OperaVision will broadcast Mozart's Don Giovanni live from La Monnaie on March 24th featuring the barihunk trio of Björn Bürger in the title role, Alessio Arduini as Leporello and Iurii Samoilov as Masetto. The rest of the cast includes Simona Saturová as Donna Anna, Sophia Burgos as Zerlina, Lenneke Ruiten as Donna Elvira, Juan Francisco Gatell as Don Ottavio, Alexander Roslavets as Il Commendatore.
The livestream starts at 7:30 p.m. Central European Standard Time (2:30 p.m. EST/11:30 a.m. PST). The broadcast will be available on OperaVision until September 21, 2020.
Live performances at La Monnaie are on March 12, 15, 24 and 28. The opera is part of their Da Ponte trilogy of Mozart operas, with Le nozze di Figaro and Cosìfan tutte running simultaneously. Tickets are available online. Iurii Samoilov sings Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Björn Bürger and Alessio Arduini sing the Count and Figaro respectively in Le nozze di Figaro.
Add Quirijn de Lang to the list of barihunks who have made their mark in the title role of Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet, which includes Thomas Weinhappel, Thomas Oliemans, Franco Pomponi, Stéphane Degout, Edward Nelson, Régis Mengus, Bo Skovhus, Simon Keenlyside and Liam Bonner.
You can watch the Dutch baritone's performance on OperaVision on September 13th. The broadcast will start at 7 PM CET/1 PM EST/10 AM PST.
The performance is with OPERA2DAY in Den Haag, a company founded to bring opera to new audiences by presenting old standards in contemporary settings. The opera has been reduced to 2 hours from the standard 3 1/2 running time by eliminating the ballet and streamlining the story, including
an ending that combines the two existing versions of the opera.
The cast also includes Lucie Chartin as Ophélie, fellow barihunk Martijn Sanders as
Claudius, Martina Prins as Gertrude, Jan Willem Schaafsma as Laërte and
Patrick Pranger as Horatio. The opera is a co-production with the New
European Ensemble.
If you want to see de Lang live, he can be seen in Kurt Weill's Street Scene with Opera North from January through March in Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester and Nottingham. He will also be singing the Count in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with the company during the same period.
You can watch German barihunk and audience favorite Günter Papendell as Marcello in Barrie Kosky's new production of Puccini's La bohème from the Komische Oper Berlin from January 27 through July 26. The livestream can be seen on OperaVision.
Kosky says that the opera is about death and the audience needs to shed a tear, but without sentimentalism. This production looks at how young people look at death. Kosky sees the opera through the daguerreotype, which was invented around the time that the story takes place.
The remaining cast includes Nadja Mchantaf as Mimì, Gerard
Schneider as Rodolfo,Philipp Meierhöfer as Colline, Vera-Lotte Böcker as Musetta, and Dániel Foki as Schaunard.
Günter Papendell sings Tchaikovsky's "Nur wer die Liebe kennt":
If you want to see Papendell live as Marcello, he is performing the role on January 27 and 28, February 8, March 17, 22 and 30, and June 28 and 29. Tickets are available online, but many dates have limited availability.
Papendell's other roles at the Komische Oper include Doktor Malatestain Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Graf Almaviva in Mozart's Die Hochzeit des Figaro, Fritz Kothner in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Fürst Jeletzki in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, Sharpless in Puccini's Madame Butterfly, the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Odysseus in the Monteverdi triptych, Achilla in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, and Pollux in Rameau's Castor et Pollux.
We introduced readers to British barihunk Harry Thatcher to readers back in 2016 with a shirtless picture on the beach. We kind of lost track of him, so we were thrilled to see that he's performing Count Almaviva in the OperaVision broadcast of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro from the Royal College of Music.
You can watch the broadcast HERE until March 26, 2019. The cast also includes Adam Maxey as Figaro, Josephine Goddard as the Countess, Julieth Lozano as Susanna, and Lauren Joyanne Morris as Cherubino. The production is directed by the legendary baritone Sir Thomas Allen.
Harry Thatcher sings "Hai gia vinta la causa...Vedro mentr'io sospiro":
He has sung numerous roles at the Royal College of Music International Opera School, including the Forester in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen, the Priest in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, the title role in Britten's Billy Budd, Taurquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia , Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and and Frank Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus.
Quirijn de Lang as Sam in Trouble in Tahiti(Image courtesy Opera North)
You can watch Dutch barihunk Quirijn de Lang in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti with Opera North on OperaVision from August 25-September 11. He will be joined by the Canadian mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta as the other half of the argumentative couple.
Bernstein wrote the libretto and music for Trouble in Tahiti and directed and conducted the premiere himself in June 1952 at the University of Brandeis, Massachusetts. Eager to make his one-act satirical opera seem as realistic as possible, Bernstein set it in the aftermath of World War II, a time when consumerism was spreading through society. His work had a number of autobiographical references and the male protagonist, Sam, shares his name with Bernstein’s father who left Russia to find the 'American Dream'.
The opera opens with a jingle performed by a musical trio who sing into the microphone of a recording studio. Bernstein wanted this trio to "never stop smiling". The jazz rhythms evoke the radio commercials of the time and the trio is reminiscent of an ancient Greek choir that satirically comments on the story.
Quirijn de Lang will be performing Danilo in Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow with Opera North beginning on September 29th and running through November 17th.
