Erwin Schrott as Attila (on stage and in rehearsal)
The bass-barihunk duo of Erwin Schrott and Antonio Di Matteo have been wowing audiences in director Daniele Abbado's riveting production of Verdi's Attila at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. The February 19th opening day performance marked the debut of Schrott in the title role of Verdi's early opera. Schrott recently told the Italian press that the character was a "complex, restless,insecure andevenemotional man who eventually succumbs to love." He recorded that aria "Mentre gonfiarsi l'anima" on his 2012 album of arias.
Erwin Schrott sings "Mentre gonfiarsi l'anima" from Attila:
Joining him in the cast as Pope Leo is fellow bass-barihunk Antonio Di Matteo, who is new to this site. He is a former member of the Opera Studio of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and former member of the chorus at the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli.
Antonio Di Matteo as Pope Leo in Attila
He has previously peformed Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Araldo in Verdi's Macbeth and the Commedatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni. Di Matteo can next be seen as Cesare Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca at the Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari and Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Schrott can next be seen in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and then the title role in Boito's Mefistofele in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Antonio Di Matteo sings Pope Leo in Palermo's Attila:
Tickets are available online for the remaining performances on February 24 and 26.
Edward Miskie, who appears in our 2016 Barihunks Calendar, is the current issue of the new erotic art magazine UK's Mascular Magazine. The magazine's tagline is "Celebrating masculine art and the men who create it."
Miskie did a photoshoot last month with Brooklyn-based photographer Ron Amato, who has shot for Men's Health, Men's Fitness and Sports Illustrated. Miskie is part of a feature entitled "Pride," where "pride is not a sin but a statement of individuality and acceptance" His suit is by Ryan Moller and hat by The Nitty Gritty.
You can view the entire issue of Mascular Magazine online, but we warn you that it's NSFW.
David Pershall who recently performed Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème and Lord Cecil in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Metropolitan Opera, has won one of the top prizes at the 2016 George London Foundation Competition. Also taking away top honors was fellow barihunk Steven LaBrie, who just wrapped up a performance of Ginastera's Estancia with the New York City Ballet. He will tour with the Ballet to Paris in July performing the same program.
Other top winners included soprano Antonina Chehovska, tenor A.J. Glueckert, soprano Kirsten MacKinnon and soprano Claudia Rosenthal. Winners receeived $10,000 each Other baritones and basses taking encouragement prizes included Colin Ramsey, Justin Austin, Jared Bybee, Michael Sumuel and John Viscardi. Encouragement Prize winners received $1,000 each.
Pershall performed Starbuck's aria from Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick.
Steven LaBrie sings Largo al factotum from the Barber of Seville:
Pershal has previously won 1st Prize in the Marcello Giordani Foundation International Vocal
Competition, 1st Prize in the New Jersey Verismo Competition, 1st Prize
in the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, 1st Prize in the
Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, 1st Prize in
the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, 1st Prize in the Hugo Kauder
Competition for Voice, the Presser Music Foundation Award, and the
Thomas Stewart Award for Vocal Excellence.
LaBrie won the 2013 Encouragement Award at the George London Foundation Competition, second places in both the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and the Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition as well as the Judges Award with the Opera Index Competition. In 2010, he was an encouragement award winner in Washington, DC, for the Metropolitan Opera National Council.
David Pershall performs Starbuck's aria in 2012:
Pershall can next be seen in Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Vienna State Opera. Roucher in Giordano's Andrea Chenier at the San Francisco Opera and Albert in Massenett's Werther at The Met.
LaBrie can next be seen singing the title role in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with Lyric Opera Baltimore on March 11 and 13.
Perhall is a graduate of the Merola Opera program at San Francisco Opera and the
Virginia Opera Resident Artist program. He holds a Bachelor of Music
from Baylor University, as well as a Master of Music and an Artist
Diploma from Yale School of Music.
Steven LaBrie is a recent graduate of The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.
Barihunk Brandon Cedel, who appeared in our 2011 Barihunks calendar with his husband Jonathan Beyer, is featured in Opera News this month in their Sound Bites feature:
Brandon Cedel, who is
in his third and final season as a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s
Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, is the Sergeant in the
company’s new production of Manon Lescaut this month. Cedel
started at the Met in 2013, fresh from seven years at the Curtis
Institute and a win in the company’s National Council Auditions. “The
Met is like Disneyland for a young opera singer—literally everything you
could possibly want is there. You see how to act onstage, how to act
offstage. And you are surrounded by the best of the best every minute.”
Our latest Reader Submission is Welsh barihunk Matthew Tilley who graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama as a recipient of the Laura Ashley Scholarship.
Tilley has been a regular performer with the Welsh National Opera, with whom he has performed in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, Puccini's Madama Butterfly and La Bohème and Verdi’s La Traviata.
Matthew Tilley sings Loch Lomond and Shenandoah:
He'll be performing Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Heritage Opera from April 15-July 24. The production will be performed in Stirling, Scotland; Hatfield, Lancaster, Wiltshire, Oxford and Chesire, England; and Ruthin, North Wales. Additional information is available online.
Tilley has also taught and given masterclasses at the Bentley Music Academy in
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and is a vocal coach for the Musical Youth Theatre Wales.
A reader introduced us to Jeremy Kleeman, a graduate of Victorian Opera's Developing Artist Program, who is performing Magus in the world premiere of Voyage to the Moon. The piece was inspired by the epic poem Orlando furioso using a pastiche of music by Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann and Gluck, with new words by Michael Gow.
Kleeman has a Master of Music in Opera Performance and
a Bachelor of Music from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He has been a regular on
the Victorian Opera stage since his debut with the company in 2008. He has performed Rapunzel’s Prince in Into
the Woods, Marquis D’Obiginy in La traviata, Lord Valton in I puritani,
and Albert the Pudding in the Green Room Award-winning world premiere
The Magic Pudding – The Opera.
Jeremy Kleeman sings "Aprite un po’quegli occhi" from Marriage of Figaro:
Kleeman previously sung in another baroque opera when he performed Teobaldo in Handel's Faramondo for
the Brisbane Baroque Festival, which won five Helpmann Awards including Best Opera. He has twice been a finalist at the IFAC Australian
Singing Competition and was as a finalist at
the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria, Australia's premiere oratorio
competition, placing as the joint runner-up and winning the People's
Choice Award. In 2014 Jeremy won the Welsh Male Choir Singer of the Year.
In Voyage to the Moon, the great warrior Orlando has fallen into a deep madness. His
friend Astolfo travels to the heavens with the mysterious Magus to find a
cure and discovers the moon is home to many lost things including
Orlando’s sanity. But first he must convince the all-powerful Guardian
of the Moon, Selena, that Orlando is worth saving.
Performances of Voyage to the Moon at the Victorian Opera remain on February 18 and 19 and tickets are available online.
Zachary James and John Moore in Mazzoli's Breaking Waves
Opera Philadelphia announced their 2016-17 season, which will include the barihunk duo of John Moore and Zachary James in the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s chamber opera Breaking the Waves, which features a libretto by Royce Vavrek. Mazzoli is a graduate of Opera Philadelphia’s Composer in Residence program.
The opera is based on the Oscar-nominated 1996 film by Lars von Trier. The libretto tells the story of Bess McNeill (sung by Kiera Duffy), a religious young woman with a deep love for her
husband Jan (sung by John Moore), a handsome oil rig worker. When Jan becomes paralyzed in an
off-shore accident, her marital vows are put to the test as he
encourages her to seek other lovers and return to his bedside to tell
him of her sexual activities. He insists that the stories will feel like
they are making love together and keep him alive. Bess’s increasing
selflessness leads to a finale of divine grace, but at great cost.
Performances will run from September 22 through October 1st. The cast also includes the rising tenor sensation David Portillo, Eve Gigliotti and Patricia Schuman.
Brandon Cedel and John Chest in The Marriage of Figaro
The company's new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro will feature the barihunk duo of Brandon Cedel as Figoro and John Chest as the Count. Performances will be at the Academy of Music and will also feature Ying Fang as
Susanna, Layla Claire as the Countess, John Chest, Cecelia Hall as Cherubino and Patrick Carfizzi as Bartolo.
Other operas in the season include Puccini's Turandot with Christine Goerke in the title role and Daniel Belcher as Ping; a re-imaging of Verdi's Macbeth by South African director Brett Bailey set in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the title character as a Congolese warlord: and Stephanie Blythe making her role debut as the title character in Rossini’s Tancredi along with Daniel Mobbs as Orbazzano.
You can find more information on the Opera Philadelphia website.
