Peter Brathwaite in Zatopek! on BBC3

Peter Brathwaite

Barihunk calendar model and recording artist Peter Brathwaite recently opened in Emily Howard's chamber opera "Zatopek!, " which premiered in Liverpool on June 15. With London hosting the 2012 Olympics, Howard decided to write an opera about the legendary Czech long-distance runner Emile Zatopek who won the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Brathwaite sings the roles of Mimoun and Father.

Zatopkek! is Howard's first operatic work and it recreates the event where the runner obliterated the competition and became a household name overnight.

You can hear the 12-minute performance and a discussion with composer Emily Howard on the BBC3. It begins around the 56:00 mark. Brathwaite, Ensemble 10:10 and members of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and Youth Choir will reprise the work on July 15 at the Southbank Centre in London. Admission is free, but tickets must be reserved online.

Brathwaite also records with the group Amore on the Warner Brothers label. You can read our post about it HERE.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Peter Brathwaite premieres opera to mark 150th anniversary of abolition of slavery in Dutch Colonies

Peter Brathwaite in Katibu di Shon

When we last featured British barihunk Peter Brathwaite, he was modeling Dockers for their "Men of Style" campaign. For those of us who love him as a performer, as well as a model, we're thrilled to announce that he's back on the stage today opening in a new opera.

Tania Kross,  Jeroen de Vaal and Peter Brathwaite rehearsing Katibu di Shon

Brathwaite is at the Nationale Reisopera in The Netherlands for Randal Corsen's new 70-minute opera Katibu di Shon. The opera is based on the novel Slave and Master, an “histoire perfumée” by Carel de Haseth, which tells the story of Wilmu a slave owner, and slave Luis, two boys growing up together who both have feelings for the slave girl Anita. This triangle ends up in a confrontation between the two boys, and between slave and master.

The premiere will take place at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg in front of the new King of The Netherlands and marks the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Dutch Colonies.

Reader Submission: Peter Brathwaite

Peter Brathwaite (Photos by Gabriel Hennigson & Emilie Lauwers)

We're continuing our series of barihunks suggested by readers with British baritone Peter Brathwaite. Brathwaite recently graduated from the Royal College of Music International Opera School where he appeared in performances as Papageno in Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte," Nardo in Mozart's "La Finta Giardiniera" and Demetrius in Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

He made his French operatic debut in 2008 at the Opéra National de Lyon singing the role of Nelson in in Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess." He reprised the role a year later at the Opéra de Lyon and at the Edinburgh International Festival.

He is the winner of the Samuel Coleridge Taylor Award at the Black British Classical Foundation, Voice of Black Opera Competition, a Peter Moores Foundation Major Award holder,  Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme Alumna, Winston Churchill Fellow and winner of the RCM Ted Moss and Bertha Taylor-Stach Lieder Prize. 

His career has now taken him to Belgium where he will perform a concert of operatic scenes at the Vlaamse Opera on May 26th. In June, he heads to the Netherlands to perform Marcello in Puccini's "La Boheme" with the Nationale Reisoper RAP. [Note: Please check schedules. We took this information from Brathwaite's website. The Marcello on the Reisoper website is Thomas Oliemans, who happens to be our next reader submission.]

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Peter Brathwaite signs recording deal as part of Amore

Peter Brathwaite as he appears as the April feature in the Barihunks calendar

British barihunk Peter Brathwaite is one of our featured singers for the month of April in our 2012 Barihunks charity calendar, so it seems appropriate to announce his latest success.

Amore

Brathwaite is part of a new opera quartet called Amore, which has signed up with Warner Brothers Records. Their debut album entitled "Stand Together" is scheduled for release in the United Kingdom on May 28 and is available for pre-order on Amazon. Tracks include Abide With Me, Nella Fantasia, Ave Maria, the Flower duet, Cantique De Jean Racine, Amazing Grace, Here's To The Heroes, the Bacarolle, Jerusalem, Nimrod (We Will Stand Together) and the Brindisi (which you can sample below).

The group goes on tour this summer, with a concert on June 29 at Russell Watson's Jubilee Proms in Buckinghamshire. In August, they will be in Scarborough and Saffron Walden. Check out their website for additional information. You can also follow the quartet on Twitter at @weareamore  or on Facebook.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Brathwaite takes his Passion to Sweden

Peter Brathwaite (Photo: Maria Scard)

Peter Brathwaite, who has regularly appeared in our Barihunks Charity Calendar, is reprising his performance as Christus in a performance of Bach's St John Passion for Ensemble Arden in Varberg, Sweden. He sang the role last April with the Wren Players as the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital in London. Tickets to the March 29th performance are available online.

Brathwaite was one of our Reader Submissions in 2011 and we've watched his career flourish. He recorded and toured with the ensemble Amore! and debuted the role of Mimoun in the world première of Emily Howard’s Zátopek.

Peter studied at the Royal College of Music as well as in Belgium and is the recipient of a major award from the Peter Moore’s Foundation and Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells. He has been performing in opera mainly in Belgium, France, Italy and the United Kingdom and appears regularly in recital and on the concert platform.

Peter Brathwaite in "Adults Only" Micro-opera

 

Peter Brathwaite rehearsing "Flat Pack"

Tête à Tête, a British opera company that produces new works and find new ways of producing old works is presenting a new 30-minute micro-opera called "Flat Pack." The piece stars Barihunk Calendar model Peter Brathwaite as Simon and Aled Jones as Viola. Tête à Tête has produced over 70 stage works by more than 50 different composers for audiences throughout the UK and abroad.

The piece, which has an "adults only" warning, is described as a microdrama about putting together IKEA furniture. Part of the text reads, "Insert screw A into hole G on shelf E using Allen Key 2."'

We've heard that Brathwaite has been sensational in rehearsals and even managed to get a picture of him working through the piece.

The Festival in the White Lab of Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design, with performances on Thursday, July 31and Friday, August 1 at 8pm. Tickets are available online.

Peter Brathwaite chosen as one of four Dockers "Men of Style"

Peter Brathwaite

If that model in the Dockers ad looks familiar, it might be because you've seen him on a London opera stage, on the cover an Amore CD or even in the Barihunks calendar. Peter Brathwaite was chosen as a brand ambassador for the pants company Dockers. He was named one of four "Men of Style" in their new campaign.  The Dockers' "Men of Style" campaign showcases some of the most influential men in the world of style and their stories.

You can check out Peter Brathwaite's interview on the Dockers website, where he talks about his career, his favorite hangouts and his sense of style. You can also watch his video here:

You can next see the Manchester native live at the Brighton Festival where he's singing the role of Billy Bone in the world premiere of Captain Blood's Revenge, a pirate opera, produced by Glyndebourne with music by Lynne Plowman and words by Martin Riley. Performances are on May 24 and 25 and tickets are available online.

In June, he heads to the Nationale Reisopera in The Netherlands for Randal Corsen's new opera Katibu di Shon. The Opera “Katibu di Shon,” based on the novel Slave and Master, an “histoire perfumée” by Carel de Haseth, tells the story of Wilmu a slave owner, and slave Luis, two boys growing up together and their feelings for slave Anita. This triangle ends up in a confrontation between the two boys, between slave and master. The premiere will take place at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg in front of the new King of The Netherlands.

Peter Brathwaite discusses career on BBC

 

Peter Brathwaite (Photo: Maria Scard)

The English Touring Opera wraps up their Spring season today, which included barihunks Nicholas Lester, Grant Doyle, Jan Capiński and Peter Brathwaite. The company performed Donizetti's
The Wild Man of the West Indies (Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo) and his The Siege of Calais, as well as Puccini's La bohème.

Peter Brathwaite, who has been a regular on this site and appeared in two of our charity calendars, was a guest on Chris Mann's BBC show to discuss the English Touring Opera shows, as well as his career. You can listen to the interview HERE, which begins at the 1:48:30 mark. 

Simon Wallfisch

The English Touring Opera's Fall season opens on October 1st and will feature Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Massenet's Werther and Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. A number of barihunks will be featured in the new season, including Jonathan McGovern as Pelleas and Simon Wallfisch (aka The Singing Cellist) as Albert in Werther. Additional information about the upcoming season is available online.
 

Barihunks in critically-acclaimed La fanciulla del West

Peter Brathwaite (far left) and Nick Garrett (right) with Susannah Glanville

Back in March we posted about the production of Puccini's La fanciulla del West at Opera Holland Park featuring two barihunks who have been featured on this site, Peter Brathwaite as Sid and Nick Garrett as Sonora. The opera opened on June 3rd to great acclaim and runs through June 21. The company has updated the production from the California Gold Rush to the atomic testing grounds of 1950s Nevada.

Brathwaites's most recent engagements have included numerous world premieres. He made his Dutch mainstage debut last season at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg as Luis in Randal Corsen's KATIBU DI SHON, a role which he will reprise in the Netherlands and on tour to Curaçao. He began the 2013-14 season singing the role of Emanuel in the award-winning operatic adaptation of Marina Lewycka's novel Two Caravans, a portrayal which earned him critical acclaim.

On November 27th, Brathwaite will join accompanist Nigel Foster at the London Song Festival performing "Entartete Musik/Degenerate Music,"  a one-man show about music decried as "degenerate" by the Nazis. The performance will be at the Rosslyn Hill Chapel.

Peter Brathwaite and the Fanciulla ensemble

Nick Garrett is an English bass-baritone. He was a member of the vocal ensemble, The Swingle Singers and the opera band Amici Forever. Garrett was born in London and taught himself to play the piano at age seven. He studied singing, composition, piano and conducting at Trinity College of Music, with further study in singing supported by a grant from the Wolfson Foundation. He then joined The Swingle Singers and toured with them internationally.

After leaving The Swingle Singers, he performed in some of the world's leading opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, the Scottish Opera and the Opéra National de Paris. He has performed over forty major roles, including the Don Giovanni, Figaro, Colline and Scarpia.

Barihunk miners in Holland Park "La fanciulla del West"

Peter Brathwaite

Despite having 10 baritone or bass roles, Puccini's La fanciulla del West has made relatively few appearances on Barihunks. Perhaps it's because Puccini operas like La bohème are performed more often or maybe Marcellos tend to be hotter than Jack Rances.

Fortunately, the upcoming production of La fanciulla del West at Opera Holland Park this summer features two barihunk who have been featured on this site, Peter Brathwaite as Sid and Nick Garrett as Sonora. Opera Holland Park is a summer opera company which produces an annual season of opera performances staged under a temporary canopy in Holland Park, a public park in west central London. Performances will run from June 3-21.

Composed especially for the Metropolitan Opera in 1910, La fanciulla del West has echoes of Richard Strauss and Debussy, as well as original folk melodies. It has been variously described as the composer's magnum opus and, by the great conductor Arturo Toscanini, as a "great symphonic poem".

The story of a group of gold miners, watched over and cared for by Minnie, is often perceived as having a 'happy ending'. But the tale is so much more sophisticated than that and the climax of the opera is of the most profoundly bittersweet variety. The music, however, is gloriously through composed, with moments of sheer majesty and emotional impact.

Nick Garrett

Nick Garrett is an English bass-baritone. He was a member of the vocal ensemble, The Swingle Singers and the opera band Amici Forever. Garrett was born in London and taught himself to play the piano at age seven. He studied singing, composition, piano and conducting at Trinity College of Music, with further study in singing supported by a grant from the Wolfson Foundation. He then joined The Swingle Singers and toured with them internationally.

After leaving The Swingle Singers, he performed in some of the world's leading opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, the Scottish Opera and the Opéra National de Paris. He has performed over forty major roles, including the Don Giovanni, Figaro, Colline and Scarpia.

Lucio Gallo sings "Minnie dalla mia casa son partito":

Peter Brathwaite is a former Nationale Reisopera Resident Artist and alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. He is the recipient of many prizes including a Peter Moores Foundation Major Award, the inaugural Samuel Coleridge Taylor Award, a Winston Churchill Fellowship (presented by Her Majesty The Queen), a 2010-2012 Independent Opera Fellowship and first prize in the Ted Moss and Bertha Taylor-Stach Lieder Competition.

Brathwaites's most recent engagements have included numerous world premieres. He made his Dutch mainstage debut last season at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg as Luis in Randal Corsen's KATIBU DI SHON, a role which he will reprise in the Netherlands and on tour to Curaçao. He began the 2013-14 season singing the role of Emanuel in the award-winning operatic adaptation of Marina Lewycka's novel Two Caravans, a portrayal which earned him critical acclaim.

Peter Brathwaite to sing program of music banned by Nazis

Peter Brathwaite

On May 24th, British barihunk Peter Brathwaite will join accompanist Nigel Foster for  "Forbidden Art" at the Alderney Performing Arts Festival. The program centers around Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music), which was music suppressed by the Nazi regime for being to decadent. The concert is being performed in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Hanns Eisler's Serious Songs for baritone and string quartet:

From the Nazi seizure of power onward, these composers found it increasingly difficult, and often impossible, to get work or have their music performed. Many went into exile (e.g., Arnold Schoenberg, Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith, Berthold Goldschmidt); or retreated into 'internal exile' (e.g., Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Boris Blacher); or ended up in the concentration camps (e.g., Viktor Ullmann, or Erwin Schulhoff).

The program includes songs by Kurt Weill, a selection of Hanns Eisler’s Protest Songs, and works by Friedrich Hollander and Ernst Krenek, including excerpts from his opera Jonny Spielt Auf. This concert forms a moving testimony to the power of music to overcome adversity, and reminds us that the atrocities of war and oppression are not confined to the battlefield. Tickets are available online.

Peter Brathwaite reprising show of "Degenerate Music"

Peter Brathwaite and poster for "Degenerate Music"

We've posted about British barihunk's innovate and educational program of "Degenerate Music," which was banned by the Nazis, when he performed it at the London Song Festival and at the Alderney Performing Arts Festival. He's now reprising the show at the Manchester Jewish Museum on Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27 and repeating the show on January 28. The date marks the liberation of Aushwitz-Birkenau and honors the 6 million Jews and others who perished in the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/page/about-hmd-and-hmdt#sthash.FnJa42Tm.dpuf

marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/page/about-hmd-and-hmdt#sthash.FnJa42Tm.dpuf

marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/page/about-hmd-and-hmdt#sthash.FnJa42Tm.dpuf

marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/page/about-hmd-and-hmdt#sthash.FnJa42Tm.dpuf

marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/page/about-hmd-and-hmdt#sthash.FnJa42Tm.dpuf

The program, which was devised by Brathwaite, is a reconstruction of the infamous Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) exhibition of 1938, intended by the Nazi government to alert the German public to “inferior and ultimately dangerous” forms of music, particularly jazz and Jewish music.

A recording of Hanns Eisler's music:

The program includes songs by Kurt Weill, a selection of Hanns Eisler’s Protest Songs, and works by Friedrich Hollander and Ernst Krenek, including excerpts from his opera Jonny Spielt Auf. This program was written to create a moving testimony to the power of music to overcome adversity, and reminds us that the atrocities of war and oppression are not confined to the battlefield. The songs are interspersed with spoken excerpts from the Entartete Musik exhibition pamphlet and include video projections created by James Symonds showing scenes of everyday life during the days of the Weimar Republic.

You can read more in this article from Mancunian Matters. 

Hot tickets in London and NY; Introducing Gregory Jebaily

Peter Brathwaite

Peter Brathwaite will join Phoebus Cart and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in the annual tradition of Sonnet Walks. Started by English actor and former Globe Artistic Director Mark Rylance, the group of singers and actors will lead folks on a stroll through historic London to the Globe Theatre, charming you along the way with Shakespeare sonnets and speeches. Brathwaite will be singing "Sweet Love Remember'd."

The walk is this Saturday. April 20th, beginning at 10 AM. The walks set off every 15 minutes from 10am until 12.45pm. One walk from the East (Shoreditch) and one walk from the West (Westminster).  The walks are so popular that both walks are sold out, however you can call +44 (0)20 7401 9919 to check on returns. Ticket are  £18.

Michael Kelly

On May 5th, SongFusion presents the Voxare String Quartet and baritone Michael Kelly in a special benefit performance of Ricky Ian Gordon's Green Sneakers, held at New York’s LGBT Community Center with stage direction by Jeanne Slater.   Tickets are $20 and seating is limited, so go online and buy your tickets today.

Jesse Blumberg in Green Sneakers in San Francisco

Green Sneakers has received premieres on both coast in recent months. Jesse Blumberg performed the piece at Lincoln Center on April 6th with the Voxare Quartet and also with the Del Sol Quartet in San Francisco on February 19th in an acclaimed production by director John De Los Santos. Rumors have it that the De Los Santos production will soon receive it's premiere in Texas. More on that in a future post.

Gregory Jebaily

Our favorite thing about posting gym photos like the recent ones from Scott Beasley, is that it inevitably begets more photos of barihunks in gym shots. The most recent were of Florence, South Carolina native Gregory Jebaily, who is new to this site. He's part of the Operaticus group of singers who are getting their voices AND their bodies in shape for a professional career.      

Jebaily made his operatic debut as Wagner in Dayton Opera’s April 2010 production of Gonoud’s Faust. He returned the next year as a Dayton Opera Artist in Residence and performed the role of Hortensius in Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. For the past two years he's also been a studio artist with Kentucky Opera where he sang Dancaïro in Carmen, Hermann in Enemies: a love story by Ben Moore, and covered the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro and Danilo in The Merry Widow. He also performed The Elder Son in Britten's Prodigal Son.  

Gregory Jebaily singing "Look! Through the port..." from Billy Budd:

He recently completed his Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with bass-baritone Kenneth Shaw. At CCM, Jebaily performed the role of Junius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and the title role of Dr. Falke in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. He is currently a Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist, where he is covering the role of Mercutio in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet.

Peter Brathwaite appears in Italy's Fashion magazine

Peter Brathwaite sporting his Dockers

We recently posted about Peter Brathwaite's "second career" as a fashion model. The British barihunk is part of Dockers' "Men of Style" campaign, which was recently picked up by Italy's Fashion magazine. The magazine is one of the largest weekly trade magazines for the industry and reaches key players in the industry.

You can follow this rising star by following his new Facebook page, A Lyric Lifestyle. Click HERE to check it out. 

Peter Brathwaite's "Amore" named Ambassadors for Kids

Peter Brathwaite

Peter Brathwaithe, a featured artist in our 2012 calendar and a member of the vocal quartet Amore, recently received some big news. His group was just named as one of the Ambassadors for ‘The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts.’ The Foundation works with over a hundred organizations across the United Kingdon and has introduced over 100,000 children to the arts.

In an interview Peter said, “The arts for me are about possibilities and provide the space to unlock the imagination, something which every child is entitled to experience. I passionately believe that engaging with the arts at an early age sows the seeds for independent thought and ultimately provides the key to seeing the ‘bigger picture.”

Visit Amore's website HERE.

Barihunks hit the road with English Touring Opera

Nicholas Lester (left) & Peter Brathwaite (photos from English Touring Opera)

The English Touring Opera is kicking off their new Spring season with some barihunks in key roles.

Peter Brathwaite, who has been a regular on this site and appeared in two of our charity calendars, will take on roles in two Donizetti rarities, Kaidamà in The Wild Man of the West Indies (Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo) and Incognito in The Siege of Calais. This will be the first staging of The Wild Man of the West Indies in Britain in the modern era.

The Siege of Calais tells the story of the sacrifices under siege of the citizens of Calais – and of the sacrifices of citizens everywhere, forced in extreme situations to decide what to give up for their country and their families.

Jan Capiński

Jan Capiński, who is new to this site will appear as Armando in The Siege of Calais. He recently completed his M.A. in Opera Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, graduating with distinction. He is currently training on English National Opera's Opera Works professional development program. Capiński was spotted by Scottish Opera while still a student and asked to cover the role of Pluto in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, before going on to perform the role twice with the main cast, marking his professional debut.

Click HERE to hear Jan Capiński sing Smirnov's aria from Walton's The Bear. You can also follow him on his blog or on Twitter @JanCapinski.

Nicholas Lester, who is also new to this site, will alternate the role of Marcello in Puccini's La bohème with Grant Doyle, who has appeared on this site numerous times.  He studied at the Adelaide Conservatorium of Music and at the National Opera Studio, London where his studies were sponsored by Glyndebourne Festival Opera as the recipient of the Anne Woods/Johanna Peters Award. He has also appeared with the Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Nationale Reisopera and Opera Holland Park.

The tour opens in London at the Hackney Empire in March and travels through May to Truro, Norwich, Cheltenham, Suffolk, Leicester, Coventry, Exeter and Buxton. Visit their website for additional cast information and performance dates.

Rare Barihunk Trio in Puccini's Madama Butterfly

Roderick Willams, Peter Brathwaite & Vitali Rozynko (L-R)

Today is another first for Barihunks, as we feature our first barihunk trio in Puccini's Madama Butterfuly, where Roderick Williams is singing Sharpless, Peter Brathwaite is performing Yamadori and Vitali Rozynko is portraying the Imperial Commissioner. The performances are at the De Nationale Reisopera in the Netherlands and runs through October 10th in the following cities: Enschede, Arnhem, Den Bosch, Apeldoorn, Rotterdam, Zwolle, Den Haag, Amstelveen, Heerlen and Amsterdam. The cast also includes Annemarie Kremer as Cio-Cio San and Eric Fennell as Pinkerton.
 

HRH King Willem-Alexander and the cast of Madama Butterfly

Opening night was attended by His Royal Highness King Willem-Alexander, who succeed his mother Princess Beatrix on April 30, 2013, becoming King of The Netherlands. There is some interesting  Dutch history with the opera. In 1877, King William III of the Netherlands announced that he as going to marry the French opera singer Eleonore d'Ambre.whom he ennobled as Countess d'Ambroise without the government's consent. Under pressure from society and the government, he abandoned their marriage plans.

Barihunk shepherd boys frolick in Monnaie Daphne

Kris Belligh's photo that we cropped off and the always stunning Justin Hopkins

We couldn't help but notice that amongst the four shepherds in Richard Strauss' Daphne at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels are a bass who has appeared on this site in his boxers (Matt Boehler), a Barihunks calendar model who has also appeared on this site in his boxers (Justin Hopkins), and a singer who we inadvertently cropped off of a photo featuring another barihunk (Kris Belligh).

The opera features an all-star cast led by the glorious Sally Matthews as Daphne, Eric Cutler as Apollo, Peter Lodahl and Leukippos and Iain Paterson as Peneios. The opera will run from September 9-30 and tickets are available online.

Kris Belligh

We're a little embarrassed that we cropped off Kris Belligh in a photo introducing Toby Girling to the site during his run in Zatopek! That's an oversight that we rarely make!

The Belgian barihunk studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before continuing his studies at the Opera Course at the Royal Scottish Academy. He was part of the barihunk trio in Zatopek! that included both Toby Girling and Peter Brathwaite with the Liverpool Philharmonic, which was featured on the BBC 3 as part of the Olympic Games in London.

In addition to Daphne, he appeared in Verdi's La traviata at Monnaie in a production directed by Andrea Breth, who invited the singer to take part in the production of Prokofiev's The Gambler at the Netherlands Opera.

Upcoming roles for Justin Hopkins include the sold out world premiere of Repast: An Oratorio Homage to Booker Wright in Oxford, Mississippi, the role of Publio in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito with Opera in the Heights, and Britten's War Requiem with the Dayton Philharmonic. (We also hope to get him back in the calendar this year!).

Support Young Artists with the 2012 Barihunks Calendar

Actual Cover of Barihunks 2012 Calendar

People visit Barihunks for a variety of reasons, mostly to see some hot baritones showing off their vocal and physical gifts. However, the emails that matter most to us are the ones where we've learned that we've made a difference in a young artist's life. We often hear about singers being cast after someone saw and/or heard them on the site. Our favorite email of all-time was this, "Thanks to your site, my mom thinks I'm a big star in opera. Best of all, she doesn't complain about the all the money she's spent on my career anymore."

We strive to keep this site positive and about promoting both opera and careers. If you've written a bitchy post, you've probably noticed that it's been removed. We believe singers work too hard and make too many sacrifices to be attacked on a blog. Many singers know that we frequently show up to support them live in theaters throughout the world.

The most frequent request that we receive is for a Barihunks calendar and we've finally relented and put one together for 2012. We've collected lots of beautiful photos from the 33 of the hottest men in opera for your enjoyment. Many of the singers took the time to have exclusive photos taken just for the calendar.


Consistent with our desire to support young artists, all proceeds from the Barihunks 2012 calendar will go to support either young artist programs or young artists directly.  The only hitch is we haven't decided who will be the beneficiary. We'd like to hear from you. If you know of a training program that deserves our support, please write us at Barihunks@gmail.com and let us know why in 100 words or less. Click on the calendar image to the right to purchase a calendar now.

Wes Mason

Singers featured in our calendar include Aaron Agulay, Zach Altman, Dan Kempson, Jonathan Beyer, Brandon Cedel, Christopher Herbert, Christopher Temporelli, Craig Verm, David Adam Moore, David Krohn, Douglas Carpenter, Douglas Williams, Erik Anstine, Justin Hopkins, Jonathan Boehr, Jonathan Estabrooks, Michael Mayes, Michael Rice, Jordan Shanahan, Joseph Lattanzi, Matthew Trevino, Matthew Morris, Michael Kelly, Milos Galaz, Nick Parker-Pendree, Peter Brathwaite, Philip Kalmanovitch, Randal Turner, Remo Tobiaz, Seth Carico, Tom Forde, Wes Mason and Zachary Gordin. If you see any of these singers on a program, please buy a ticket and support their artistry.

Michael Mayes: Texapolitan Opera Show

We'd also like to thank all of the artists, agents, photographers and opera companies who graciously granted us rights to the images. In appreciation of the photographers, we are going to feature them and their sites throughout the year. Please support them, as well. Here are the photographers who contributed their work: Ellen Appel, J. David Levy, Bryan Estabrooks, Dirty Sugar Photography,  Chris Macke, Rozarii Lynch, Pierre-Etienne Bergeron, Gabriel Henningson, Taren Frazier, Kathy Whitman, Leah Brizard, Ron T. Ennis, Chris Miles, Moses Jones, Bill McClaren, Geoff Silver, Chisolm Photography, Nacho Guerrero and Ron Lindsay.

This calendar will make a great holiday gift!

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Introducing British Barihunk Toby Girling

Toby Girling in Zatopek! (left) and Winterreise (right)

Some singers just seem to inspire directors to get them into various states of undress and British barihunk seems to be one of them. We originally saw the picture of him from Zatopek! (above left) when we were posting about his castmate Peter Brathwaite and then the picture of him on the right from a Bluebeard's Castle/Winterreise double bill showed up in our messages. Girling is the sole vocal performer in Schubert's Winterreise with the Vlaamse Opera, which will run in Antwerp through May 10th. Tickets are available online.

Toby Girling is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a member of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival Chorus in the Michael Grandage production of Britten's Billy Budd, in which he also sang the role of Arthur Jones and covered the role of Donald. Regular readers may recall that Glyndebourne's Billy Budd also featured barihunks Jacques Imbrailo and Duncan Rock. 

Toby Girling sings Der Lindenbaum from Schubert's 'Die Winterreise:

He has sung at a number of major festivals other than Glyndebourne. These include a 2011 performance of Ben in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti at the Wexford Festival, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte and the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Verbier Festival, and Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Iford Festival. He also performed in both Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Fiorello in Rossini's the Barber of Seville to great acclaim with the English Touring Company.

He is currenlty a Studio Artist at Oper Frankfurt, where he performed as the Flemish Deputy in a revival of Verdi's Don Carlo.  Other appearances with the company include Ein Steuermann in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Manuel in de Falla's La Vida Breve and Mann in Sallinen's Kullervo.