Teddy Tahu Rhodes to tour "From Broadway to La Scala"

Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Méphistophélès and in The King and I

Australia's popular show "From Broadway to La Scala" is back and hitting the road with Kiwi barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes in the cast. The national tour, which runs from September 14-28, will stop in Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne before culminating at the Sydney Opera House.

Rhodes will be heard in selections from Carousel, The Sound of Music, The Pearl Fishers, Sweeney Todd, Fiddler of the Roof, Carmen and West Side Story. He'll be joined by hunkentenors Alexander Lewis and David Hobson, soprano Emma Matthews, Caroline O'Connor and Genevieve Kingsford.

Tickets are available online.

After the tour, Rhodes can be seen as Lord Sidney in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims and Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust at Opera Australia.

Rhodes is the recipient of several major awards. In 2004, he received an ARIA award for Best Classical Recording for his CD The Voice, and in 2006 he was the winner of the Limelight Award for Best Performance by a Soloist with an Orchestra for his Australian tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. In 2008 he won a Helpmann Award for Best Male Performer in an Opera for his role in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking and the Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.

Barihunk quartet (and hunkentenor) in Zurich's Il viaggio Reims

Roberto Lorenzi (left) & Scott Conner (right)

The Zürich Opera's new production of Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims features a bit of skin as well as quartet of barihunks and an American hunkentenor.  The low voices include Nahuel Di Pierro as Lord Sidney, Scott Conner as Don Profondo, Pavol Kubàn as Don Alvaro and Roberto Lorenzi as Don Prudenzio. They join hunkentenor Spencer Lang as Don Luigino. The show opened on December 6th, but has seven more performances through January 9th.

Pavol Kubàn in Viaggio (left)

Spencer Lang in Viaggio (left)

We featured Scott Conner after he won the Loren Zachary Competition (using a shirtless photo!), Nahuel Di Pierro was in a Don Giovanni post, and Kubàn was a reader submission two years ago. Roberto Lorenzi is the newcomer to this site. 

Lorenzi studied at the Luigi Boccherini Institute of Musical Studies.He has been a prize winner at the Titta Ruffo and Riccardo Zandonai competitions, and took first prize in 2011 at AsLiCo’s 62nd annual competition, where he was awarded the role of Don Basilio Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia in Lombardy. He is a member of the Zurich International Opera Studio and debuted on the main stage as Priore in Bellini's La straniera alongside Edita Gruberova. In Zürich, he's appeared in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il matrimonio segreto, La fanciulla del West and Rigoletto. 

ONLY 11 DAYS UNTIL THE NEW YEAR! Time is running out to order your 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar, featuring 18 of the sexiest men in opera. ORDER TODAY by clicking HERE (you won't regret it!).

 

Rossini Festival a veritable Barihunk Festival

Alex Esposito

The internationally-acclaimed Rossini Opera Festival is kicking off on Sunday, August 10th with the vocally challenging Armida. The piece is best known in opera circles for requiring six tenors and two basses, with a trio for three tenors in Act 3. In between booking tenors, they managed to bring in a quartet of barihunks to perform in the Festival.

Alex Esposito sings Rossini's "Cade dal ciglio" from Mosè in Egitto:

On August 11, the Festival features Il barbiere di Siviglia with bass-barihunk Alex Esposito as Basilio, giving fans the chance to hear him showcase the aria La Calunnia about the spreading of vicious gossip. Although we think of Esposito for his definitive portrayals of Mozart's leading men, he has actually sung far more Rossini. He has 13 Rossini roles in 12 operas to his credit, including Alidoro in La cenerentola, Mustafà in L'italiana in Algeri, Selim in Il turco in Italia, Mahomet II in Le siège de Corinthe, Fernando Villabella in La gazza ladra, Moses and the Pharaoh in both versions of Mosè in Egitto, Assur in Semiramide, Orbazzano in Tancredi, Lord Sidney and Don Profondo in Il viaggio a Reims and Polidoro in Zelmira.

Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore

The opera also features Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore as Fiorello, who is new to this site. The 30-year-old singer studied at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan where he made his debut as Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in 2010. He was first invited to the Rossini Festival in 2011 when he sang in Il Viaggio a Reims under Alberto Zedda.

Performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia are on August 11, 14, 17 and 20.

Marko Mimica

On August 13 and 16 the Festival will present Il Viaggio a Reims, with Marko Mimica as Lord Sidney. Opera aficionados will recall that he made waves earlier this year as one of the top five finalists in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He is currently a principle artist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he is singing the High Priest of Baal in Verdi's Nabucco, Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff, and Mr. Bosun in David Alden's production of Britten's Billy Budd.

The Festival will also be performing Aureliano in Palmira on August 12, 15, 18 and 22. Tickets for all performances are available online. 

Mirco Palazzi

 Mirco Palazzi sings "All'invito generoso" from Rossini's Maometto II:

Another of our favorite singers will be featured in Petite Messe solennelle on August 21, when Mirco Palazzi sings the bass part of the vocal quartet under the baton of Alberto Zedda. He will continue singing Rossini after the Festival, as he heads to Edinburgh on August 26 to sing Gualtiero in William Tell. He'll be joined by soprano Angela Meade as Matilde and John Osborn as Arnold. Tickets are available online.