Reader Submission: Italian barihunk Giulio Alvise Caselli

Giulio Alvise Caselli (Photos: Theater Augsburg)

A reader in Germany contacted us about Giulio Alvise Caselli, who will be appearing in a revival of Othmar Schoeck's rarely performed Das Schloß Dürande from March 8-July 6 at the Staatstheater Meiningen. Written in a late-tonal Modernist style reminiscent of operas by Zemlinksy and Schreker, the opera is based on a novella by Joseph von Eichendorff.

The opera premiered at the Berlin State Opera on April 1, 1943 and outraged the Nazis. Military leader Hermann Goering declared it to be “Scheiß!” and ordered it to disappear from the repertory after four performances. Goering believed that the opera's ending portended a bad ending for the Nazi regime.

Video highlights of Giulio Alvise Caselli:

Italian-born Giulio Alvise Caselli studied violin , literature and linguistics in Ferrara and Regensburg, before studying voice with his mother, the soprano and singing professor Maria Gabriella Munari.

He is currently a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater Meiningen, where he performed  Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Biterolf in Wagner's Tannhäuser and Moralès in Bizet's Carmen. He also appeared in the title role of Don Giovanni in the Italian Television RAI 3 broadcast from the Biennale Musica 2010 in Venice.

From 2011-2017, he was a member of the ensemble at the Theater Augsburg, where he made his role debut as Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. He also sang Dr. Falke in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, Pelléas in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Nardo in Mozart's La finta giardiniera, Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Algerier in Luigi Nono's “Intolleranza 1960” and Hans Scholl in Zimmermann's Weiße Rose.

Giulio Alvise Caselli (Photos: Theater Augsburg)

He has appeared in various states of undress in a number of productions, including changing into his briefs in Mozart's Don Giovanni, shirtless in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and stripped down as Nardo in the composer's La Finta Giardiniera and most famously lying naked on the stage as Pelleas in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande for an entire act.

From May 23 to June 14, he'll appear in the baritone part of a theatrical representation of Brahm's Liebeslieder. Tickets for Liebeslieder and Das Schloß Dürande are available online.

Gianluca Margheri's Sexy Stranger in Fairy Queen

Gianluca Margheri as The Stranger in The Fairy Queen

Italian über-barihunk Gianluca Margheri plays The Stranger in the Erkel Theaters' updated and revised version of Purcell's The Fairy Queen. He spends much of the opera in various states of undress, including a sexy scene in his tighty whities. 

The composiiton was was originally a “semi-opera,” a series of musical passages created for a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream which did not relate an independent story, but only took on true meaning in conjunction with the prose work.  

Purcell wrote The Fairy-Queen for the 15th wedding anniversary of England's King William III and Queen Mary II, with its initial performance taking place in grand fashion at London's Queen's Theatre in 1692. The composer died three years later at the age of 36. The score to The Fairy-Queen was lost for centuries,  until it was rediscovered in the early part of the 20th century.

Gianluca Margheri as The Stranger in The Fairy Queen

Director András Almási-Tóth conceives the work as an opera and incorporates the music into a new story. This version of A Midsummer Night's Dream takes place in an urban woodland, with lonely characters, crime, murder and love. The figure of the Fairy Queen here is a kind of femme fatale: a woman in search of herself and her own happiness and finding neither as she flees from one relationship to the next.

Tickets are available online. 

Margheri can next be heard at the Musicale Trapanese on July 27 and 29 as Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.

(Somewhat) Gratuitous Gianluca Margheri Post

Gianluca Margheri

We haven't featured the stunningly sexy Gianluca Margheri in awhile and we figured a few new photos of the photogenic singer was a great way to kick off the weekend. He just wrapped up a critically acclaimed run in Verdi's Macbeth at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Italy under the baton of James Conlon and featuring the exciting soprano Tatiana Serjan.

Gianluca Margheri

Gianluca Margheri was born in Florence, where he also studied at the Coservatorio Cherubini. He made his professional debut in 2004 at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa in Traviata, followed by Demetrius in Briten's "Midsummer Night's Dream."  In 2009 he won the first prize with at the international Opera Competition Toti dal Monte in Treviso.

Gianluca Margheri

He has performed in Don Giovanni, L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Ernani, Macbeth, Le nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte and Joseph Haydn's La vera costanza. He can also be found on the recording of Handel's "Deidamia" and on the DVD of Respighi's "La bella dormente nel bosco."

You can follow him on Twitter at @GianlucaMargher.

Gianluca Margheri  sings "For Behold.. The People that walked" from Handel's Messiah: