Opening Night at Dallas Opera (and Houston, Syracuse and in one week, Knoxville)

Luca Grassi & Elena Mosuc

The Dallas Opera is kicking of its 2011-2012 “Tragic Obsessions” season tonight with Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." The evening will include red carpet arrivals and a sumptuous post-opera black tie reception.

The big news for us is the long-awaited American operatic debut of Italian barihunk Luca Grassi. We've been pleading for someone to hire this amazing performer for years, so kudos to the Dallas Opera. He's a major talent and sure to be a hit with U.S. audiences with his raw sexual appeal and rich, lusterous baritone.

Grassi won the City of Rome competition and made his debut there as Germont in La traviata. He appeared at the reopening of the Gran teatro La Fenice in Venice as Germont in "La traviata." He has been a regular guest at the Festival della Valle d’Itria where he has sung the title roles in Massenet’s "Werther" (Baritone version) and Piccini’s "Roland" as well as Saint-Bris in "Les Huguenots." Upcoming engagements include Renato in "Un ballo in maschera"; Ezio in "Attila" in St. Gallen, "La traviata" in Leipzig, Florence and Montreal; and "Carmen" in Las Palmas.



Ticket for the remaining performances are available at the Dallas Opera website. For those who can't get tickets, the Dallas Opera in partnership with AT&T Performing Arts Center will present a free, live simulcast of the evening’s performance in Sammons Park. The simulcast will include English language subtitles.

You can read an interview with Luca Grassi at the Theater Jones website.  

Opening Night Hunks: Nathan Gunn, Mark Womack & Jonathan Boehr

It's also opening night at the Houston Grand Opera and the Syracuse Opera. Houston is performing Rossini's "Barber of Seville" with fan favorite Nathan Gunn as the Barber and Kyle Ketelsen as Don Basilio. We should also mention that the Houston Culture Map wrote a nice piece on Nathan Gunn that included a lovely mention of Barihunks (although we don't think of ourselves as a bit"hilarious")

We've already reported on Jonathan Boehr being part of the Syracuse Opera's performance of Verdi's "La traviata," but it's certainly worth a reminder.

We should also mention the Knoxville Opera opening night festivities begin in one week with a "La traviata" that included Mark Womack.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email