Met Season opens with Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin

Mariusz Kwiecien & Anna Netrebko

Tonight the Metropolitan Opera opened its 2013-14 season with Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," starring barihunk Maurisz Kwiecien, soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Piotr Beczala. Valery Gergiev will conduct Deborah Warner's new production directed by Fiona Shaw. The opera was last performed at the Met in 2009 in Robert Carsen's minimalist production.

Performances of "Eugene Onegin" will run through October 19, with the October 5 performance being transmitted in Live in HD in movie theaters around the world. On Nov. 23, the opera will be revived with barihunk Peter Mattei, soprano Marina Poplavskaya and tenor Rolando Villazon in the lead roles.

Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin at the Bolshoi in 2008:

Anna Netrebko will be teaming up with her barihunk husband Erwin Schrott at The Met, opening in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore on January 9, 2014. 

On September 28, another popular barihunk will take the stage, as Paulo Szot opens as Kovalyov in Shostakovich's The Nose.

Christopher Job's traveling preacher off to save Idaho

Christopher Job

American barihunk Christopher Job has some exciting performances coming up this year. On May 25th, he will make his Carnegie Hall debut in Mozart’s Requiem with conductor Joseph Modica. He then returns to the Metropolitan Opera  from September 28 – October 26 in Shostakovich’s The Nose under the baton of Valery Gergiev. He'll be joined in the cast by fellow barihunk Paulo Szot, who is reprising his performance of the bureaucrat, whose satirical misadventures in search of his missing nose are based on Gogol’s comic story.

Samuel Ramey sings "Hear Me, O Lord, I beseech Thee" from Susannah:

In the meantime, Christopher Job will take on the role of the traveling preacher Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with Opera Idaho directed by Elise Sandell. Susannah is one of the most performed American operas, second to Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. A number of prominent baritones have taken on the role of Olin Blitch, including Samuel Ramey, Norman Treigle, James Morris, Mack Harrell and Daniel Okulitch. Performances are on May 17th and 19th at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise. Tickets are available online.

Barihunk Michael Weyandt: "What a Pig!"

Michael Weyandt and Mrs. Pig

We recently featured barihunk Michael Weyandt in operamission's heralded production of Handel's Almira. He's jumping ahead three centuries to perform a pig (yes, a pig) in Dmitri Shostakovich's  The Tale of the Silly Baby Mouse with On Site Opera at the Bronx Zoo on June 23 and 24. Of course, it's not completely unheard of for singers to play animals, with the best example being Leo Janacek's "Cunning Little Vixen."

Based on Samuil Marshak’s famous Russian fairytale, Shostakovich composed The Tale of the Silly Baby Mouse in 1939 as a film score for an animated cartoon.  The opera tells the story of the night that Baby Mouse refuses to go to sleep.  Mrs. Mouse, along with Auntie Duck, Mrs. Pig, and Mr. Toad, try in vain to sing Baby Mouse to sleep.  It is finally Mrs. Cat who is successful...but she has other plans for the sleeping mouse.

Michael Weyandt will perform the role of Mrs. Pig and bass Marc Webster will perform the roles of Mr. Frog and Polkan the Dog.

Marc Webster and Michael Weyandt

On Site Opera's production of the opera is  part of Animal Tales Extravaganza at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo.  The fifteen-minute long opera features large-scale puppets, professional singers, and a chamber orchestra together with Shostakovich’s whimsical score.  The production is staged by On Site Opera Artistic Director, Eric Einhorn, conducted by Jennifer Peterson, with original puppets designed by The Puppet Kitchen. 

Watch the 1939 cartoon version of "The Tale of the Silly Mouse":

On Site Opera is a new company created around the idea that exciting performances can happen outside the walls of a traditional theater. Through site-specific, immersive productions, performers and audiences will experience great music and drama as never before in some of New York's most intriguing spaces.

Admission is free to the opera with zoo admission and will be performed at 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM on both Saturday and Sunday. Other cast members include soprano Rebekah Camm, mezzo Blythe Gaissert, soprano Christy Lombardozzi, and soprano Melissa Wimbish.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Voice Faculty at Ithaca College and is a Doctoral Candidate at Eastman School of Music.

Adrian Kramer, Paul LaRosa & Matt Boehler in Chicago Opera Theater's "Moscow, Cheryomushki"

Adrian Kramer (Sasha) and Emily Fons (Masha)

We have a particular soft spot for many of the smaller opera companies and the Chicago Opera Theater has long been one of our favorite companies..Not only do they take greater risks, but they often feature barihunks in the early stages of their careers. We loved Matt Worth there in their productions of Owen Wingrave Three Decembes and now they have Adrian Kramer in an orginal take on Shostakovich called "Moscow, Cheryomushki." The cast also includes two other barihunks who have appeared on this site, Paul LaRosa as Boris and Matt Boehler as Drebednev.

The Chicago Opera Theater is producing its own unique twist to Shostakovich's musical satire that takes a political poke at the Soviet Union's chronic housing shortages. Renowned Shostakovich scholar Gerard McBurney produced a musical score that captures this operetta's lighter mood. The  new production marks the 21st Chicago premiere since the innovative Brian Dickie arrived in 1999 to run the company. The opera will be sung in English with English supertitles.

Adrian Kramer (Sasha) and Emily Fons (Masha)

If you're in Chicago, you can preview the music at an event at LOKaL tonight from 6-8pm. The cost is $25 ($35 at the door) and includes hors d'oeveres, the Moscow martini and music from the show. Performances of the opera run from April 14-25. Visit the COT website for additional details.

Paul LaRosa

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Associated Press Feature on Paulo Szot

[Photo: Kathy Willens / AP]


On May 14, 1948, Ezio Pinza sang his last "Don Giovanni" with the Metropolitan Opera on tour in Cleveland and retired from the company. The next year, the Italian basso crossed over to Broadway, creating the role of Emile de Becque in the musical "South Pacific" and becoming forever identified with the song "Some Enchanted Evening."

Nearly 62 years later, Paulo Szot is retracing Pinza's steps — backward. After two years of playing de Becque to great acclaim (and, like Pinza, a Tony award) in a revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, Szot is making his Met debut on March 5.

Talk about a role reversal.

[Read the complete article HERE]