Introducing barihunk Brian James Myer

Brian James Myer

Brian James Myer, who is new to our site,  is joining Hans Tashjian as one of the 2016 Chautauqua Opera Young Artists. Myer just wrapped up a run as the title character in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Florida Grand Opera, which was his debut with the company. He will return to Florida Grand Opera this Spring to cover both Tadeusz in Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger and Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

Myer was born in Tarzana, California and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he began piano lessons at age nine.  He subsequently studied flute, cello, guitar, and voice.

Recent engagements include Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Sin City Opera and Opera San Jose, Gino Carella in Mark Lanz Weiser's Where Angels Fear to Tread with Opera San Jose, Silvio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with Sarasota Opera, Masetto  in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opera San Jose and Opera Las Vegas, Yamadori in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Opera Las Vegas, Albert in Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe with Chautauqua Opera, and Le Dancaïre in Bizet's Carmen with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada. 

Brian James Myer sings Papageno's suicide aria:

Myer won first place prizes at the National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions in both Nevada and Ohio.  He received two young artist encouragement awards from Chautauqua Opera and is a recipient of the Albert Rees Davis Scholarship from The Singers Club of Cleveland  He was also a regional finalist in the NATS Artist Award (Cal-Western Region) and a semifinalist in the American Institute of Musical Studies Meistersinger competition.

Myer volunteered for the music program with the Clark County School District and served as a middle school choir teacher.  He participated in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Outreach Program, bringing opera to over 13,500 students in the Coachella Valley.  He is also a published composer, whose choral octavo can be found and purchased at Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Inc.

ONLY 8 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!).

Vittorio Prato, Malte Roesner & Cyril Rovery

Morgan Smith's many upcoming debuts (mostly in Texas!)

Morgan Smith

Perhaps one of the most anticipated American premieres this year is that of exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger. We covered the opera two years ago when it was at the English National Opera with barihunk Leigh Melrose as Tadeusz. A year earlier the piece was done in Bregenz with Artur Rucinski in the baritone role.

In January 2014, the opera is coming to the Houston Grand Opera with barihunk Morgan Smith as Tadeusz, in a cast that also includes rising tenor sensation Joseph Kaiser, two of our favorite sopranos Kelly Kaduce and Melody Moore, as well as mezzo-soprano Michelle Breedt. David Pountney’s production and Johan Engels’s two-level set, which received critical acclaim at ENO and in Bregenz, will be brought to Houston.

Leigh Melrose in The Passenger

The libretto is based on the eponymous novel by Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz and is set in the late 1950s. It depicts a German couple, Liese and Walter, on board an ocean liner where former SS officer Liese thinks she recognizes an Auschwitz prisoner among their fellow passengers. Although Weinberg completed his score in 1968, the opera was not performed until 2006 and not fully staged until the 2010 Bregenz Festival.

The Houston Grand Opera will present a number of activities related to the opera. A series of three free concerts begins on November 10 with the world premiere of a new work by HGO Studio alumnus and composer David Hanlon, commemorating the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht and based on the story of his grandfather, one of the thousands of Jewish people arrested on that infamous night and sent to Dachau. On December 9, they will host a concert exploring the music, art, poetry, and philosophy that emerged from Terezín, a concentration camp located in the Czech Republic. The third and final performance on February 22 features music of memory and hope with world premieres of works by Lawrence Siegel and Paul English based on text and inspiration from Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren.

Morgan Smith

Morgan has a number of new roles besides Tadeusz that he is adding to his repertoire next season. In Novemeber 2013, he takes on Captain Brandt in Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra at the Florida Grand Opera. In March 2014, he debuts the role of Fritz in Erich Korngold's Die Tode Stadt at the beautiful Winspear Opera House in Dallas. When he wraps up, he heads down Interstate 30 to the Fort Worth Opera where he performs Lt. Audebert in Kevin Puts' Silent Night in a cast full of his fellow barihunks.

If you've not had the chance to see Morgan Smith live, we highly recommend adding one of these performances to your opera travel calendar. He is one of the most compelling young artists to hit the scene in years.