Barihunk trio in Paris Opera's "out of this world" La bohème

Roberto Tagliavini, Andrei Jilihovschi and Alessio Arduini

Artur Ruciński will sing Marcello and Alessio Arduini will alternate the role of Marcello with Andrei Jilihovschi in the Paris Opera's new production of Giacomo Puccini‘s La Bohème, which is set in outer space. The new production, directed by Claus Guth, opens on December 1st and runs through December 31st at the Opéra Bastille.

The new staging is set a century from now, “in a future devoid of hope in which love and art become the sole means of transcendence.”

Paris Opera's La bohème (photo: © Bernd Uhlig/OnP)

The casts includes barihunk Roberto Tagliavini as Colline, Sonya Yoncheva and Nicole Car as Mimi, Aida Garifullina as Musetta, and Atalla Ayan and Benjamin Bernheim as Rodolfo.

Andrei Jilihovschi, who is new to this site, was born in Moldavia in 1985 and studied music at the Stefan Neaga College in Chisinau, specializing in choral direction while also taking voice lessons. He made his stage performance debut at the Conservatory in the title role of Eugene Onegin.

He was a soloist at the Saint Petersburg’s Theatre Mikhailovsky, where he sang the role of Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore, Schaunard in La bohème, Robert in Iolanta, the Prince in Boris Asafiev’s Cinderella, Silvano in Un ballo in maschera, Baron Douphol in La traviata, and Dancaïre in Carmen. This is his debut role with the Paris Opera.

Gianluca Margheri, Cody Quattlebaum and Ken Mattice

ONLY 30 DAYS LEFT TO ORDER our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!

Barihunk duo alternating Count Almaviva's at Bolshoi

Konstantin Shushakov (left) and Andrei Jilihovschi (right)

We have "Barihunk scouts" on three continents who keep us well apprised of singers and productions worldwide, but we rarely get messages from Russia even though we get a lot of traffic from the country. So we were pretty thrilled to receive a message from a fan in Moscow letting us know about the barihunk duo alternating Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Bolshoi Theater. 

We originally featured Konstantin Shushakov back in 2011 when he took 2nd place at Operalia, but Andrei Jilihovschi is new to us. 

Shushakov was born in Udmurtia, Russia and began his vocal studies at Izhevsk Music College before moving on to the Russian Academy of Theatrical Art. He has been a regular at the Bolshoi Theatre since 2011, where he's been critically acclaimed as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. In the 2012-13 season he made his debut in the title role of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Maribor Opera. Last season, he appeared as Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte at La Scala in Milan. 

Shushakov appears as the Count on September 16, 18 and 20. 

30-year-old Andrei Jilihovschi was born in Moldova and completed his studies in choral conducting at the Ştefan Neaga Music College in the capital city of Chisinau. During his time at school he also studied singing in the opera studio and then continued his studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatoire where he sang he title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

 

From 2010-2012, he was a soloist with the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg where he appeared as Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore, Schaunard in Puccini's La Boheme, Robert in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, the Prince in Asafiev’s Cinderella, Silvano in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Baron Douphol in Verdi's La Traviata and Dancairo in Bizet's Carmen.

In October 2012 he joined the Bolshoi Theatre Young Artist Program and become a member of the Bolshoi ensemble two years later. He will be singing Dancaïro in Bizet's Carmen with the company from September 4-9.  Next year, he makes his debut at the Opéra National de Paris as Robert in Tchaikovsky's Iolanata.

He appears as the Count on September 17 and 19.