Gordon Bintner, Elliot Madore, Bill Eddins (Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Music Director), Philippe Sly
Regular readers may remember our post about the three Canadian barihunks performing the "No Tenors Allowed" concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. The trio joined conductor Bill Eddins for a program of from music from Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Macbeth, Rossini's Barber of Seville, and Wagner's Tannhäuser.
We were fortunate enough to get a backstage photo of the group after Monday night's concert, which from all accounts, was a huge success.
Philippe Sly can next be heard on April 2nd with soprano Hélène Guilmette performing excerpts from the Fauré Requiem, Handel's Messiah and Haydn's Creation with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec under the baton of Jean-Marie Zeitouni. Tickets are available online.
Elliot Madore returns to Pennsylvania where he will again be part of a barihunk trio in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opera Philadelphia. He'll take on the title role, as Wes Mason sings Masetto and Nicholas Masters sings the Commendatore. Performance run from April 25-May 4. Tickets are available online.
Jonathan Estabrooks, Sidney Outlaw and Zachary James
Barihunks seem to be showing up in bunches these days and we're loving it. Our recent post about the Seattle Opera's The Consul actually featured four barihunks in one production. On the opposite coast, we have a barihunk triumverate performing in "Vavrek and Vrebalov" at The National Opera Center, which is being presented by the American Lyric Theater. The performance features Jonathan Estabrooks, Sidney Outlaw and Zachary James in selections from librettist Royce Vavrek and Composer Aleksandra Vrebalov, who were both Resident Artists at the National Opera Center.
The program will include Nora at the Altar-Rail, a short, one-act opera written by composer Jay Anthony Gach with Royce Vavrek as librettist, excerpts from Aleksandra Vrebalov’s first full-length opera, Mileva, andarias and scenes written by Vavrek
with some of his favorite collaborators, including David T. Little (a
scene from Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera), Jeff Myers (scenes from The
Hunger Art, and Maren of Vardo), Rachel Peters (a scene from Prairie
Dogs), Andrew Gerle (a scene from The Beach), and Missy Mazzoli (scenes
from Song from the Uproar and Breaking the Waves - a new opera in
development).
A scene from Aleksandra Vrebalov's Mileva:
Aleksandra Vrebalov is a Serbian composer based in New York City. She studied composition with Miroslav Statkic at Novi Sad University, then with Zoran Erić at Belgrade University, Elinor Armer at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Ivana Loudova at the Prague Academy of Music. She has received commissions from Kronos Quartet, Carnegie Hall, Barlow Endowment, Festival Ballet Providence, Merkin Concert Hall Zoom Series. Vrebalov is also a co-founder of South Oxford Six, a composers' collective in New York.
Vavrek has become one of the most
in-demand librettists in the country, creating works for many companies
including Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Fort Worth Opera, and Beth
Morrison Projects.
The performance is at 3 PM on February 23 at OPERA America in New York City. Tickets are $20 and are available online.
Philippe Sly, Elliot Madore & Gordon Bintner (L-R)
We can't begin to tell you how often we're contacted because someone wants to put on a "Three Barihunks" concert, yet they never seem to come to fruition. It looks like the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Edmonton Opera are going to beat everyone to the punch and they're appropriating the name "No Tenors Allowed" from the 1999 concerts and recording by Thomas Hampson and Samuel Ramey. [The funniest barihunk concert proposal we heard about was going to be called "No Shirts Allowed" and it was supposed to be an AIDS fundraiser in New York].
The Edmonton team has managed to bring in three of the hottest and most vocally gifted baritones singing in the world today and they all happen to be Canadians. Gordon Bintner, Elliot Madore, and Philippe Sly will join forces with conductor Bill Eddins for a program of from music from Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Macbeth, Rossini's Barber of Seville, and Wagner's Tannhäuser.
The concert will be on Monday, March 24, 2014 at 7:30 PM at Enmax Hall in the Winspear Centre in Edmonton. For lovers of barihunks, we have to think that this is the hottest ticket of 2014! We've heard all three singers live and we can pretty much guarantee a night of visual and aural bliss. You can listen to six audio selections from Elliot Madore on his website.
Phillipe Sly sings Gustav Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen":
Gordon Binter performs at FestiVoix:
This season, Elliot Madore continues as a member of the ensemble at
Opernhaus Zürich where he made his role debut as Valentin in Jan
Philipp Gloger’s new production of Gounod's Faust. The title role in
Mozart’s Don Giovanni will serve as
his return to both Oper Philadelphia and the Glyndebourne Festival in
the summer of 2014. Future seasons will see him at the Metropolitan
Opera, San Francisco Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zurich,
Glyndebourne Festival, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Festival
d’Aix-en-Provence, and Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.
Philippe Sly
continues as an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera in the 2013 –
2014 season. He will make his debut at Opéra de Lyon in Laurent Pelly’s
production of Rossini's Le comte Ory as Raimbaud and will be seen as Bartolo in
San Francisco Opera’s Barber for Families. He also opens the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra’s season as Méphistophélès in concert performances of
Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust under Kent Nagano. In concert, Sly
makes his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in Fauré’s Requiem and with
Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, both
under Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
In the past few months, Gordon Bintner made his debut in Berlin with the role of Bill in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with Ensemble Modern and Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon at l’Opera de Montreal. He made his European debut singing the role of Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème with Angers-Nantes Opera in France. Other appearances included the role of Nardo in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera at the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. Operatic performances in 2014 include the role of Don Alfonso in the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
There are a number of shows being put together that feature barihunks, including "Barihunks on Tour." This site has nothing (directly) to do with any of them, but we have been surprised that no one has copied the overused "Three Tenors," "Three Sopranos," "Three Countertenors" format to produce a "Three Barihunks" show. If you're in Wisconsin on Sunday, April 15th, you can get a brief preview of what that might look like.
Barihunks Anthony Reed, Michael Roemer and Tim Rebers will be part of a concert that features singers from the Wisconsin District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Joining the "Three Barihunks" will be guest tenor Scott Ramsay and sopranos Lindsay Sessing and Meagan Seubert. The performance will begin at 2 PM at the Dawes Studio Theatre at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield, Wisconsin. For tickets call the Wilson Center Box office at (262) 781-9520.
The singers worked with coach Jamie Johns over the last six months to refine their performance
techniques. The monthly coaching sessions focused on operatic repertoire
and culminated in this joint recital.
Michael Roemer and Adam Shelton in the duet from the Elixir of Love:
The Vocal Coaching Program was founded by Patricia Crump, a former
member of the CMA Board of Directors and president of Supporters of
Opera Singers, an organization established to administer funds donated
to assist young Milwaukee area singers. She is also Director Emerita of
the Wisconsin District Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera National
Council.
Timothy McDevitt (L), Michael Kelly (C) and Douglas Williams (R)
The barihunk hotness continues at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where they just wrapped up "Prima Donna" with Randal Turner. The latest production is Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts with three barihunks!!! The Mark Morris Dance Group production of Four Saints in Three Acts will feature barihunks Michael Kelly as St. Ignatius, Tim McDevitt as St. Plan, and Doug Williams as Compere. The opera will be paired with the world premiere of Beethoven's Choral Fantasy.
There are only three performances between March 1-3 and there is limited ticket availability. Visit the BAM website for tickets.
Video from the 2006 production of Four Saints in Three Acts:
