Introducing bass-barihunk Andrew Potter

Andrew Potter

We recently posted about barihunk Colin Ramsey singing The Speaker in Mozart's The Magic Flute at Opera NEO. The Sarastro in that production was Andrew Potter who we're featuring for the first time on our site.

Potter received his BA in Vocal Performance from Liberty University where he performed the Pirate King in Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, Poo Bah in The Mikado, and Baron Mirko Zeta in Lehar's The Merry Widow. 

Since 2012, he's appeared with Opera on the James in Strauss' Die Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, Betto in Gianni Schicchi, Mr. Dashwood in Mark Adamo’s Little Women, and the Big Bad Bully in Stop Bully - an outreach opera performed in schools and community centers.

Since 2013, Potter has been a member of Opera Roanoke’s Young Apprentice Artist Program, where he sang the Sergeant the Pirates of Penzance and Curio in Handel's Julius Caesar. This year he'll sing the Second Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte and covering the role of Sarastro. He performed Ariodate, in Handel’s Serse and Le fauteuil/L’abre in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges with Bel Cantanti Opera in Washington, D.C.

Upcoming roles in the 2014-15 season for Andrew include Simone in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi with Tidewater Opera Initiative, the Frog King in the World Premiere of Lori Laitman's The Three Feathers, Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Opera Roanoke, Ramfis with Undercroft Opera in Verdi's Aida, Mephistopheles in Concert Opera Philadelphia’s production of Gounod's Faust, Zoroastro in Handel's Orlando with Boulder Opera Company, Colline in La Bohéme with Connecticut Lyric Opera, and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Bel Cantanti Opera.

Colin Ramsey in Aztec "Magic Flute"; Introducing Zane Ransom Hill

Colin Ramsey as The Speaker (left) and modeling his Barihunk tee shirt (right)

We introduced barihunk Colin Ramsey to readers last year and then featured him during his Seattle Opera debut in Menotti's The Consul earlier this year.

He's currently back at the Opera NEO Summer Opera Festival and Workshop where he's performing The Speaker in Mozart's The Magic Flute. The production is being done in Aztec style with a costume that we just had to share with readers.

The opera is being performed in English on August 15 and 17 at Crill Performance Hall at the Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Tickets are available online.

Zane Ransom Hill

Also appearing with Opera NEO is Zane Ransom Hill, who is new to this site. He'll be singing Lesbo in Handel's Agrippina (as well as covering Papageno in The Magic Flute).  Agrippina will be performed on August 14 and 16 under the baton of early music specialist Nicholas Kraemer.

Zane Ransom Hill is a junior at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he is pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance. In the Spring of 2011, he was chosen to be part of the exclusive Houston Grand Opera High School Voice Studio; a yearlong scholarship program of private weekly voice lessons, master classes, performance opportunities and vocal coaching from the Houston Grand Opera staff. 

Hill has performed in the choruses of Haydn's Il Mondo Della Luna and Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus with the Oberlin Opera Theater, and was also accepted into the prestigious Oberlin in Italy program where he performed in the chorus of Puccini's La bohème. In 2013, he sang as part of the Lyrique en Mer Festival in Belle Île, France where he performed in the productions of both Bizet's Carmen and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

This summer, he has been selected as one of only twelve Schubert Fellows for SongFest 2014 at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where he will perform in a concert series collaborating with leading composers and recital artists.

Bass-Barihunk Colin Ramsey to make Seattle Opera debut

Colin Ramsey in L'incoronazione de Poppea at Opera NEO

We introduced bass-barihunk Colin Ramsey last summer as one of the guys on the Operaticus fitness site on Facebook. He just finished a run yesterday as Collatinus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia with Vespertine Opera in Seattle. We didn't have any pictures from the production, which is a shame, as it's one of our favorite operas to showcase barihunk talent. If some emerge, we promise to post them.

However, we did find a few amazing pictures of Colin Ramsey as Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea with Opera NEO, the summer opera festival and young artist workshop in San Diego, California.

Colin Ramsey & Alyssa Packard in L’incoronazione di Poppea:

If you missed this emerging barihunk, you'll have another shot when Ramsey makes his debut with the Seattle Opera as Mr. Kofner in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul. The opera runs from February 22-March 7. If you attend operas based on the Barihunk Quotient, then The Consul is a "must see" production, as it features barihunks Michael Todd Simpson as John Sorel, Steven LaBrie as the Secret Police Agent and Joseph Lattanzi as Assan.

Ramsey will reprise the role of Mr. Kofner in a different production of The Consul with Opera Santa Barbara on March 25 and 27.  That production will feature barihunk Joshua Jeremiah as John Sorel. In May, he moves back a few centuries to portray Somnus and Cadmus in the Pacific Musicworks's production of Handel's Semele in cooperation with the University of Washington.

Colin Ramsey in The Marriage Tango (L) and
L'incoronazione de Poppea (R)

Ramsey graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 2011, where he received the Hugh Ross Award, awarded to singers with "unusual promise." An award winner with the Pasadena Opera Guild, he went on to become a studio artist at Opera Santa Barbara and the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program.

He made his debut with Opera Santa Barbara singing the Doganiere in La Boheme. At Wolf Trap Opera he was featured as Hermann in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, Jonas Fogg in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and as Figaro and Alidoro in a program of scenes.