GRAMMY nominee Edwin Crossley-Mercer sings holiday music

Edwin Crossley-Mercer from the 2018 Barihunks calendar (photo: JF l'Oiseleur des Longchamps)

2018 Barihunk Calendar model Edwin Crossley-Mercer will be performing at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on December 22nd along with soprano Marina Monzó and Dmitry Korchak. Joined by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and The Little Singers of Tokyo chorus, they will perform holiday favorites, along with some greatest hits from opera. Tickets are available online. 

On January 28th, he will find out if the album "Mademoiselle: Première Audience - Unknown Music Of Nadia Boulanger," which he perform on, will win the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium. He also recently released a recording of Lully's Alceste with Christophe Rousset and the Les Talens Lyriques. Early in 2018, he will be releasing two CD's, one with songs to texts by Oscar Wilde and another to texts by Cody Franchetti. The 80-minute Wilde song set will be premiered this summer in Paris.

If you want to catch him live in an opera, he'll be performing Leporello at the Municipal de Santiago in April with Levent Bakirci in the title role and bass-barihunk Solomon Howard as the Commendatore. In the summer, he heads to the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich for Haydn's Orlando Paladino. 

Jason Duika from the 2018 Barihunks Calendar

 ONLY 10 DAYS LEFT TO ORDER our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think.

Barihunk duo to reprise Lully's Alceste at Versailles

Douglas Williams (left) and Edwin Crossley-Mercer (right)

Two of operas hottest men are appeared together in Lully's Alceste last night and we somehow missed it! Barihunk Edwin Crossley-Mercer sang Alcide and bass-barihunk Douglas Williams sang Lycomède and Caron at the Festival International d'Opéra Baroque under the baton of Christophe Rousset.

Fortunately, the opera gods are looking over us, as the duo will reprise their performance at the Grandes Eaux Musicales at the Châteua de Versailles on December 10th with Les Talens Lyriques.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

The opera was originally presented in celebration of King Louis XIV’s victory against Franche-Comté, and the prologue features nymphs longing for his return from battle.

The opera concerns Alceste, princess of Iolcos and queen of Thessaly, who is abducted by Licomède, king of Scyros, with the aid of his sister Thetis, a sea nymph; Aeolus, the god of the winds; and other supernatural forces. In the battle to rescue her, Alcide is triumphant, but Alceste’s husband, Admète, suffers a mortal wound. Apollo agrees to let Admète live if someone will take his place in death. Alceste volunteers herself but is rescued by Alcide, who loves her.

The opera ends with a celebration of Alceste’s return from the underworld and of Alcide’s noble gallantry in returning her to her husband and relinquishing any claims to her.