Kostas Smoriginas in Rachmaninov triptych; Available online

Kostas Smoriginas

La Monnaie is offering a rare chance to see Rachmaninov's three one-act operas performed in the same evening. One can occassionally encounter two of them performed together, so this is a unique opportunity that will be available for viewing online from July 7-27.

Barihunk Kostas Smoriginas will be featured in the most famous of the three operas, Aleko. The piece was written in 1893 while Rachmaninov was still a student at the Moscow Conservatory and it became his first great success. Based on Pushkin's poem "The Gypsies" it tells the story of an outsider who has joined a band of gypsies who turns to murder when he discovers that his wife has betrayed him. The piece was greatly influenced by the music of Tchaikovsky and Borodin, as well as the operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Carmen. 

Kostas Smoriginas sings the cavatina from Aleko:

Performances will run from June 16-30 at the Art Deco Marivaux cinema while the main opera house is under renovation. The other two operas are Skupoj rytsar (The covetous knight) and Francesca da Rimini. The three operas are linked in that they tell the story of fate following in the footsteps of sin, whether it be a matter of jealous murder, greed or illicit passion. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Smoringinas will next appear on July 19th at the Royal Albert Hall in London as one of the soloists in Beethoven's Symphony No.9  with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.

Carmen performance with Barihunk Trio added at Santa Fe Opera

Evan Hughes (left & far right) and Daniela Mack as Carmen (Production photo: Ken Howard)

Due to a heavy demand for tickets, the Santa Fe Opera has added another performance of Bizet’s Carmen to the final week of its current season. The opera features the barihunk trio of Kostas Smoriginas as Escamillo, Evans Hughes as Zuniga and Dan Kempson as Le Dancaire. The sensational mezzo Daniela Mack, who was the runner up at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, is singing the title role.

A performance has been added on August 18th, making a total of thirteen performances of the popular French opera. The opera’s season will end with a performance of Carmen on August 23rd. Tickets are available online.

All three barihunks have been featured on our site before.

Kostas Smoriginas (photo: Ken Howard)

Lithuanian barihunk Kostas Smoriginas is making his Santa Fe Opera debut with this production and he appears to be an instant favorite with audiences. In 2010, he made his American opera debut as Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Washington National Opera, a role he later repeated at the San Francisco Opera. He returned to Great Britain to appear as Escamillo in Carmen in Opera North’s new production, having made his debut in the role at Berlin’s Staatsoper.

Evan Hughes is a grand prize winner in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, who is also making his debut with the Santa Fe Opera. A member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, he won praise as Don Alfonso in the 2012 production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Lincoln Center. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2013 as Crebillon in Puccini’s La Rondine .

Dan Kempson from Barihunks calendar (left) and in Santa Fe's Carmen (photo: Ken Howard)

Dan Kempson made his Santa Fe Opera debut during the 2012-13 season as Le notaire in Offenbach's Grande-Duchesse of Gerolstein. We recently featured him in performances of Philip Glass' Hydrogen Jukebox with Skylight Music Theatre and as Lieutenant Gordon in Fort Worth Opera’s production of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night. He will be making his debut with the Opera San Antonio as Badger the Miner in Tobias Picker's The Fantastic Mr. Fox on September 23rd.

Santa Fe Opera announces 2014 season with Greer Grimsley, Kostas Smoriginas and Evan Hughes

Evan Hughes, Greer Grimsley & Kostas Smoriginas

The Santa Fe Opera has announced its 2014 Summer Festival Season and despite all the buzz about the riveting Anna Caterina Antonacci appearing as Carmen, there is plenty to get excited about for barihunk lovers. Joining Antonacci in Carmen will be Kostas Smoriginas as Escamillo and Evan Hughes as Zuniga. We named Antonacci, along with Susan Graham and Joyce Di Donato as our favorite divas in our "Top 25 of 2012" feature. She may be the most compelling performer of the last generation and any of her appearances should be a destination for the serious opera aficionado. Throw in two sexy barihunks and this is one of the hottest tickets of 2014.

All of the Santa Fe Opera productions are new and three are being presented for the first time. They are Beethoven’s Fidelio, The Impresario by Mozart (presented as part of a double bill with Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol), and the American premiere of Dr. Sun Yat-sen by the Chinese American composer Huang Ruo.

Jonas Kaufmann & Kostas Smoriginas sing the Don José & Escamillo duet:

But the big attraction for us is the appearance of the world's reigning Wotan, Greer Grimsley, as Don Pizarro. Before heading to the great American Southwest, Grimsley will sing Wotan in the Metropolitan Opera Ring Cycle in May and in Seattle in August. He was last in Santa Fe in the 2006 Salome as Jokanaan. Evan Hughes, who was one of our reader submissions just a month ago, will also appear as Don Fernando.

Tickets will be available for purchase on June 28, 2013 by telephone 505-986-5900, toll free 800-280-4654, and in person.  Online sales begin in September.

Reuters: "La Scala seduces crisis-hit Italy with Don Giovanni"; Cast Loaded with Barihunks!

We caught his article about how the Italians are hoping that their new Don Giovanni will divert attention away from their debt crisis. When we saw the cast, which is loaded with barihunks, we wondered how Italians could think about anything else other than this Don Giovanni. Gotta love those Italians.

Kostas Smoriginas and Alexander Tsymbalyuk

(Reuters) - Milan's opulent La Scala theatre is hoping the seductive powers of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" can momentarily drown out the chorus of economic doomsayers in Europe when it opens its opera season next week.

Continue article HERE.

As we mentioned, the cast is full of barihunks and world-famous baritones. Alternating as Don Giovanni will be Peter Mattei and Ildebrando d'Arcangelo. The role of Leporello will be alternated between Ildebrando d'Arcangelo and Bryn Terfel. Masetto will feature our "Johnny Depp" look alike Kostas Smoriginas, who will share the role with Štefan Kocán. Even the role of the Commedatore features the sexy Ukranian barihunk Alexander Tsymbalyuk, who shares the role with Kwangchul Youn. Tickets and additional cast information are available HERE.

Celebrating Lithuanian Statehood Day

Vytautas Juozapaitis & Kostas Smoriginas

We have celebrated national holidays for both Canada and the United States on this site. After all, the two countries have provided us with an endless stream of talented and sexy barihunks. One of our readers asked why we don't celebrate Lithuanian Statehood Day. Frankly, we didn't know about it, but we're happy to remind readers about the two Lithuanian singers who have appeared on this site, Kostas Smoriginas and Vytautas Juozapaitis.

For others who are unfamiliar with the holiday, Statehood Day is an annual public holiday in Lithuania celebrated on July 6th to commemorate the coronation of Mindaugas as the first and only King of Lithuania in 1253. The exact day of this event is disputable and was chosen according to the hypothesis of Edvardas Gudavičius, formulated in 1989. The day has officially been celebrated since 1991.

Vytautas Juozapaitis is popular on both television and the opera house in Lithuania. He is a former winner of the Lithuanian National Prize and performs regularly at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and Kaunas State Musical Theatre. He is also a professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Here is Vytautas Juozapaitis singing Rodrigo's death scene "Son Io, mio Carlo...Io morro, ma lieto in core" from Giuseppe Verdi's "Don Carlo.":



Kostas Smoriginas studied at the Lithuanian Music and Theater Academy from an early age. After moving to London in 2005 and representing his country in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, he spent two years at the Royal College of Music before joining the Jette Parker young artist programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, at the beginning of the 2007/08 Season. He is currently appearing in La Traviata at Aix-en-Provence. Click HERE for additional cast and performance information.

Here is Kostas Smoriginas singing "Denn Wir Haben Hie Keine Bleibende Statt" from Brahms' "Ein Deutsches Requiem":



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Kostas Smoriginas featured in The Telegraph

Kostas Smoriginas striking a Samsonesque pose

We first featured Kostas Smoriginas in June 2010 as one of our "emerging barihunks" when we realized  the Lithuanian singer was about to explode onto the international opera stage. His smoldering good looks has already earned him the moniker "the Johnny Depp of Opera." We featured him again in October 2010 when he stole the show in San Francisco's "Le nozze di Figaro" despite being in the "second cast."

Ironically, the British are just discovering the 30-year-old singer despite the fact that he trained there and sang a number of smaller roles at the Royal Opera House, as well as covered lead roles. Kudos to Rupert Christiansen of The Telegraph in the United Kingdom for featuring the singer as a "New Face" of opera. You can click HERE to read the feature and learn more about this gifted performer and singer.

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You can send comments, tips, photos and other thoughts to Barihunks@gmail.com

"Johnny Depp of Opera" Takes Over at San Francisco Opera

Kostas Smoriginas & Luca Pisaroni

One would never know that the San Francisco Opera faced budget cuts like every other opera company, as they have opened their season with critically acclaimed performances of Aida, Werther and Le Nozze di Figaro. The first cast of Nozze just wrapped up with the stunning Susanna of Danielle de Niese, barihunk Lucas Meachem as Count Almaviva and Figaro of Luca Pisaroni. The second cast looks just as promising with barihunk Kostas Smoriginas replacing Pisaroni.

The Lithuanian singer is known as the "Johnny Depp of Opera" and he promises to match, if not exceed Pisaroni's, sexy portrayal of Figaro.

Kostas Smoriginas: "Johnny Depp of Opera"

Smoriginas recently wowed audiences at Covent Garden with his Colline and debuted his searingly hot Escamillo at the Israeli Opera. Although this is his debut with the San Francisco Opera, he has previously sung Figaro in the U.S. with the Washington National Opera.

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Count Almaviva's Skin Shot

[Teddy Tahu Rhodes in WNO's Marriage of Figaro]


The Washington National Opera has released a preview video of their current production of "Le Nozze de Figaro" with barihunks Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Count Almaviva and Ildar Abdrazakov as Figaro. As you can see from the screen cap, "Teddy Bare" manages to give the audience a little shot of skin even when he's not singing barihunk classics such as Dead Man Walking, Don Giovanni or A Streetcar Named Desire.

There are two performances left with Rhodes and Abdrazakov and one with the alternate cast of Trevor Scheunemann and Kostas Smoriginas. Visit the Washington National Opera website for casts and times.



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Emerging Barihunk Kostas Smoringas

Barihunks will admit that if there is the slightest excuse to post a picture of hunkentenor Jonas Kaufmann, then we'll do it. Here he is singing Mario to Lithuanian barihunk Kostas Smoriginas' Angelotti at the Royal Opera House.

A recent graduate of the Jette Parker young artist program, Smoringas has performed in a number of small roles at ROH and will be covering the barihunk role of Escamillo, as well as the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro.

We look forward to seeing much more of this exotic singer.

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