Christopher Maltman featured in Marnie on Great Performances

Isabel Leonard and Christopher Maltman in Marnie (Image courtesy of The Met)

British barihunk Christopher Maltman will star alongside mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard in Nico Muhly and Nicholas Wright’s “Marnie” on PBS’s Great Performances son Friday, February 1, 2019. Check HERE to see what stations are broadcasting near you.

Nico Muhly’s opera, based on the 1961 Winston Graham thriller that inspired the iconic Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. The opera also features Mark Rutland. Janis Kelly, Denyce Graves, and Iestyn Davies, with Robert Spano conducting.

Michael Mayer’s production, which had its U.S. debut at the Met in fall 2018, takes place in England, where the alluring Marnie pursues a life of crime and dishonesty by assuming new identities after stealing from her employers. After pulling off another heist and adapting a new look successfully, she moves on to a new job at Halcyon Printing where her new boss is widower Mark Rutland. Marnie makes an attempt to steal from the company’s safe but is caught red-handed by Mark, who blackmails her into marrying him by threatening to turn her in to the police. Now forced into a loveless marriage, Marnie must face the traumas of her childhood and past indiscretions to free herself from a vicious cycle of deception.

Barihunk Matthew Worth featured on Great Performances broadcast of Doubt

Matthew Worth in Doubt (Photo: © Michal Daniel)

The Minnesota Opera's production of Douglas J. Cuomo’s opera Doubt will be broadcast on Great Performances on PBS on January 25th (check local listings for time).

The story, which has been seen on Broadway and made into a movie with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, revolves around scandalous allegations and tensions at a Catholic elementary school.

The libretto was written by playwright John Patrick Shanley, who based it on his Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The opera was commissioned by Minnesota Opera in collaboration with the Cincinnati Opera and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. The opera was part of the opera company’s New Works Initiative, a landmark program designed to invigorate the operatic repertoire with an infusion of contemporary works. It premiered on January 26, 2013 at the Minnesota Opera.

Matthew Worths sings "A sermon about doubt":

The opera features barihunk Matthew Worth as Father Flynn, who is accused of inappropriate behavior with a young African-American student. Soprano Christine Brewer will sing the role of the school principal Sister Aloysius, who makes the accusations and sets the drama in motion at the Bronx-based Roman Catholic in 1964. The young, idealistic Sister James will be played by Adriana Zabala and the boy's mother by mezzo Denyce Graves. Other than a chorus and a children's chorus, these are the only vocal roles.

Other operas on Great Performances this year include Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice on January 18, Verdi's Aida and Nico Muhly's Marnie on February 1.

Simon Keenlyside's Don Giovanni coming to PBS

Simon Keenlyside

Barihunk Simon Keenlyside's riveting Don Giovanni from the Metropolitan Opera will be broadcast on PBS on Sunday, February 19th.  Fabio Luisi conducts Tony Award-winner Michael Grandage's staging of Mozart's masterpiece.

The international cast also includes Hibla Gerzmava as Donna Anna, Malin Byström as Donna Elvira,Serena Malfi as Zerlina, Paul Appleby as Don Ottavio, Adam Plachetka as Leporello, Matthew Rose as Masetto, and Kwangchul Youn as the Commendatore.

Check local listings for times. In some cities, the opera will be rebroadcast on February 26th.

Keenlyside is currently singing Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera with fellow barihunk Erwin Schrott as his sidekick Leporello. There is one performance remaining on January 29th, when the duo turns over the roles to Adam Plachetka and Jongmin Park. Performances are on March 2, 5 and 9.

Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick coming on DVD and PBS Great Performances

The epic performance of Jake Heggie's opera Moby-Dick from the San Francisco Opera is now on DVD and Blueray disc.  The release is part of a new partnership between the San Francisco Opera and EuroArts Music International, which will include six operas taped at the historic War Memorial Opera House.

The all-star cast includes barihunk Morgan Smith, Jay Hunter Morris, Stephen Costello, Jonathan Lemalu, Talise Trevigne and is conducted by Patrick Summers. Smith plays the critical role of Captain Ahab's first mate Starbuck, the first mate and family man who tries desperately to dissuade Ahab from his single-minded, suicidal pursuit of Moby-Dick. The role includes more beautiful baritone music from Jake Heggie in the aria "Captain Ahab? I must Speak with you." You can listen to a recording of the aria with piano on barihunk Randal Turner's site.

Heggie and Gene Scheer brilliantly adapted Herman Melville’s epic tale of a fierce, obsessive whaling-boat captain who descends into madness and puts his crew in mortal danger. The opera is already assured to be part of the operatic standard repertory, with every production receiving critical praise for the work. The opera was originally co-commissioned by the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, State Opera of South Australia and the Calgary Opera and debuted on April 30, 2010.

The opera is 142 minutes, but the DVD includes and additional hour of extras including interviews with Morgan Smith, Jay Hunter Morris, Stephen Costello, Jonathan Lemalu, Talise Trevigne, Jake Heggie, Patrick Summers and Gene Scheer.

The opera will also be presented as part of PBS's Great Performances 40th anniversary season on November 1, 2013 at 9 PM. Check your local listings.

There are two upcoming live performances of the opera. The Fargo-Moorhead Opera will present free scenes from the opera on October 1, 2 and 3, 2013 with tenor David Hamilton, tenor Joshua Kohl, baritone Cory Renbarger and bass Ashraf Sewailam. The highly anticipated East Coast premiere of the opera will take place at the Kennedy Center with the Washington National Opera from February 22 - March 8, 2014. Starbuck will be sung by newlywed barihunk Matthew Worth and Queequeg by fellow barihunk Eric Greene. Tickets go on sale December 4, 2013 to the public and on November 25, 2013 to Kennedy Center members.

Chris Carr is Opera's Latest Spartacus Transformation

Chris Carr (far left) in Oklahoma and a "Before and After" photo

The last time we featured Chris Carr, he was doing a free masterclass with mezzo Joyce Di Donato in Kansas City. The emerging singer has been working hard on perfecting his voice, but it appears he's also working hard on his physique. 

The amazing transformation of Michael Mayes

Carr is the latest opera singer to take up the Spartacus workout routine and it appears to paying off. Barihunk Michael Mayes is perhaps the biggest proponent of the workout and his transformation prompted us to feature him in our "BariChunk to BariHunk" post. Mayes has even created a Facebook site called Operaticus for singers who doing the workout. Mayes has become one of our ten most popular singers on Barihunks since his transformation. Mayes is well-known in opera circles for rounding up singers and marching them to the gym like an over-caffeinated Marine drill sergeant. 

Michael Mayes and tenor Gabriel Nochlin-Gargari after a Spartacus workout

The Spartacus workout is a series of ten exercises that work every part of your body, including your heart, lungs and muscles. The high-intensity circuit is designed to burn away fat, while defining your chest, abs, and arms.

Our favorite fitness guru Scott Herman explains the Spartacus workout:

Since we mentioned Joyce Di Donato earlier in the post, we should let you know that her homecoming concert in Kansas City will be broadcast on PBS beginning on Friday, July 20 and rebroadcast all week. Check your local listings. 

Eugene Brancoveanu on PBS' "The Thomashefskys" Tonight

Eugene Brancoveanu in The Machine at The Crucible

Barihunk Eugene Brancoveanu will be on PBS tonight as part of "The Thomashefskys: Music & Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater," which was written, hosted and conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas of the San Francisco Symphony.

It’s the story of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, two kids from little shtetls of the Ukraine who came to America and became the founders and pioneers of the American Yiddish Theater. The broadcast is scheduled on the Great Performances series on PBS on Thursday, March 29 at 8:00 p.m. (check local listings). If you forget to program your DVR, don't worry because the complete show will be released on DVD and digitally on April 24.

The Thomashefskys

Recorded in April 2011 at the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach, the performance of The Thomashefskys for the March 29 broadcast. In addition to Brancoveanu, the performance features Judy Blazer. Gary Halvorson, Ronit Widmann-Levy and Shuler Hensley as Boris Thomashefsky.

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