Martin Achrainer (shirtless) in another Philip Glass premiere

Martin Achrainer in Spuren der Verirrten

Tyrolian barihunk Martin Achrainer is making quite a name for himself as an exponent of new works by American minimalist composer Philip Glass. An alert reader spotted these pictures from Glass' new German language opera Spuren der Verirrten (“Footprints of the Lost”)," which is based on the play by Peter Handke. We've previously seen Achrainer in Glass' Orphée and in the world premiere of Kepler.

Much of this is attributable to the fact that Achrainer is in the ensemble at the Landestheater Linz, where the music director and principal conductor is long-time Philip Glass collaborator and champion Dennis Russell Davies.  Glass wrote “Spuren der Verirrten” for the opening of the new Musiktheater am Volksgarten, a state-of-the-art opera house that Davies was instrumental in getting built.

Martin Achrainer in Spuren der Verirrten

Although the world premiere of Spuren der Verirrten was in April of this year, the opera is being perfromed again beginning on November 9 and running into January 2014. Tickets are available online. 

Achrainer's character is called "F' and the rest of the cast includes A, B, C, D...you get the picture. Although the opera has many of the typical characteristics of the composer's works, including repetitiveness and minimalism, he has added alphorns and zithers to give it an Austrian flavor. The text is typical Glass, as well, with singers often repeating the question “Where are we?”

The joke at the opera house has been that this work is “Two Notes, One Opera.”

Photos from Martin Achrainer's "Le Grand Macabre"

Martin Achrainer in "Le Grand Macabre" in Vienna

Back in August we mentioned that Austrian barihunk Martin Achrainer was going to appear in Györgi Ligeti's masterpiece "Le Grand Macabre" at the Neue Oper Wien.  The opera has opened to rave reviews and, lo and behold, we once again find Achrainer showing off his amazing physique.

Le Grand Macabre is György Ligeti’s only opera and is based on the theater piece La Balade du Grand Macabre by Belgian author Michel de Ghelderode. Ligeti wrote the libretto with Michael Meschke setting the work in the near-apocalyptic Breughelland (a reference to Dutch painter Pieter Breughel). Although the opera has become popular in Europe, it took 26 years before it had its successful premiere in the United States at the San Francisco Opera.  That 2004 performance starred Willard White as Nekrozar and barihunk Joshua Bloom as the Black Politician. The New York Philharmonic performed the piece with Eric Owens as Nekrozarin 2010.

More shirtless shots of Martin Achrainer from "Le Grand Macabre"

There are performances remaining on October 6 and 7. Visit the Neue Oper Wien website for additional information or tickets. After he wraps up in Vienna, Achrainer will perform a concert entitled "Mir bleiben alle treu" ("I remain faithful to all") at the Casino Kitzbühel in Austria on October 14.

Martin Achrainer awarded first "Richard Tauber Medal"

Martin Achrainer receiving the first Richard Tauber Award

The Friends of the Linz State Theatre has awarded the first "Richard Tauber Medal" to barihunk Martin Achrainer. Achrainer has been a regular member of the theater since the 2006/2007 season and has been a favorite of both audiences and management for his beautiful singing and incredible acting skills.

Regular readers of this site know that we are unabashed and enthusiastic fans of the Tyrolian singer who premiered Philip Glass's Kepler at the theatre and then reprised it in New York. He has also performed Glass' Orphée and Spuren der Verirrten.

In addition to Glass, he has been a passionate exponent of new music, including Henze, Ligeti, Kelterborn and Schwertsik. In addition to contemporary music, he has excelled in musical theater, baroque music, church music, as well as the Weill, Bernstein, Puccini, Wagner, Donizetti and especially Mozart.

Achrainer, who studied at the Max Reinhardt Seminar was heavily influenced by two of the greatest singers of the recent past, Brigitte Fassbaender and Robert Holl.

Martin Achrainer

He can currently be seen in Linz performing the roles of Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen and Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. In July, he'll don Papageno's feathers again at Opern Klosterneuburg.

The award in named after the popular Linz-born tenor Richard Tauber (1891-1948), who many regard as one of the greatest exponents of operetta and opera in the 20th century. Tauber often wore a monocle and black top hat and came to epitomize Viennese charm.

Martin Achrainer: Germany's Nathan Gunn

German Barihunk Martin Achrainer

Martin Achrainer is one of the most creative and compelling baritones on stage today. He's part of the ensemble at the Landestheater Linz, where he caught the eye of Philip Glass who cast him in Kepler, which we covered on this site. He is capable of mastering everything from song and dance numbers in Broadway musicals, to Mozart to contemporary music. Not surprisingly, he has become a fan favorite in Linz. Achrainer has become a younger, European version of Nathan Gunn, as he frequently performs in roles that shows of his physique.

Achrainer is once again tackling a wide array of roles this season, portraying Konrad in Meistersinger, Cornelius in Hello, Dolly!, Dandini in La Cenerentola and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.

There are two wonderful videos below. The first is a short piece on his portrayal of Orphee in the Philip Glass opera. The latter is a wonderful biographical piece on the singer (in German). Even if you don't speak German, you can't miss the incredible charm that emanates from this 32-year-old singer.

Martin Achrainer performs semi-staged Winterreise

Martin Achrainer (photos from artist website)

Austrian barihunk Martin Achrainer will perform Schubert's Winterreise in a staged adaptation by Hermann Schneider in the Black Box space at the Theater am Volksgarten in Linz from January 20-Februarty 24. He'll be joined by Tommaso Lepore on piano.

When Schubert's Winterreise premiered in 1827, the public was perplexed by the piece, finding it too raw, too dark, too hard to digest. Only the famous song Der Lindenbaum found favor. But Schubert was completely sure that he had created a work of importance; no composition seems to have been as important to him as the musical realization of these 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller.  

Martin Achrainer as Don Giovanni:

Of course, today one can't have a serious discussion about great lieder without mentioning Winterreise. The piece's influence on other composers can not be overstated and few baritones having included all or portions of the cycle in their repertoire. 

Tickets are available online. 

Martin Achrainer featured on Austrian national TV

Martin Achrainer

Austrian barihunk Martin Achrainer was recently featured on Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), Austria's national public television station. He discusses his career and time at the Linz Landestheatre, where he has become a house favorite.

Watch the ORF feature on Martin Achrainer:

He returns to action at the Linz Landestheatre on September 19th, when he alternates the role of Baron Douphol in Verdi's La traviata with Till von Orlowsky. On September 20, he'll be singing very different music, as he will be the soloist in Hans Werner Henze's El Cimarrón – Der Weg ins Freie at the International Bruckner Festival in Linz. On October 10, he'll be one of the soloists in Bruckner's Missa solemnis with the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz.

Martin Achrainer Sings Frank Martin

Tyrolian Barihunk Martin Achrainer

Here is a riveting performance of Frank Martin's "O ewiger Gott! O göttliches Gesicht!" sung by the Austrian baritone Martin Achrainer. This is a selection from the "Six Monologues from Hugo von Hofmannsthals 'Jedermann.'"

Achrainer's next performances will be during November with the Landestheater in Linz as Konrad in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Cornelius in "Hello, Dolly!"

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Martin Achrainer to star in "Le Grand Macabre"

Martin Achrainer

One of our favorite singers, Martin Achrainer, will be portraying Nekrozar in György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at the Neue Opera Wien. The opera will have four performances between October 2-7.

Le Grand Macabre is György Ligeti’s only opera and is based on the theater piece La Balade du Grand Macabre by Belgian author Michel de Ghelderode. Ligeti wrote the libretto with Michael Meschke setting the work in the near-apocalyptic Breughelland (a reference to Dutch painter Pieter Breughel). Although the opera has become popular in Europe, it took 26 years before it had its successful premiere in the United States at the San Francisco Opera.  That 2004 performance starred Willard White as Nekrozar and barihunk Joshua Bloom as the Black Politician. The New York Philharmonic performed the piece with Eric Owens as Nekrozarin 2010.

Martin Achrainer in Marriage of Figaro

Ligeti said of the work: “It’s an imagining of the end of the world, but very colorful, very bizarre, populated with medieval imps... It’s a Rabelaisian world, a world full of obscenities, sexual and scatological. People are constantly eating and drinking and leading a very chaotic life. It all happens in a sort of broken-down dictatorship where two opposing parties, both completely corrupt, pursue in reality the same crooked policies... It’s tragic and light-hearted at the same time…It’s not my intention to be provocative, though naturally I enjoy shocking people a bit.”

The music is a collage of sonorities with references to Beethoven’s “Eroica,” ragtime, industrial noises, jazz, and Viennese waltzes.

The next production of the opera will be at the Komische Oper in April 2013. 

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com. Also, entries for the 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar are due by August 31.

Martin Achrainer

Martin Achrainer was born in Tyrol, Austria. He was trained at the University of Music and Drama in Vienna, later continuing his studies with opera greats Robert Holl and Brigitte Fassbaender.

During his training he performed in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” as Masetto and Leporello, “Cosi fan tutte” as Guglielmo, and “The Magic Flute” as Papageno. Other roles included Achilla in Händels "Giulio Cesare,“ Alidoro in Rossinis "La Cenerentola,“ Belcore in Donizettis "L’Elisir d’Amore," and the world Premiere of the opera “Der Zauberberg” as Dr. Behrens.

His solo career also encompasses a vast repertoire in opera, oratorio and masses, as well as lieder ranging from the Baroque through to the 20th century.

He is the recipient of numerous prizes including the German Drama Price for his Papageno at the Opera-Festival “Schloss Rheinsberg” in Berlin, the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau (Jury Prize), the Hugo Wolf Prize, and the Hilde Zadek competition for literature of the 20th century (first prize).

Martin Achrainer is a permanent member of the opera house in Linz, Austria. He recently sang in a homoerotic version of Salome directed by Brigitte Fassbaender and is slated to sing Harlequin in Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and the title role in Don Giovanni.

Martin Achrainer to Premier new Philip Glass Opera

Composer Philip Glass' latest opera is the story of Johannes Kepler (1571—1630), a founding father of modern science who discovered the laws of planetary motion.

His new score is described as "spacious, elemental, and imbued with wonder" on Glass' website. The hypnotic score becomes the sound of the cosmos as we witness Kepler struggling to reconcile scientific discovery with the divine.

Celebrated conductor Dennis Russell Davies and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz support a stellar cast and 42-member chorus drawn from the Upper Austrian State Theatre, Linz. This means that our main character is being performed by barihunk Martin Achrainer, a regular on this site. The opera will premier on November 20th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and then move on to Linz Landestheater on November 27th. Click on the BAM link to the left to hear Philip Glass discuss the opera.

Here is a profile of Martin Achrainer (in German) talking about the role, as well as a preview of the opera:





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A Semi-Nude Martin Achrainer

Thanks to one of our faithful readers, I have these video snapshots of Martin Achrainer from the Linz performance of Don Giovanni where he was stripped nude on stage. If anyone has a slightly more revealing picture PLEASE forward it to barihunks!

Barihunks Matthew Worth, Christopher Temporelli in Virginia Opera's "Orphée"

Matthew Worth as Orphée

We've been big proponents of Philip Glass' operas, so we were thrilled to see that the Virginia Opera will be staging his opera Orphée this month. We've posted about this opera in the past featuring barihunks Eugene Brancoveanu in San Francisco, Philip Cutlip in Portland and Martin Achrainer in Linz, Austria.

Martin Achrainer as Orphée in Linz

Not to be outdone in the barihunk department, the Virginia Opera has cast Matthew Worth in the title role. We've featured Worth in a number of his roles on this site, including a somewhat related role in "Orpheus in the Underworld" at Central City Opera. Virginia Opera fans will also remember him for his 2010 appearance as Don Giovanni, which created a bit of a sensation.

Of course, we think his sexiest role to date is as Tarquinius in Britten's "Rape of Lucretia," but that discussion is for another post.

Christopher Temporelli as seen in the 2012 Barihunks Calendar

We're excited about the Virginia Opera's production because even the small role of the Judge features one of our calendar models, Christopher Temporelli. We should also add that tenor Jonathan Blalock who plays Cégeste is a bit of eye candy himself. We've seen the opera and can certainly recommend it as wonderful theater, but if you need a nudge, then seeing Worth, Temporelli and Blalock on stage together should be sufficient motivation.

Performances run from January 28 through February 12 and will be performed in Norfolk, Richmond and Fairfax, Virginia. For additional cast and performance information visit the Virginia Opera website.

On an unrelated note, it's come to our attention that you can listen to barihunk Luca Pisaroni in "The Enchanted Island" from the Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday, January 17th at 8 EST/5 PST by clicking on this LINK.

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Martin Achrainer as Don Giovanni

Thanks to La Cieca at www.parterre.com who found this photo of Martin Achrainer singing Don Giovanni at the Landestheater Linz. Barihunks appreciates the mention on his wonderful blog. Check out our earlier post of the hunky Martin.

Martin Achrainer Looks Good In Anything

[La Calisto photo by Norbert Artner]

If you can wear a gold lamme jacket and a frilly shirt and still look good, then you know that you're a certifiable barihunk. Martin Achrainer seems to be checking out his threads, but this is actually from a December 2008 production of La Calisto in Linz.

The Tyrolian barihunk's career continues to receive great acclaim and he's next scheduled to sing Mozart's Count Almaviva in Linz next month.

Although, we preferred him stripped to his birthday suit in Don Giovanni last year, we think he looks hot in anything.

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Kepler With Martin Achrainer Opens at BAM

[Photo of Martin Achrainer as Kepler by Jack Vartoogian/BAM]

Kepler review from the L.A. Times blog.

Read the review from the NY Times.

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Martin Achrainer's Sexy Don Giovanni

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Happy Halloween

No pretty boys today, it's Halloween!

The top photo is John Marcus Bindel performing Jochanaan at the Nashville Opera.

The bottom photo is the usually adorable barihunk Martin Achrainer in Sweeney Todd.

I think both of these guys could scare some trick-or-treaters.


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Markus Werba's Sexy Don Giovanni in Lyon

We're adding Markus Werba to our list of the world's sexiest Don Giovanni's, which includes Randal Turner, Mariusz Kwiecien, Simon Keenlyside, Martin Achrainer, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Lucas Meachem, Matthew Worth, Nmon Ford and others. Werba is finally emerging as a major star in opera in Europe, America and Japan, where he is wildly popular.



The Austrian singer has also scored huge successes with two other Mozart roles, Papageno in Magic Flute and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He'll be returning to the role of Papageno next year in Vienna, where he joins fellow barihunk Günther Groissböck, who is singing Sarastro. On May 18th, he opens in Don Giovanni opposite barihunk Alex Esposito's Leporello at the stunning Teatro la Fenice. He returns to Lyon in March 2011 to reprise his success in Don Giovanni.



Make sure to watch the highlight trailer below from Lyon.

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Happy Birthday, Philip Glass: Watch the complete opera Kepler here

OK, we have a birthday theme going on this week. An email message quickly showed up in our email box after we posted the birthday tribute to Franz Schubert reminding us that it is also Philip Glass' birthday. We're big fans of Philip Glass, so we're going to try something new to Barihunks and post the entire performance of his opera Kepler with the Austrian barihunk Martin Achrainer. This performance is from the 2009 production at the Landestheater Linz.

We can't think of a better way to celebrate his modern master's birthday.

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Philip Cutlip in new Philip Glass Recording

Philip Glass continues to gain a presence on Barihunks, most recently for the performances of Kepler with Martin Achrainer at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Previously, we posted about Philip Cutlip performing in Glass' Orphée in Portland.

Now Orphée is back in the news, as the Orange Mountain Music label has announced that they are releasing a recording of the Portland Opera Company production, which featured Cutlip. Orphée (1993) was the first of a trilogy of operas that Glass composed on subjects by Jean Cocteau, which also comprises La Belle et la Bête (1994) and Les Enfants Terribles (1996). Orphée was made from a series of live performances that took place between November 6-14, 2009 at Portland Opera. The recording includes a full libretto in French and English, color production photos and cast and performer biographies.


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