Barihunks galore at American Classical Orchestra

Tim McDevitt and Paul Max Tipton

Barihunks will play a prominent role in two upcoming shows with the American Classical Orchestra in New York City. Paul Max Tipton will sing the role of Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion conducted by Thomas Crawford on Tuesday, November 3 at Alice Tully Hall. Members of the American Classical Orchestra Chorus will be featured in the solo arias, which includes barihunks Jesse Blumberg and Joseph Beutel, who will also have solo roles. They will be joined by tenor Rufus Muller as the Evangelist.

On February 23, they will perform Haydn's L'isola disabitata (Desert Island) with barihunk Timothy McDevitt, who will be joined by soloists Sherezade Panthaki, Sarah Brailey and Owen McIntosh. Regular readers may remember our post of the opera with shirtless photos of Tom Corbeil in the Mark Morris production, which remains one of our top fifty posts of all-time. The opera was first performed in 1779 and is an Enlightenment parable about the relationship between humanity's natural instincts and society.

Tickets for both shows are available online.

Jesse Blumberg

Fans of Jesse Blumberg can catch him in Norhtern California with the Mirror Visions Ensemble in San Francisco on October 9 and in Sacrmento on October 11. He'll be in New York on October 19th with the Tertulia Chamber Music ensemble to perform Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes. He'll be joined by soprano Kiera Duffy, mezzo Jennifer Johnson Cano and tenor John Bellemer.

ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR TODAY!!! Click on the Lulu button below.  

 

Barihunks (and hunkentenors) featured on BuzzFeed

We saw a dramatic uptick in traffic to our site yesterday with a sudden interest in posts from 2009 and 2010. We figured out pretty quickly that we must have been featured somewhere only to learn that we were a prominent part of BuzzFeed's "33 Opera Hunks Who Need To Serenade You Right Now." We have to say that they did a remarkable job of picking out 30+ of the steamiest, sexiest and most talented acoustic singing hunks on the planet.

Barihunks included are Matthew Worth, Randal Turner, Zachary Gordin, Ramin Karimloo, Duncan Rock, Philippe Sly, Chris Herbert, Hadleigh Adams, Beltran Iraburu, Tim McDevitt, Douglas Williams, Gordon Bintner, Mariusz Kwiecien, Erwin Schrott, Vasil Garvanliev, Nathan Gunn, David Adam Moore, Adrian Kramer, Matthew Morris, Jerome Vernier, Tom Corbeil, Kelly Markgraf, Jason Hardy, Donovan Singletary, John Brandon and Simon Keenlyside.

Do the math and it comes out to 78% baritones. That seems about right in our eyes.

Congratulations guys! Who says that sexy men don't increase the interest in opera? You got the coveted "WIN" button on BuzzFeed.

Also keep your eye out for a Barihunks feature in a major New York publication coming out this week.

Timothy McDevitt: Some Booty and Some "Così fan tutte"

Timothy McDevitt (Photo by Charles Quiles)

The last time that we blogged about Timothy McDevitt we announced that he was premiering Paul Crabtree's The Ghost Train. The Julliard graduate has had an exciting year winning the New York District Metropolitan Opera National Council competition as well as the Lys Symonette Prize in the Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya Competition. He also took some gorgeous photos with professional photographer Charles Quiles whose work is definitely worth checking out.

The increasingly buff singer has had a busy year since graduating. Highlights for McDevitt from earlier this year include Philip Glass' Les Enfants Terribles with the North Carolina Opera, Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and appearances at the Swiss Ball and Lotus Club in New York.

Tim McDevitt (Photo by Charles Quiles)

McDevitt is about to premiere another work by an American composer, Jonathan Dawe’s COSÌ FARAN TUTTI (They’ll All Do It!). As you probably surmised from the title, the piece is a prequel to Mozart’s Così fan tutte. McDevitt will play the role of Gugliemo and the other baritone role of Don Alfonso will be sung by Chad Sloan.

The opera is being performed by the Italian Academy of Columbia University at their Teatro Theatre for three performances on December 13, 14 and 15, 2012 at 8pm.

Dawe recently became the youngest composer commissioned by James Levine for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Other cast members include soprano Marcy Richardson as Fiordiligi, mezzo-soprano Ariana Chris as Dorabella, soprano Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie as Despina and hunkentenor Glenn Seven Allen as Ferrando. We have to admit that we've being waiting for an excuse to post Glenn Seven Allen.

Tenor Glenn Seven Allen sporting his barihunk body

The singers will be accompanied by the Orchestra of the Second Instrumental Unit led by Maestro Ryan McAdams and the modern baroque dance ensemble hybrid, Company XIV, led by dance director/choreographer Austin McCormick.

The Teatro Theatre at the Italian Academy of Columbia University is located at 1161 Amsterdam Avenue at 118th Street in New York City. Tickets are $40 and $20 for students and are available at the door and through Brown Paper Tickets.

If you like hot singers like Timothy McDevitt, make sure to order our 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar. ALL proceeds go to benefit young artists:

Things of Interest This Week: Boys in NY, Carbo's new CD, Barihunks Competing in Montreal

Jesse Blumberg (L) and Tim McDevitt (R)

Three things that we love are all back and under the same roof on June 4th: the great Steven Blier returns with his latest "Sing for your Supper" show with barihunks Jesse Blumberg and Tim McDevitt. Blier always creates interesting themes for his shows and his latest offering will center on summertime.

Blumberg and McDevitt will be joined by Alex Mansoori, Adrian Rosas and Gennard Lombardozzi in selections by Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, Jason Robert Brown, Eubie Blake, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Kern.

The show is at Henry's at Broadway and 105th in New York City and reservations are required.

Jose Carbo's "My Latin Heart"

Jose Carbo has released his first solo recital, My Latin Heart, which includes selections by Granada, Piazzolla and other Latin favorites.

The CD is available at ABC Records. You can also preview the CD and purchase it on iTunes.

Sidney Outlaw (L), Philippe Sly (C) and John Brancy (R)

Regular readers will know that we love to follow all the vocal competitions, especially as barihunks keep sweeping away all the tenors, sopranos and mezzos. We'll be closely monitoring the Montreal International Musical Competition this Tuesday and Wednesday as three of the eight finalist are not only barihunks, but some of our favorite singers around.

Sly was named our "Best Newcomer" along with Dominik Köninger in our "Best of 2011" feature. We still play his rendition of Schubert's Der Erlkönig to anyone who will listen. Sly was the winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and left the Merola Opera program a year early to join the Canadian Opera Company. 


Brancy has won or come in second in a number of competitions and has already worked with the aforementioned Steven Blier. A recent graduate of Julliard, Brancy recently studied at the International Meistersinger Akademie with sopranos Edith Wiens and Ann Murray, as well as pianist Malcolm Martineau.


Like Sly, Sidney Outlaw is another product of the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. While in San Francisco he gave a recital that included Schubert's rarely heard Il traditor deluso, which still has lieder aficionados buzzing. On stage he stole the show with his performance of Dr. Dulcamara  in L’elisir d’amore.


Brancy and Outlaw will be representing the United States, while Sly is representing Canada in the competition. Both performances will be broadcast at 7:30 PM on Radio Canada. Click here to listen to the broadcasts. You can listen to the preliminaries here. 

NY Festival of Song's "Manning the Canon" in New York City and Maryland

Tim McDevitt

If you missed Steven Blier's insightful and entertaining "Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life" last year, you're in luck because they are reprising the show in Maryland and New York City. The first performance will be at the Joseph & Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall at the University of Maryland in College Park on November 15th. On November 17, the show returns to Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. The show includes two barihunks who have appeared regularly on this site, Tim McDevitt and fan favorite Jesse Blumberg (whose posts often shows up in our top ten site visits). Not only are these guys eye candy, but they are amazing singers and worth hearing. They will be joined by Scott Murphree and Matt Boehler.

Jesse Blumberg

The program includes a number of songs that might be familiar to you, as well as some that you'll want to experience. They include Marc Blitzstein’s “Purest Kind of a Guy," Christopher Berg’s "Is It Dirty?," Lutvak and Campbell's "Exit Right," Schubert's quartet for four male voices “Auflösung," Tchaikovsky’s “At the Ball," Poulenc’s “Montparnasse," Griffes’s “Evening Song,” John Wallowich’s  “Bruce.” Bolcom’s “Piano Walk” and “I’ll Be By,” Camille Saint Saëns’s “Si vous n’avez rien à me dire,”  Benjamin Britten’s “Night covers up the rigid land,” Manuel de Falla’s “Polo," Cy Coleman's "Tennis Duet,"  Chris DeBlasio’s “Walt Whitman in 1989,”Bernstein's “To What You Said,” and Cole Porter's "You're the Top."



Don't be fooled by the title, as this show isn't just for gay audiences. Like all of Steven Blier's shows they are an entertaining and thoughtful exploration of a canon of work. Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times: "Such programs can easily fall into the trap of social politics and turn maudin, agenda driven and campy. This one was insightful and imaginative, touching and funny."

For tickets to either show, please visit the New York Festival of Song website.

Jesse Blumberg and Martin Katz working on Schubert last year:



We also want to remind fans of Jesse Blumberg on the West Coast that he will be performing Handel's "Messiah" with the American Bach Soloists on December 15, 16 and 18.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Don't forget to order your 2012 Barihunks calendar. Click HERE to order. All proceeds go to support young artists and young artist programs. It's a great gift and an easy way to support our next generation of baritones. You can read more about our calendar at this previous post.

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Free TIm McDevitt Recital

Tim McDevitt 

Tim MCDevitt will be performing his final recital at Julliard on Saturday, April 2 at 8:30 PM. The program will feature works by Mozart, Caplet, Wolf, Ullman, Poulenc, Weill, and others.


The emerging barihunk will be joined by Renate Rohlfing on piano and Allison Job on double bass. The concert will be in Paul Hall. 


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Tim McDevitt: Latest "Les mamelles de Tirésias" Sensation

Tim McDevitt backstage during "Les mamelles de Tirésias." What's the young lady looking at so intently?

If you were to look at which opera is most popular on Barihunks based on page views by readers it might surprise some to learn that Poulenc's "Les mamelles de Tirésias" edges out Mozart's "Don Giovanni." A good reason might be that barihunks tend to bare more in this opera than in Don Giovanni, Rape of Lucretia or Pearl Fishers. Gabriel Bermudez's nude scene remains the runaway leader in terms of page views on this site.

Perhaps only "The Fly," which we presume has seen its last performance, guarantees more skin. If "The Fly" didn't provide a good night of theater, it did provide us with the term "the Full Okulitch"for a baritone who bares all. Barihunk Michael Mayes, who is one of the most entertaining people in all of opera, says that barihunk Michael Todd Simpson coined the phrase on Maye's TexapolitanOpera.com podcast. In a subsequent episode, barihunk David Adam Moore used the term and we're pretty sure it's going to stick. Hopefully, we'll have plenty of more opportunities to use the phrase.

Tim McDevitt

Tim McDevitt didn't go the Full Okulitch in his recent performance of "Les mamelles de Tirésias"  with the Julliard Opera, but his appearance in his scivvies was enough to activate our inbox. One reader told us that the performances were free, making the four night run the "hottest" ticket in town. and the best bargain. McDevitt, who was recently featured on this site, played Le Mari, the same role that made Gabriel Bermudez an internet sensation. 

We look forward to seeing more of this talented young singer in the future.

For more information about performances at Julliard, please visit their website.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Trio of Barihunks at Julliard

Drew Santini, Andreas Aroditis & Tim McDevitt

If you don't want to spend the big bucks to see the sexy group of barihunks at The Met, you can head over to Julliard and catch this trio of emerging barihunks. Drew Santini, Andreas Aroditis & Tim McDevitt will be performing in Poulenc’s greatly underrated opera Les mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tirésias). There are performances on Monday, December 6, Wednesday, December 8, and Friday, December 10 at 8 PM and Sunday, December 12 at 2 PM in Juilliard’s Willson Theater. There are limited free tickets available beginning on Wednesday by calling (212) 769-7406 or visiting www.juilliard.edu.www.juilliard.edu

Our most popular post ever on this site is of barihunk Gabriel Bermudez doing the full monty in a production from Barcelona.

If you need some additional enticement, Tim McDevitt was quoted in the Juilliard Journal saying, "I have four costumes in the opera....none of which involve pants"

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

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