William Berger's HOT new look

William Berger (photo by Paul Foster-Williams)

There's one thing that we've learned in our five years of existence: Barihunks has a loyal group of ginger lovers. Every time we post a redhead on the site, we seem to get a half-dozen emails touting another "strawberry blond" singer.

A recent email came from a friend and it was about a wonderfully gifted singer who we both had seen many times on stage.  It began, "Have you seen William Berger lately? Not sure what's he's done, but he's looking really H-O-T these days."

We're not sure either, but it looks like he's lost a stone or two and adopted a distinctly stylish new look. Whatever he's done, we agree that he looks as great as he sounds. We've seen other singers go through some amazing transformations recently, most notably the very public evolution of Michael Mayes from Bari-Chunk to Bari-Hunk, which remains one of our most visited and inspirational posts.

William Berger sings "Revenge Timotheus Cries" from Handel's Alexander's Feast)

Berger is an amazing talented baritone who sings with an incredible depth of emotion and colors his phrases beautifully. We still remember his performances with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra where he sang Aeneas opposite the great Susan Graham's Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas under maestro Nicholas McGegan. Even though he has no real aria the beauty of his singing was unforgettable.

He was also a successful Papageno for Garsington Opera last year, a role he'll be reprising next year at L'opéra de Toulon.

 William Berger sings Mozart's "Abendempfindung"

Berger and McGegan are also releasing a recording of late 18th-century operatic arias with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Berger also has a highly-acclaimed new recording out called "Insomnia" and we encourage you to read Berger's own thoughts on this very personal project.