Shirtless photos of Wes Mason in The Tragedy of Carmen

Ola Rafalo and Wes Mason at Syracuse Opera (Photo: Doug Wonders)

After receiving these shirtless photos of Wes Mason as Escamillo in Peter Brook’s adaptation of “The Tragedy of Carmen” at the Syracues Opera, we thought it was worthwhile to follow up with another post.

Peter Brook abridged Bizet’s famous opera to a theater piece that runs a little over 80 minutes and focuses the action entirely on the scenes involving the four principals: Carmen, Don José, Micaëla and Escamillo. He eliminated the chorus and had the French composer Marius Constant reduce Bizet’s symphony orchestra to a chamber orchestra of 15 players. For the spoken dialogues in his adaptation, Brook drew more closely upon Prosper Merimée’s original story than Bizet’s libretto.

There are performances remaining on October 13, 15 and 18 at the Carrier Theater of the Mulroy Civic Center in downtown Syracuse, New York.

Wes Mason as Escamillo (Photo: Doug Wonders)

If you can't catch Wes Mason in Syracuse, you'll have two chances to catch him in one of the sexiest roles in opera, Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers). First up will be at the Baltimore Concert Opera from February 28 to March 2, and then from March 7-9 at the Delaware Opera.

You can enjoy Wes Mason in your own copy of the 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar. He's joined in December by Christopher Temporelli and Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek in our special three singer spread to warm up your holiday season. Click HERE to order your own copy or as a special gift to the opera lover in your life (or hunky guy lover). 

Wes Mason inspires a barihunk headline

We've been huge fans of Wes Mason since his breakout performance in Jorge Martín's Before Night Falls in 2010 at the Fort Worth Opera Festival.

He's currently appearing with the Syracuse Opera in their production of the Peter Brooks/Georges Bizet arrangement of The Tragedy of Carmen portraying Escamillo. We've known Wes Mason for three years now and we've learned that he can dominate both a room and a performance. So it was no surprise to us that both the local paper and the artistic director of the Syracuse Opera focused on this rising star. The headline screamed, "Bullfighters, Barihunks, and Bravado."

“There’s this thing in the opera world,” artistic director Douglas Kinney Frost told the Syracuse New Times. “Now, it’s more like a movement, but there’s this blog where they choose ‘barihunks.’ The idea is that he’s a sexy hunk of a guy and he’s a baritone. I’m very proud to have Escamillo as a barihunk. [Wes Mason] loves it. He’s very flattered. And he’s one of the originals.”

Performances run from October 11-20 and tickets are available online. 

If you can't catch Wes Mason in Syracuse, you'll have two chances to catch him in one of the sexiest roles in opera, Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers). First up will be at the Baltimore Concert Opera from February 28 to March 2, and then from March 7-9 at the Delaware Opera.

(L-R) Christopher Temporelli, Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek and Wes Mason.

You can enjoy Wes Mason in your own copy of the 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar. He's joined in December by Christopher Temporelli and Christiaan Smith-Kotlarek in our special three singer spread to warm up your holiday season. Click HERE to order your own copy or as a special gift to the opera lover in your life (or hunky guy lover).