Barihunk quartet opens NY City Opera season

Kevin Short, Kenneth Overton, Christopher Job and Alexander Birch Ellliott (Clockwise top left)

New York City Opera is opening its 2017/2018 season with Puccini's La fanciulla del West starring the barihunk quartet of Kevin Short as Jack Rance, Alexander Birch Elliott as Sonora, Christopher Job as Ashby and Kenneth Overton as Jake Wallace. They will be joined by soprano Kristin Sampson as Minnie and tenor Jonathan Burton as Dick Johnson.

The production is a collaboration between New York City Opera, Opera Carolina, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, and Teatro di Giglio di Lucca. Performances are on September 6, 8, 10 and 12 at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater. Tickets are available online.

Based on American playwright David Belasco's The Girl of the Golden West, the opera tells the story of love and redemption in a mining camp during the California Gold Rush. Puccini's La fanciulla del West had its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 1910, and the opera has been a favorite of New York audiences ever since.

The remainder of New York City Opera's season includes the New York premiere of Pepe Martinez’s mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, Montemezzi’s  L’Amore  dei Tre Re, the long-awaited US premiere of Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain, the New York premiere of Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, and a double-bill of Donizetti’s Il Pigmalione and  Rameau’s Pigmalion.

Introducing British Barihunk and Model Matthew Thistleton

Matthew Thistleton

British barihunk Matthew Thistleton caught our eye as José Castro in the Grange Park Opera production of Puccini's La fanciulla del West that closed over the weekend. This season, he was also one of the monks in Verdi's Don Carlo that featured. Clive Bayley as Filippo II, David Stout as Rodrigo, Stefano Secco in the title role, Ruxandra Donose as Eboli and Virginia Tola as Elisabetta.  During the 2014 and 2015 summer seasons he was a member of the Grange Park Opera chorus in Britten's Peter Grimes, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Saint-Saens' Samson et Delilah (where he also sang the Second Philistine) and Puccini's La Boheme (where he covered Colline).

The Wilmslow native finished his Master’s at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) where he was the recipient of The Riga Heesom Award and was supported by the Laurison School Trust. He made his operatic debut in the RNCM’s production of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria. He went on to sing in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Opera on Location as Snug the Joiner, scenes from Smetana's The Bartered Bride, Massenet's Cendrillon and Rossini's L’italiana in Algeri and Il Turco in Italia.
 
After performing in the Italian Cultural Institute's Pinocchio as Geppetto Matthew has recently finished the 2016 season with Grange Park Opera where he performed as Castro in la Fanciulla Del West and as one of the six monks in Don Carlo.

He is also a model with Maverick Models. 

Reader Submission: British Barihunk Harry Thatcher

British barihunk Harry Thatcher

Reader Submission Harry Thatcher is a British baritone based in London. He is a Betty Brenner Scholar at The Royal College of Music. He is currently performing at the Grange Park Opera, where he is singing Bello in Puccini's La Facciulla del West and the Flemish Deputy in Verdi's Don Carlo. On June 7th, he'll also be giving a recital at the The Royal College of Music, performing music by Rossini, Schubert, Britten and Bolcom.

On the concert platform Harry has performed with the likes of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of Opera North in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and the Birmingham Symphony Hall. He has sung the bass solos in Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation and various Bach Cantatas.    

Operatic roles for The Royal College of Music International Opera School include the High Priest in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Florian in Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida and Frank in Johann Strauss' Die Flederamaus . Harry has covered the role of Death in Holst's Savitri for British Youth Opera

Barihunk duo in Kentucky Opera's "A Woman in Morocco"

Joseph Flaxman and Brent Michael Smith

Two barihunks participating in the Kentucky Opera's Studio Artist Program will be featured in Daron Hagen's socially poignant opera A Woman in Morocco. Joseph Flaxman sings the dissolute English expat Teddy Forsythe and Brent Michael Smith sings the American businessman Harry Hopkins.

The opera, which is based on the play by Barbara Grecki, confronts the issues of human trafficking and sexual violence and its effect on all of us. Set in a small run-down hotel in Morocco in the mid-1950s, the opera tells the story of a young, wide-eyed writer, Lizzy, whose involvement with Ahmed, a worker at the hotel, sets in motion a series of events which ripple out and impact all the characters in the opera.

On May 6th, you can listen to the composer, the artists and General Director David Roth discuss the opera on WUOL-FM at 11:30 AM CST. The opera will premiere Tuesday, May 12 in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Festival of Faiths

Flaxman's 2014-2015 season includes, Bello in La Fanciulla del West at the Munich Philharmonic and the Kentucky Opera, his Wagnerian debut as Donner in Das Rheingold with the Hartford Wagner Festival, Germont in La Traviata with Bronx Opera, and “all male roles” in Smashed! at the NY Fringe Festival with Opera on Tap. 

Brent Michael Smith was at the Central City Opera last year where he performed Antonio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. His other roles with the Kentucky Opera include the Marquis and Doctor in Verdi's La Traviata and Larkens in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. This summer he'll perform Billy Jackrabbit in La Fanciulla del West Des Moines Metro Opera.

Barihunk Feast in Kentucky Opera's "Girl of the Golden West"

Franco Pomponi in Hamlet (left) and Joseph Flaxman in Cosi (right)

Forget about the "Girl" of the Golden West, "them thar hills" are filled with some hot guys! Puccini isn't exactly known for his great barihunk roles, although we do see the occasionally hot Scarpia, which makes us wonder if Tosca isn't choosing the wrong guy (who doesn't like a Bad Boy once in awhile?).

The one exception is his opera La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West), which features ten roles for baritone, bass-baritone or bass. Since they're all ambitious young miners, it's the perfect opera for some barihunk casting and the Kentucky Opera doesn't disappoint. Franco Pomponi is cast as Jack Rance, the main baritone role, and Joe Flaxman sings the appropriately named Handsome (a.k.a Bello). Both singers have appeared on this site. Add to that Michael Preacely as Sonora, Zach Owen as Ashby, Jeffrey Gates as Happy and Brent Michael Smith as Jim Larkens and you have a feast of low voices.

Brent Michael Smith (photos by Courtney Charles)

We're not quite sure how Brent Michael Smith has escape the eyes of our barihunk scouts, but we're more that pleased to add him to the bass-barihunk family. 

Smith is a recent graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and a Studio Artist at the Kentucky Opera. He was an Apprentice Artist at the Central City Opera this year where he sang Antonio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and covered Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. In 2012, Smith  took the top prize at both the Grand Rapids Opera Competition and the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition: Great Lakes Region. In addition to Jim Larkens, he will perform the roles of the Marquis/Doctor in Verdi's La Traviata and Harry Hopkins in Daron Hagen’s A Woman in Morocco.

Flaxman is also a Studio Artist with the Kentucky Opera this season. He will perform Teddy Forsythe in A Woman in Morocco and the Baron in La Traviata.

You can read an interview with Zach Owen HERE.

Performances of La fanciulla del West are on November 14 and 16. For additional cast information and tickets, visit their website.

If you want to enjoy 19 more barihunks, make sure to buy our new 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar. It's available by clicking on the LULU button below and every penny goes to support young artists.

Barihunk quartet in Minnesota Opera's Girl of the Golden West

Christian Zaremba as Ashby and Andrew Lovato as Sonora (Photo: Michal Daniel)

Apparently, Don Giovanni isn't the only opera that deliver barihunks in bunches. We recently posted about a barihunk duo in Puccini's La fanciulla del West (Girl of the Golden West), only to find out that the Minnesota Opera has doubled the eye candy and presented a barihunk quartet in their current production.

Led my the amazing and ageless Greer Grimsley in the critical role of Jack Rance, the opera also features Andrew Lovato as Sonora, Rodolfo Nieto as Castro and Christian Zaremba as Ashby. We recently featured Lovato when he was part of the Santa Fe Apprentice Artist Program. Zaremba and Nieto are new to this site and have both somehow managed to sneak below our radar.

Greer Grimsley as Jack Rance (Photo: Michal Daniel)

Zaremba made his debut this summer at the Glimmerglass Festival as the bass soloist in David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion and appeared as Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff with the Martina Arroyo Foundation. Other credits include Il Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen and Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca, as well as Don Basilio in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia with Long Island Opera and Capitol Heights Opera. This past season, he was the bass soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Annapolis Chorale and Mozart's Requiem with the St. Cloud Orchestra.

He made his debut with Minnesota Opera last season as Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Lamoral in Richard Strauss' Arabella and the Innkeeper in Puccini's Manon Lescaut). He returns to the Minnesota Opera next season as Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen.

Rodolfo Nieto

Rodolfo Nieto has appeared with the Minnesota Opera in various roles including Horatio in Thomas' Hamlet, Johann in Massenet's Werther, Scottish Soldier #1 in the world premier of Puts' Silent Night, Joseph in Wuthering Heights, and Colline in Puccini's La bohème. Other roles include Alidoro in Rossini's La cenerentola with Lakes Area Music Festival, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Green Mountain Opera Festival, and Don Alfonso in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. 

There are additional performances of La fanciulla del West on September 25, 27 and 28. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Nicholas Nelson

UPDATE: We've just learned that it's actually a quintet of barihunks, but the Minnesota Opera didn't list the complete cast, so we missed Nicholas Nelson as Jim Larkens. (SHAME ON THEM!!!)

Jonathan McGovern goes from Avatar Jake to King Ulysses

We somehow lost track of Jonathan McGovern after his critically-acclaimed performances as the avatar Jake in Nico Muhly's Two Boys at the English National Opera in 2011. At the time, he had just taken 2nd Prize at the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and was joining the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.

He recently caught our attention again as Ulysses at the Iford Opera Festival production of Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses. Rian Evan said his "burnished baritone embraces both the heroism of Ulysses and the emotional torture of this culminating episode of his odyssey." It's amazing to think that this is the same guy who played the baby faced boy n Two Boys. He next takes on Sid in Puccini's La fanciulla del West at ENO in October and then sings the role of the captain in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Grand Théâtre de Genève with fellow barihunk Michael Nagy as Onegin.

Behind the scenes with Jonathan McGovern and Louise Alder:

Other engagements this season have included Polynices in Julian Anderson’s world premiere The Thebans at ENO, the role of Adam in a staged version of Haydn’s The Creation for Vocal Futures at the Ambika P3 in London, the St John Passion with Winchester Music Club, and a recording of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Le Reniement de Saint Pierre where he sang the role of Jesus.

Barihunks in critically-acclaimed La fanciulla del West

Peter Brathwaite (far left) and Nick Garrett (right) with Susannah Glanville

Back in March we posted about the production of Puccini's La fanciulla del West at Opera Holland Park featuring two barihunks who have been featured on this site, Peter Brathwaite as Sid and Nick Garrett as Sonora. The opera opened on June 3rd to great acclaim and runs through June 21. The company has updated the production from the California Gold Rush to the atomic testing grounds of 1950s Nevada.

Brathwaites's most recent engagements have included numerous world premieres. He made his Dutch mainstage debut last season at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg as Luis in Randal Corsen's KATIBU DI SHON, a role which he will reprise in the Netherlands and on tour to Curaçao. He began the 2013-14 season singing the role of Emanuel in the award-winning operatic adaptation of Marina Lewycka's novel Two Caravans, a portrayal which earned him critical acclaim.

On November 27th, Brathwaite will join accompanist Nigel Foster at the London Song Festival performing "Entartete Musik/Degenerate Music,"  a one-man show about music decried as "degenerate" by the Nazis. The performance will be at the Rosslyn Hill Chapel.

Peter Brathwaite and the Fanciulla ensemble

Nick Garrett is an English bass-baritone. He was a member of the vocal ensemble, The Swingle Singers and the opera band Amici Forever. Garrett was born in London and taught himself to play the piano at age seven. He studied singing, composition, piano and conducting at Trinity College of Music, with further study in singing supported by a grant from the Wolfson Foundation. He then joined The Swingle Singers and toured with them internationally.

After leaving The Swingle Singers, he performed in some of the world's leading opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, the Scottish Opera and the Opéra National de Paris. He has performed over forty major roles, including the Don Giovanni, Figaro, Colline and Scarpia.

Franco Pomponi in open-air Don Giovanni

Franco Pomponi and the Herod Atticus Theatre

Franco Pomponi, who recently created a rush in sales for opera glasses, when he appeared nude in Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet at La Monnaie in Brussels, is now taking on the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni in Greece.  The performances will be in the open-air Herod Atticus Theatre as part of the Athens Fesitval. The opera is being staged by the Greek National Opera.

The production is directed by Yannis Houvardas, an acclaimed Greek director and until recently director of the Greek National Theatre. Pomponi will alternate the role with Greek baritone Dionyssis Sourbis. Pomponi performs on June 11 and 13. Tickets are available online.

Pomponi is back in the United States on Novemeber 14 and 16 with the Kentucky Opera as Jack Rance in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West.

Barihunk miners in Holland Park "La fanciulla del West"

Peter Brathwaite

Despite having 10 baritone or bass roles, Puccini's La fanciulla del West has made relatively few appearances on Barihunks. Perhaps it's because Puccini operas like La bohème are performed more often or maybe Marcellos tend to be hotter than Jack Rances.

Fortunately, the upcoming production of La fanciulla del West at Opera Holland Park this summer features two barihunk who have been featured on this site, Peter Brathwaite as Sid and Nick Garrett as Sonora. Opera Holland Park is a summer opera company which produces an annual season of opera performances staged under a temporary canopy in Holland Park, a public park in west central London. Performances will run from June 3-21.

Composed especially for the Metropolitan Opera in 1910, La fanciulla del West has echoes of Richard Strauss and Debussy, as well as original folk melodies. It has been variously described as the composer's magnum opus and, by the great conductor Arturo Toscanini, as a "great symphonic poem".

The story of a group of gold miners, watched over and cared for by Minnie, is often perceived as having a 'happy ending'. But the tale is so much more sophisticated than that and the climax of the opera is of the most profoundly bittersweet variety. The music, however, is gloriously through composed, with moments of sheer majesty and emotional impact.

Nick Garrett

Nick Garrett is an English bass-baritone. He was a member of the vocal ensemble, The Swingle Singers and the opera band Amici Forever. Garrett was born in London and taught himself to play the piano at age seven. He studied singing, composition, piano and conducting at Trinity College of Music, with further study in singing supported by a grant from the Wolfson Foundation. He then joined The Swingle Singers and toured with them internationally.

After leaving The Swingle Singers, he performed in some of the world's leading opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, the Scottish Opera and the Opéra National de Paris. He has performed over forty major roles, including the Don Giovanni, Figaro, Colline and Scarpia.

Lucio Gallo sings "Minnie dalla mia casa son partito":

Peter Brathwaite is a former Nationale Reisopera Resident Artist and alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. He is the recipient of many prizes including a Peter Moores Foundation Major Award, the inaugural Samuel Coleridge Taylor Award, a Winston Churchill Fellowship (presented by Her Majesty The Queen), a 2010-2012 Independent Opera Fellowship and first prize in the Ted Moss and Bertha Taylor-Stach Lieder Competition.

Brathwaites's most recent engagements have included numerous world premieres. He made his Dutch mainstage debut last season at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg as Luis in Randal Corsen's KATIBU DI SHON, a role which he will reprise in the Netherlands and on tour to Curaçao. He began the 2013-14 season singing the role of Emanuel in the award-winning operatic adaptation of Marina Lewycka's novel Two Caravans, a portrayal which earned him critical acclaim.