to a more peaceful life with personal privacy. Since his early youth he has immersed himself in the cosmos. After meeting astronaut Yuri Gagarin and a Laika, the first living animal to be sent into space, Robbert decides to embark on his own journey into space.
Performances run from June 3-8 and tickets are available online.
We'd be lying if we didn't admit that the bare butt in the ad for the Dutch National Opera (formerly De Nederlandse Opera) caught our attention. Curiosity got the best of us and we checked to see if anyone equally sexy was in their upcoming 2014-15 season.
We also noticed pretty quickly that if sex sells,
they'll have very few empty seats in the house, as that every opera
features fairly provocative photography.
Doug Williams
We didn't have to dig too deep into their calendar, as their first complete opera of the season, Monteverdi's Orfeo, features barihunk Doug Williams as Caronte. Readers may recall that we just featured baroque music's sexiest performer in a production of Handel's Agrippina in Omaha.
Jérôme Varnier
Next up is Jérôme Varnier as Siroco in Emmanuel Chabrier's L’étoile, which runs from October 4-16. The company then switches to Wagner's Lohengrin with Günther Groissböck as Heinrich der Vogler. They wrap up the 2014 portion of their season with native barihunk Thomas Oliemans as Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème.
A loyal reader who is catching some opera in Switzerland next week alerted us to the Don Giovanni in St. Gallen, which features four singers who have appeared on this site. Of course, there are two casts, so one won't find them all on stage at once. Performances will be running throughout the remainder of the calendar year, so there is plenty of time to make your travel plans and catch both casts.
Rotating as the title character are Danish barihunk Palle Knudsen and Dutch barihunk Thomas Oliemans, who was first brought to our attention by the very same reader. Oliemans released a recording of Schubert's Schwanengesang in 2011 with Malcolm Martineau that is not to be missed.
Matt Boehler sings Leporello's Catalog aria:
Alternating as Leporello are Swedish baritone Gabriel Suovanen, who is new to this site, and American Matt Boehler, who we featured when he made his New York City Opera debut as the Hotel Manager in Thomas Ades’ Powder Her Face. Boehler is now part of the regular ensemble at St. Gallen. Upcoming performances include Daland in Wagner's Der fliegende Hollander, Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto and Der Pfarrer in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen.
Jordan Shanahan, as seen in the Barihunks charity calendar
Alternating as Masetto are American baritones Jordan Shanahan and David Maze. Shanahan, you may recall was featured in our Barihunks calendar in photos taken from Jake Heggies' Dead Man Walking. Shanahan is also part of the ensemble at St. Gallen where he will be featured as Harlekin in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Marullo in Verdi's Rigoletto, Harasta in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen and Fritz in Korngold's Die tote Stadt.
Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani
For those of you who like a little tenor eye candy, as well, check out the Don Ottavio of Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani. If the owners of the Hunkentenors site ever decide to resurrect their site, Giustiniani should be their next post. The guy can sing, too.
Our "reader submissions" feature has been particularly popular with readers from Germany, the Netherlands and France. Our latest submission is the 34-year-old Dutch barihunk Thomas Oliemans, who we mentioned yesterday is about to open as Marcello in Puccini's "La Boheme" with the Nationale Reisoper.
His career has taken off in the last five years, with debuts at Salzburg in Schreker's "Die Gezeichneten," Papageno in Mozart´s "Die Zauberflöte" with the Opera of Nantes and Angers, and Guglielmo in Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutte" in Geneva. Recent engagements have included Figaro in Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" at the Scottish Opera, Maximilan in Bernstein's "Candide" at the Vlaamse Opera, Harlequin in Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg and Tarquinius in Britten's "Rape of Lucretia" at the Vlaamse Opera.
Oliemans is increasingly in demand as a recording artist. He recorded songs by Francis Poulenc and Gabriel Fauré with pianist Malcolm Martineau, Schubert’s Winterreise and Schwanengesang, as well as songs by Frank Martin.
Here is Oliemans with pianist Malcolm Martineau recording Schuberts "Schwanengesang" in London last year.
