Marco Vassalli sings more Schubert and another World Premiere

Marco Vassalli photographed in Sonoma, California

Marco Vassalli, is back in Germany after his stunning U.S. debut with Musica Marin where he premiered two works for string quartet and baritone by American composer Clint Borzoni, Stufen and Magere Kost. The program also included works by Richard Strauss, Tosti and Schubert.

Schubert continues to play a big part on his current schedule, as he will be singing Winterreise on March 19 in Königslutte Stadtkirsher and on March 20th in Braunschwieg in the Emmauskirche. Schubert's Romantic song cycle of longing and loneliness is the second of composer's two great song cycles based on Wilhelm Müller's poems, the earlier being Die schöne Müllerin. 

He then returns to performances in Roman Cykowski's Comedian Harmonists at the Theater Osnabruck, which he's frequently performed over the past few years.

In May, he'll sing another world premiere as he performs in David Fennessey's Sweat of the Sun, which is based on Werner Herzog's Conquest of the Useless. The piece was commissioned by the City of Munich for the Munich Biennale and is being co-produced with the Theater Osnabruck and the Munich Kammerorchestra.

Fennessey has been writing a series of pieces inspired by Werner Herzog's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo and the metaphor of a full-size steamboat being dragged over a hill in the swampy jungle by a rubber baron who strives to build an opera house deep in the Peruvian jungle. The first composition was an orchestral prologue fusing chords from Verdi’s Rigoletto with a 10-minute guitar glissando. The second, Caruso (Gold is the sweat of the sun) deals with the initial image, or dream which inspired Herzog to make the film in the first place. Sweat of the Sun is a based on depictions from Herzog's diary, which was published under the name "Conquest of the Useless" and looks inside of the head of a man possessed.

Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Barihunks Rodolfo Nieto and Andrew Lovato join hunkentenor Leonardo Capalbo for major role debut

Leonardo Capalbo, Andrew Lovato and Rodolfo Nieto (l-r)

When hunkentenor Leonardo makes his role debut on March 12th as Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca with the Minnesota Opera, he'll be joined by two barihunks on stage. Andrew Lovato will be singing Angelotti and Rodolfo Nieto will take on Sciarrone. Tosca will be sung by the riveting Kelly Kaduce. Capalbo and Kaduce also perform together on March 17, 19, 24 and 26. The alternate cast will feature Dominick Chenes as Mario and Alexandra LoBianco as Tosca. Lovato and Nieto are featured in all performances.

A shirtless Leonardo Capalbo in La traviata from Geneva:

Lovato made his Minnesota Opera debut as the role of Sonora in La fanciulla del West and subsequently performed Young Raymond in the world premiere of The Manchurian Candidate by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell and Le Dancaïre in Carmen.

Andrew Lovato sings the Father's Entrance Aria from Hansel und Gretel:

On March 20th, he performs "A Taste of Opera: Tosca" with the company. It's a a pre-show brunch and informal conversation with experts from the world of opera which also includes Leonardo Capalbo an Stephen Powell. On April 2, he joins resident artists from the Minnesota Opera at the Metropolitan Ballroom for a 1930’s Cabaret. You can register online.

Rodolfo Nieto sings Non più andrai from Le nozze di Figaro:

Bass-barihunk Rodolfo Nieto has been featured frequently with the Minnesota Opera in various roles including Castro in La fanciulla del West, Horatio in Hamlet, Johann in Werther, Scottish Soldier #1 in the world premiere of Silent Night, Joseph in Wuthering Heights and Colline in La bohème. Nieto will also be part of both "A Taste of Opera: Tosca"and the 1930s Cabaret.

John Taylor Ward as Aeneas with Heartbeat Opera

John Ward Taylor (left) and as Aeneas with Carla Jablonski as Dido (right)

John Taylor Ward will be appearing as Aeneas with Heartbeat Opera. The company, along with Cantata Profana, has reimagined productions of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

Lucia di Lammermoor has been condensed to 90 minutes so that it can be performed as a double-bill with Dido and Aeneas. You can see them individually or together on March 12, 16 and 20 at the Theater at St. Clement’s in New York City. You can see individual performances of Lucia on March 18 and of Dido on March 11 and 19. Tickets and additional information is available online.

John Taylor Ward sings Monteverdi with Voices of Music:

John Taylor Ward was born into a musical family in Boone, North Carolina that featured bluegrass and Broadway tunes. He is also the associate artistic director of the Lakes Area Music Festival.

Ward's Carnegie Hall debut, singing Schütz’s Fili mi Absalon, was listed among Superconductor’s best concerts of 2012, and, in the realm of vocal chamber music, he has made numerous appearances with the eight-voice ensemble Roomful of Teeth, whose debut album recently topped many 2013 album-of-the-year lists, including WNYC’s Soundcheck. As a founding member of the New Haven-based Cantata Profana, Taylor recently performed Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ 8 Songs for a Mad King.

Introducing Barihunk Malcolm Ulbrick

Malcolm Ulbrick

Back in November we posted about Rossini's Barber of Seville at the Boulder Opera Company with barihunks Andrew Potter, Michael Travis Risner and Garrett Smith. Potter and Risner are both returning for their upcoming performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Risner as the stage director and Potter as the Commendatore.

Featured in the title role will be Malcolm Ulbrick, who is new to this site. When Ulbrick is not performing, he works as both a personal trainer/strength coach and a vocal coach. He received his Masters in Music from the University of Colorado, where he performed performed as Billy Bigelow in Carousel, Olin Blitch in Susannah, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Gideon March in Little Women and Marcello in La boheme. He recently performed in Handel’s Messiah with the Messiah Choral Society of Grand Junction, Colorado. He also directed the children's performance of The Barber of Seville with Boulder Opera.

Andrew Potter and Michael Travis Risner

Performances of Don Giovanni will be at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder on April 15th, the Broomfield Auditorium: on April 16th and the Dickens Opera House in Longmont on April 22nd. For tickets and more information: http://www.boulderoperacompany.com/don-giovanni/

Romain Dayez in "second world premiere" of Cavalli's L'Oristeo

Romain Dayez

Barihunk Romain Dayez will be performing the title role in Cavalli's L’Oristeo, which has been all but forgotten to time. The performance is being dubbed the opera's "second world premiere."

The performances at Opera Marseilles with the members of Concerto Soave will  directed by Olivier Lexa, who has updated the production with video projections while staying true to the period. The musicians of Concerto Soave will be arranged on either side of the stage, strings and winds facing each accompanied by a continuo.

The opera was reconstructed by Lexa from a manuscript that appeared to be hastily scribbled by Cavalli and deemed almost illegible. The opera is notable for containing one of the first examples of a da capo aria, Udite amanti, sung by Corinta (sung by Lucie Roche in this production).

Watch a recital with Romain Dayez: 

The opera was written with a prologue and three acts and was designated as a dramma per musica. Cavalli and Faustini, his favorite librettist, collaborated on eight operas in the 1640s. However, Faustini's untimely death in 1651 ended the collaboration that gave birth in a year and a half to L’Oristeo, La Rosinda, L’Eritrea and La Calisto. It premiered at theTeatro Sant 'Apollinare on February 9, 1651, just four decades after Monteverdi's Orfeo, which is often considered the first opera.

Performances are on March 11 and 13th. 

Other cast members include Aurora Tirotta as Diomeda and Amore, Maïlys de Villoutreys as Ermino and Nemeo, Pascal Bertin as Oresde, Zachary Wilder as Trasimede and Lis Viricel as Euralio.

Interview with Tristan Hambleton

Tristan Hambleton from the Barihunks Calendar

Barihunks Tristan Hambleton and Kevin Greenlaw will both be performing in the University College Opera's production of Donizetti's La Favorite from March 14-19 at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. It will the first French language performance in the UK this century. You visit their website for additional information.

On March 20th, you can also hear Tristan in Bach's St Matthew Passion at Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church with the UK-Japan Music Society. You can listen to Tristan Hambleton sing Tchaikovsky's None But the Lonely Heart HERE. 

Hambleton is featured this month in our 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar, so we figured it was a good time to ask him a few questions about his career.

1. What drew you to a career in opera?

I come from a musical family stretching back to Victorian London, with family among the founding members of the LSO and the Philharmonia, I grew up to tales of the great musicians of the past. My dad played on many of the RCA and Decca recordings with the likes of Pavarotti, Sutherland and Milnes and when it came to child care, it meant me sitting in on rehearsals at ENO where my dad was principle clarinet for many years. There was little escape. When I was a boy, I started singing as a treble and was invited to sing with amazing singers like David Daniels and Bryn Terfel. I remember at 11, being in a singer’s apartment in Paris while working with Les Art Florissant and thinking “WOW, this is the life!” It was then that I got bitten by the bug.

2. How did you first find out that you were on Barihunks and what was the response to you being in the calendar?

I think someone tagged me on facebook. Oh and my website went into overdrive. As for the calendar, my mum loves it, particularly as it’s now March.

3. What are your thoughts about singers taking care of their bodies as well as their voices? Do you have a routine to stay in shape?

It is so crucial. Your body is your instrument. I don’t have a routine as such, but I’m always on the go.

Tristan Hambleton as Leporello in 2014 (left) and rehearsing Ariodante

 
4.  Any limits on what you'd do at a stage directors request?

Ha ha – none that I know of. Should I be worried? Or maybe they should be.

5. Are there any roles in particular that you really hope to get to perform someday?

Absolutely. Too many to mention, but pretty much all the Mozart roles. And I think every bass-baritone has a dream of one day being a Hans Sachs. I hope this doesn’t mean I’ve jinxed it!

6. Tell us about your character in La Favorite and the production. This is the first time it's being done in the original French in the U.K.

I play the role of Balthazar, a Catholic Superior who is head of the Monastery at Santiago de Compostela. The story is essentially a love triangle set against a power struggle between church and state. There’s a definite flavour of the Grand Inquisitor from Don Carlos (one of my favourite operas) in Balthazar, except I am a lot more mobile and unlike Hytner’s production I can fully see everything that’s going on. This production is set in the 1930’s using the Edward VIII/Wallis Simpson affair as a sounding board. For over 60 years UCO have put on rarely performed works in the capital using young singers. Previous productions have used some really great singers including heroes of mine Felicity Lott and Robert Lloyd.

Tristan Hambleton in Ariodante (right)

 7. Do you prefer singing standard operatic repertory or newer pieces?

What matters for me is the standard of the music, the story and the character. My last project was a World Premier for Glyndebourne by David Bruce. The opera, called ‘Nothing’, had all three elements in spades, as a result it ranks as one of the highlights of my career thus far. For the same reason, I would happily sing Figaro for the rest of my life.

8. What other passions do you have aside from music?

My Bachelors degree was actually in Art History and I love introducing people to Italy. Something I’ve had the great fortune to do as a Tutor for Art History Abroad.

9. What do you listen to other than opera?

All sorts. According to Spotify my recent plays are: Nick Hakim, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Bach, Major Lazer, Schubert, SBTRKT, Gluck. I believe in the Louis Armstrong philosophy of music.

10. The best advice anyone has ever given you?

Don’t be anyone, but yourself.

11. Tell us something about yourself that has nothing to do with opera.

When I’m at home I wear clogs – like right now.

Four baritones advance to Met Auditions finals

Four of the nine singers moving on to the Metropolitan Opera Grand Finals Concert on March 13th. They are Theo Hoffman, Sol Jin, Sean Michael Plumb and Brian Vu. They will be joined by Emily D’Angelo, Yelena Dyachek, Lauren Feider, Jonas Hacker and Jakub Józef Orliński.

The nine finalists will go on to sing in the Grand Finals Concert on Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m. hosted by past National Council Auditions winner Deborah Voigt. Each finalist will perform two arias with conductor Antony Walker and the Met Orchestra. Bass-baritone Eric Owens, a past National Council Auditions winner and National Advisor for the Metropolitan Opera National Council, will be the guest artist and perform during the judges’ deliberations once the auditions part of the program is over.

At the end of the concert, winners will be announced, each of whom will receive an individual cash prize of $15,000 and career-making exposure. The Met Auditions were crucial in introducing many of today’s best-known stars, such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Patricia Racette, Deborah Voigt, Nathan Gunn, and Lawrence Brownlee.

The nine finalists will have a week of preparation with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the Grand Finals Concert on March 13th. Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert may be purchased at the Met Box Office, by phone at 212-362-6000, or online at www.metopera.org.