Reader Submission: Martijn Cornet

Martijn Cornet

Dutch barihunk Martijn Cornet will be performing the Count in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, Germany opening on March 16th. He was suggested by a reader after we ran our piece about the Dutch National Opera, where he has performed Patrocle in Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide, Citheron in Rameau’s Platee and one of the Walvisvaarders in Legende by dutch composer Peter-Jan Wagemans.

Martijn Cornet sings "Tonight at Eight" from She Loves Me:

He joined the Aalto Theatre this season and just wrapped up a run as Johann in Massenet's Werther. In addition to additional performances of Werther around Christmas, he will be performing Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Baron Douphol in Verdi's La traviata.

Tickets for performances at the Aalto Theatre are available online.

Martijn Sanders

Dutch baritone Martijn Sanders studied at the Conservatory in Utrecht as well as the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, working with Edith Mathis, among others. He received further instruction in master classes with Thomas Hampson as well as in the Opera Studio in Amsterdam. Shortly after receiving the first prize in the Nico Dostal Competition in Austria, he débuted in 1999 as Papageno in Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte" in the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre and as Dandini in Rossini's "La Cenerentola" with the Rheinsberg Palace Chamber Opera.

Besides further principal roles in Mozart's operas, Martijn Sanders also devotes his attentions to lesser-known works such as Telemann's "Pimpinone" and Gounod's "La colombe" and has also been heard as Escamillo in Bizet's "Carmen". He has remained loyal to the opera houses in the Netherlands, yet has made frequent guest appearances at the Vienna Chamber Opera and the 2004 Belgrade Music Festival, where he appeared in "Zora D" by Isidora Zebeljan. Besides this, Martijn Sanders has made a name for himself as a concert singer, appearing with every major orchestra in the Netherlands such as the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest.

Thomas Oliemans in Amsterdam world premiere

Laika and Thomas Oliemans

Dutch barihunk Thomas Oliemans is starring in the world premiere of Martijn Padding's new opera Laika at the Dutch National Opera in a co-production with the Holland Festival 2014.

Martijn Padding and librettist P.F. Thomése poke fun at the superficiality of ratings-obsessed television programs. Oliemans stars as Robbert, a famous TV personality who is tired of his fame and popularity and his superficial life.

Behind the scenes at Laika with Martijn Padding & Thomas Oliemans: 

Robbert still lives with his domineering mother, who keeps the embalmed body of his father on display in the living room. He dreams of abandoning TV and aspires to a more peaceful life with personal privacy.  Since his early youth he has immersed himself in the cosmos. After meeting astronaut Yuri Gagarin and a Laika, the first living animal to be sent into space, Robbert decides to embark on his own journey into space.

Performances run from June 3-8 and tickets are available online.

Martijn Sanders

Martijn Sanders

Amazingly, we haven't featured Dutch barihunk Martijn Sanders since our initial post in 2007.  To our eyes, he's only gotten more attractive and the voice richer.

Since we last featured Sanders, he sang his first Riccardo in I Puritani and worked with and performed Henri Dutilleux's Deux sonnets de Jean Cassou. He is also due to release his first recording, which will be songs from the Jugendstil period on Landor Records.

Here he is singing Escamillo from a July 2010 performance:



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Georgios Iatrou to sing Valentine in Essen

Georgios Iatrou

We love it when colleagues suggest that we post someone that they're performing with, which is what soprano Jessica Muirhead did in a recent Twitter post about Georgios Iatrou. In fact, they both shared tweets on the same day about their upcoming performances in Gounod's Faust on March 9 and 11, and April 4 at the Aalto Musiktheater in Essen, Germany. Iatrous will be singing Valentin to her Marguerite. An alternate cast with fellow barihunk Martijn Cornet will open the run on February 13 and run through February 25.

Martijn Cornet

Iatrou is engaged at the Aalto Musiktheater from 2015-17, where he's performing Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Schaunard in Puccini's La boheme, Silvano in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Kostandis in Martinů's The Greek Passion and the Speaker in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia run from June 4-July 9 and tickets and cast information is available online. 

Jessica Muirhead is also in the ensemble at the Aalto Musiktheater where she is performing Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, the title role in Dvorak's Rusalka and Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Barihunks star in Hippie-inspired Carmen at Opera Zuid

Martijn Sanders (right two photos as Escamillo in Carmen)

Our site is disproportionately popular in the Netherlands and we have a loyal and devoted following there. A reader in Maastricht recently introduced us to the innovative Dutch company, Opera Zuid. The touring opera company has developed a reputation for its technical and theatrical innovation. 

They recently brought in the acclaimed Dutch theater performers Leopold Witte and Geert Lageveen to re-imagine Bizet's Carmen in a more modern setting.  The duo updated the story about love and jealousy to the 1960s counterculture,  where the Gypsies are hippies, the tobacco factory girls are smoking cannabis and there are clashes with the police. The Sixties theme of "Make Love Not War!" permeates the production.  

Rubèn Plantinga

The production also features two barihunks, one who is new to the site and one who we haven't featured in way too long. We first introduced Dutch barihunk Martijn Sanders to readers in 2007, which was back in the nascent days of our site. We went on to feature him as Don Giovanni later that year and again as Escamillo in 2011. He takes on the role of Escamillo in this production. Morales will be performed by Rubèn Plantinga, who we are introducing to readers for the first time.

Sanders studied at the Utrecht conservatory, before continuing his studies in Vienna.  He went on to join the young artist program at the  Amsterdam Operastudio. After winning the first prize at the Nico Dostal singing competition, he made his debut as Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute during the Vienna Mozart week in the Theater Schönbrunn and as Dandini in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Rheinsberg festival. In November 2010, Sanders performed the baritone solo in Rachmaninov's The Bells at the ‘Prince Claus” concert in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

Rubèn Plantinga singing Schumann's "Ich will meine Seele tauchen" at a masterclass:

23-year-old Rubèn Plantinga, who is new to this site, sings the role of Morales.  He first hit the stage at the age of 12 in Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical “The Sound of Music” produced by Dutch media tycoon Joop van den Ende. In 2010 and 2011, he sang with the "Bach Choir of the Netherlands,” where he made his debut as a soloist in 2012 in a Dutch translation of Bach’s St. Matthew's Passion. His work brought him to the attention of Opera Zuid, where he has sung the role of Sciarrone in Puccini’s Tosca.

Plantinga is continuing his studies at the Classical Musictheater at Fontys Hogeschool in Tilburg and is part of the young artist program at the Dutch National Opera. 

Performances of Carmen will be on tour in Venlo, Den Haag, Eindhoven, Hasselt and Sittard through December 14th 

There are only three weeks left to purchase your 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar. We are 40 calendars short of our goal to fully fund two projects featuring young artists, so order yours today...and spread the word.

Dutch barihunk Martijn Sanders sings Don Giovanni

Timothy McDevitt in Haydn rarity at Lincoln Center

Tim McDevitt

On February 23, Timothy McDevitt will will perform a semi-staged version of Haydn's L'isola disabitata (Desert Island) with the American Classical Orchestra. He'll be joined by soloists Sherezade Panthaki, Sarah Brailey and Owen McIntosh. The performance is at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and tickets are available online.

L'isola disabitata was Haydn's 10th opera and the only one with a libretto by popular 18th-century Italian poet Pietro Metastasio. The opera was first performed in 1779 and is an Enlightenment parable about the relationship between humanity's natural instincts and society. The opera was performed a few times during the composer’s life and rarely since, having only eight productions in recent years.

Tom Corbeil and Martijn Cornet in L'isola disabitata

You also may want to check out the sexy photos of barihunk Tom Corbeil that we posted from Gotham Chamber Opera back in 2009. 

Quirijn de Lang in updated and abridged Hamlet

Quirijn de Lang as Hamlet

OPERA2DAY in Den Haag in the Netherlands will present barihunk Quirijn de Lang as the title character in Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet. The innovative company has reduced the 3 1/2 hour opera to just over 2 hours, by eliminating the ballet and streamlining the story, including an ending that combines the two existing versions of the opera.

The cast also includes Lucie Chartin as Ophélie, Martijn Sanders as Claudius, Martina Prins as Gertrude, Jan Willem Schaafsma as Laërte  and Patrick Pranger as Horatio. The opera is a co-production with the New European Ensemble. The opera will be performed in 20 different venues throughout the region between January 17th and April 11th. Tickets and locations are available online.

OPERA2DAY was founded to bring opera to new audiences by presenting old standards in contemporary settings.

Watch Quirijn de Lang's Hamlet online

Quirijn de Lang as Hamlet (Image: OPERA2DAY)

Add Quirijn de Lang to the list of barihunks who have made their mark in the title role of Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet, which includes Thomas Weinhappel, Thomas Oliemans, Franco Pomponi, Stéphane Degout, Edward Nelson, Régis Mengus, Bo Skovhus, Simon Keenlyside and Liam Bonner.

You can watch the Dutch baritone's performance on OperaVision on September 13th. The broadcast will start at 7 PM CET/1 PM EST/10 AM PST.

The performance is with OPERA2DAY in Den Haag, a company founded to bring opera to new audiences by presenting old standards in contemporary settings. The opera has been reduced to 2 hours from the standard 3 1/2 running time by eliminating the ballet and streamlining the story, including an ending that combines the two existing versions of the opera.

The cast also includes Lucie Chartin as Ophélie, fellow barihunk Martijn Sanders as Claudius, Martina Prins as Gertrude, Jan Willem Schaafsma as Laërte  and Patrick Pranger as Horatio. The opera is a co-production with the New European Ensemble.

If you want to see de Lang live, he can be seen in Kurt Weill's Street Scene with Opera North from January through March in Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester and Nottingham. He will also be singing the Count in Mozart's​ The Marriage of Figaro with the company during the same period.