Opera returns to historic Philly opera house with André Courville

Ezio Pinza and André Courville (photo: Dario Acosta)

 

Opera will return to the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia for what is believed to be the first time since 1934 when the Academy of Vocal Arts presents the BrAVA Philadelphia! concert on March 28, 2020.

The partial list of singers includes bass-barihunk André Courville along with sopranos Angela Meade, Latonia Moore, and Vanessa Vasquez; tenors Michael Fabiano, Bryan Hymel, and Taylor Stayton; and mezzo-soprano Hannah Ludwig.

The recently restored 3,100 seat theater opened in 1908 with a production of Carmen and was the site for the U.S. premiere of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in 1931with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.

New York's Metropolitan Opera used to perform regularly in Philadelphia and many of the most famous baritones and basses of the early 20th century performed there, including Fyodor Chaliapin, Edouard de Reszke, Antonio Scotti, Pasquale Amato, Giuseppe De Luca, Lawrence Tibbett, George Cehanovsky and Ezio Pinza.

The building has been used as a movie house, ballroom, sports venue, and church. After decades of neglect and deferred maintenance, it reopened in December 2018 with a special appearance by Bob Dylan following a reported $56 million renovation. Now called Met Philadelphia, it hosts more than a dozen shows a month as a Live Nation venue.

Tickets to the concert are available online.

Barihunk duo in AVA's French recital program

Ethan Simpson (left) and Brent Michael Smith (right)

The final recital in the Academy of Vocal Arts Recital Series will include barihunks Ethan Simpson and Brent Michael Smith in a program of French repertoire.  They'll be joined by Gabriela Flores, Hannah Ludwig, Matthew White and Timothy Renner, with AVA vocal coach Audrey Saint-Gil accompanying them on piano.

Ethan Simpson will be singing Nadia Boulanger's "J'ai frappe" and "Chanson," as well as Henri Duparc's Testament.

Brent Michael Smith will be performing Stravinsky's "Un sommeil noir" and the Act 1 bass aria from Paul Dukas' Ariane et Le Barbe Bleu.

Performances are on April 3 and April 5 and tickets are available online. 

Feast of barihunks in AVA's The Demon

Nathan Milholin, André Courville and Daniel Noyola

 The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia will present Anton Rubinstein's The Demon on December 10, 13 & 15 at the Helen Corning Warden Theater. 

The opera is a veritable feast for lovers of the low male voice, featuring a baritone as The Demon, a bass-baritone as Prince Gudal and a bass-baritone as the Old Servant. 

Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Alexander Tsymbalyuk in The Demon (complete):

The Russian Opera Workshop will present rotating casts, with Ethan Simpson, Timothy Renner and Christopher Kenney sharing title role duties, Nathan Milholin and Daniel Noyola performing the Prince and André Courville taking on the Old Servant all three nights.
Even the smaller roles of the bandits include barihunks Jared Bybee and Anthony Whitson-Martini. Bybee also appears in our 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar (check out the bottom of the post)!

Christopher Kenney, Timothy Renner and Ethan Simpson

 

Jared Bybee and Anthony Whitson-Martini rehearse as the bandits

The story is about a fallen angel, the Demon, who is banished from heaven and is condemned to spend eternity alone. The angel appears and warns the Demon not to destroy God’s creation and try to reconcile with heaven. the rebellious Demon rejects the idea. Enamored with Tamara, the Demon woos her. "Tamara, love me! ... you will be the queen of the universe, my eternal companion," he whispers into her soul. Feeling fear and powerful temptation, Tamara succumbs to his seduction. The Demon's kiss kills her and in the moment of conquest, he is defeated by the Angel who saves Tamara's soul. Alone again, Demon curses the universe. 

Tickets are available online.  

Enjoy Jared Bybee and a host of barihunks from across the globe in our 

2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar. 

ON SALE NOW AT LULU.

Michael Hewitt, Gianluca Margheri and Jared Bybee

André Courville to perform at Fairleigh Dickinson University

André Courville (Photo: Opera News/Dario Acosta)

Bass-barihunk André Courville will perform as part of Opera at Florham's "A Cornucopia of Opera and Song" on November 6th at Lenfell Hall on the campus of the College at Florham of Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Courville will perform Gounod's “Vous, qui faites l'endormie” from Faust. He performed the role of Méphistophélès in Faust while at the cademy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he is a resident artist. He'll be joined by soprano Mia Pafumi and tenor Piotr Buszewski.

Tickets can be ordered by calling (973) 443-8620 or on the website at www.operaatflorham.org.

André Courville

Last season Courville debuted at Carnegie Hall in the Opera Orchestra of New York's acclaimed production of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux and as Monterone in Verdi's Rigoletto with the Caramoor Summer Music Festival. Courville also recently won first prize at Opera at Florham’s 2016 Violetta DuPont Competition.

He'll also be performing at the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation 42nd Anniversary Gala Concert on October 23 at Rose Hall at Lincoln Center and will reprise Monterone with the Academy of Vocal Arts from November 5-15.

Don't forget to order you 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar. Our 10th anniversary edition is the HOTTEST ever. Click HERE to order your copy now and enjoy 12 months of the hottest men in opera.

André Courville to get devilish at AVA

André Courville being a little devilish

Our post this morning about AVA graduate John Viscardi performing Valentin in Gounod's Faust with the Michigan Opera, prompted almost an immediate reply from a Philadelphia opera fanatic who informed us that current AVA student André Courville will be performing bass role of Méphistophélès. He'll be performing the role from April 25-May 9 at the Helen Corning Warden Theater in Philadelphia, Centennial Hall in Haverford and Central Bucks East H.S. in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Additional information can be found online.

If you can't wait until April, you catch the Louisiana native as the bass soloist in Bach's Mass in B minor with

Vox Ama Deus a the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia form March 2-April 3.

AVA's Bohemian Barihunks shine at Met Auditions

Nathan Milholin, Anthony Schneider, Jared Bybee and Michael Adams (L-R)

The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia is kicking off a twelve day run of Puccini's La bohème featuring four barihunks who all recently shined in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions.

On February 2nd, we ran a feature on Michael Adams winning the New Orleans District regionals. He'll be singing Schaunard on opening night, Thursday, February 7th.

His Colline will be Nathan Milholin, who was regional finalist at the Philadelphia District auditions. He's sharing the role with Anthony Schneider, who also was a finalist at the Philadelphia District auditions.

We certainly can't forget about Marcello, who will be sung on opening night by Jared Bybee, another winner at the Philadelphia District auditions.

Adams and Bybee have both been featured on this site before, but Milholin and Schneider are new to our readers. Milholin, who hails from Greensboro, North Carolina, is a first-year resident artist at AVA. Bass Anthony Schneider, grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and Vienna, Austria, and is a second-year artist at AVA.

Tickets for all performances are available online.

Michael Adams takes top honors at Met regional

Michael Adams at a Barihunks lunch in Ft. Worth (left)

Barihunk Michael Adams took top honors at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Gulf Coast regional finals held in New Orleans. The 24-year-old Texas native wowed the judges with performances of Tomsky's aria from Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame and Schaunard's aria from Puccini's La bohème.

Adams is a second year Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he has performed Taddeo in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, Lescaut in Massenet's Manon, Germont/Marquis and Verdi's La traviata, Count Tomsky in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame and Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte. Last year, he won First Place in the Mario Lanza Institute Scholarship Competition.

Adams went to school at Texas Christian University (TCU), where he originally was pursuing a career in baseball. A torn Achilles tendon led him to pursue a career in singing. 

Adams wasn't the only baritone who fared well in the Big Easy, as Leroy Davis took Second Place and Ricardo Rivera shared Third Place with tenor Casey Candebat. 

Barihunk André Courville wins Giargiari Bel Canto Competition

Anush Avetisyan (far left) and André Courville

We're still mystified when we post about a singer and someone comments, "But can he sing?" Baritones (including a large percentage of barihunks) have been winning major singing competitions at a rate so high that this era has been dubbed the "Golden Age of Baritones." Composers like Ricky Ian Gordon have publicly marveled at the rich supply of amazing baritones and mezzos, while composer Jake Heggie is now writing most of his male leads for lower voices.

The latest barihunk to walk away with top honors is André Courville, who won the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia last night. He sang Sorge infausta una procelia from Handel's Orlando. Other barihunks in the competition were Jared Bybee, who performed O Carlo, ascolta from Verdi's Don Carlo, and Michael Adams, who performed Ô vin, dissipe la tristesse from Thomas' Hamlet.

The Oreste A. and Arturo Giargiari Bel Canto Competition was founded by Raymond F. Giargiari in memory of his father and brother, both opera fans and AVA devotees. Originally, vocal selections from the "bel canto" repertoire were performed exclusively, but over the years the competition has grown to include Italian, French, German, and English language arias from a variety of periods. Past winners include tenors James Valenti and Stephen Costello, and soprano October Opera News cover girl Angela Meade.  AVA Master Vocal Coach Danielle Orlando prepares and accompanies the singers.

The competition concert will be broadcast online today at 4pm EST/1pm PST You can listen and vote for your favorite singer online.

Reader Submission: Jared Bybee

Jared Bybee

Our latest readers submission is Jared Bybee, who was suggested by two of our readers. Bybee is a first-year Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. This season he has performed Germont in AVA's La traviata and Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, both with fellow barihunks André Courville and Michael Adams, as well as Prince Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame also with Michael Adams.

Bybee, who hails from Modesto, California was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions District Winner in Salt Lake City in 2013. He was also an Apprentice Artist at the Santa Fe Opera last summer.

Don't forget to join our campaign to send barihunk Xavier Edgardo to the Opera on the Avalon young artist program. Even a $5 or $20 contribution will go a long way in supporting this talented young artist. Click HERE to give today.