Controversial ENO Ad Campaign?

ENO's controversial ad for Don Giovanni

After featuring the erotic and tasteful ad campaign of Opera Atelier in our last post, it seems appropriate to jump across the Pond and check out the Brits who have their panties in a twist over an ad campaign from the English National Opera for Mozart's Don Giovanni.

The London Evening Standard covered the controversy in their Friday edition with the headline, "ENO's Don Giovanni condom advert hits low note." In a nod to the growing influence of social media, the paper obtained most of their criticism from Twitter. They did provide one quote from a media professional, Vivienne Pattison, director of Mediawatch-UK, who complained that the ad campaign added to the "hyper-sexualisation" of society.

Even the Los Angeles Times covered the controversy in their Culture Monster feature in the Arts & Culture section, as well as the Huffington Post. 

A unidentified spokeswoman for ENO told the Evening Standard:

“Given the subject of the piece, the marketing campaign for Rufus Norris’s production reflects the opera itself.

“We wanted an eye-catching ad to promote the opera. We came up with this idea which we think is brilliant, funny and captures the idea of Don G in a witty way.”

Sexy ad campaigns require sexy singers like Erwin Schrott and Randal Turner

What struck us as odd, is that with an ad campaign based on such a sexual theme, ENO didn't cast any barihunks in any of the three roles where we often find some beefcake - the sexually charged Don Giovanni, his sidekick Leporello or the young groom-to-be Masetto. 

As much as we love ENO and their efforts to attract younger audiences, for us, it's still a bit of false advertisement.

Performances run from October 17-November 17 and cast and ticket information is available on the ENO website.

Attitude magazine: "Get Your Rock Off"

Duncan Rock featured in Attitude

Aussie barihunk Duncan Rock generated international buzz when he recently appeared in "Don Giovanni: The Opera" at London's Heaven. The updated, gender bending version of the Mozart-Da Ponte classic rubbed some of the old-timers the wrong way, but young audiences ate it up.

Attitude, which bills itself as the U.K.'s largest LGBT magazine, recently did a feature on the ripped redhead with the great headline "Get Your Rock Off." We couldn't possibly improve on that! We also love that gave a nice shout out to Barihunks, writing:

Rock has featured heavily on the inspired website Barihunks (baritone hunks, obvs), which shows male opera singers in a state of undress. So what happened to opera's rep for the larger gentlemen? "A lot of the roles, particularly the ones for a young baritone voice, now require certain physical characteristics," Rock explains. "For certain roles, for dramatic credibility, people expect a certain look, but opera is an art form that is all about beautiful singing and that will never change."

Fortunately for Rock, his voice is as beautiful as his physique.

Check out a preview of the ENO's Billy Budd featuring Duncan Rock:

We first discovered Duncan Rock when he was in Britten's Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and he's back in the same opera at the English National Opera. Rock will be performing the role of Donald. Performance are running from June 12-July 12. He remains on the ENO roster for a run of Bizet's Carmen beginning in November where he takes on the role of Moralès. Visit the ENO website for tickets and additional information.

Duncan Rock: Master-OF-Arms

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Leigh Melrose in Holocaust Opera

Leigh Melrose

British barihunk Leigh Melrose has never received the attention that he deserves on this site. We featured a video of him singing a selection from Britten's "Billy Budd" at the end of a feature on Alexander Tsymbalyuk. He certainly can't be ignored anymore, as Melrose has landed a key role at English National Opera in Mieczysław Weinberg’s 1968 opera The Passenger. 

The opera was banned in the Soviet Union and was first premiered last year at the Bregenz Festival. Weinberg, a Soviet composer of Jewish-Polish heritage who died in 1996, never saw a performance of this lost masterpiece in his lifetime. 


The opera revolves around an encounter between two women – one a former Auschwitz guard and the other a former prisoner. Melrose plays Tadeusz, a camp inmate and violinist who defies the Commandant byordered by performing some meloncholy music by Bach rather than a frolicking waltz. Needless to say, things don't end well for Tadeusz.



We continue to find the performances at ENO as some of the most innovative and interesting in all of opera right now. We loved Nic Muhly's "Two Boys" and look forward to seeing The Passenger. The opera runs from September 19-October 25. Additional cast and performance information is available HERE. If you're looking for more traditional operatic fare, ENO will be performing the highly acclaimed Jonathan Miller production of Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love" at the same time.

You can read an entire feature on Leigh Melrose and The Passenger in the Islington Tribune by clicking HERE. 

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

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