Barihunks galore in Hamburg's Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy; Livestream of Don Giovanni from Rome

André Schuen and Kyle Ketelson in Don Giovanni (© Brinkhoff/Mögenburg)

The Hamburg State Opera kicked off its Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy of opera with the premiere of Don Giovanni on October 20th featuring the barihunk trilogy of Andrè Schuen in the title role, Kyle Ketelsen as Leporello and Alexander Tsymbalyuk as the Commendatore. Additional performances are on October 23, 26, 29 and November 3, 6 and 9.

On October 22, they will add Così fan tutte to the rotation with barihunk John Chest as Guglielmo.  Additional performances will be on October 22, 27, 31 and November 2. The final opera will be Le Nozze di Figaro, which opens on November 1, with additional performances on November 5, 8 and 12. The cast features barihunks Christoph Pohl as the Count and Wilhelm Schwinghammer as Figaro.

Tickets for all three operas are available online.

Alessio Arduini as Don Giovanni in Rome

If you can't make it to an Hamburg or another opera house featuring Don Giovanni, you can watch a performance from the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma on Oct. 26, 2019 on OperaVision. The cast includes barihunk Alessio Arduini in the title role, along wtih Vito Priante, Emanuele Cordaro, Antonio Di Matteo, Juan Francisco Gatell, Maria Grazia Schiavo, Salome Jicia, and Marianne Croux. The livestream may not play in some countries.

Andrè Schuen making major debuts in 2015

Andrè Schuen

 Andrè Schuen who lit up our pages with his shirtless pictures from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore from Graz is making some major debuts in 2015. But first he kicks off the New Year with a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic that includes Handel's Dixit Dominus, Zelenka's Te Deum and Bach's Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied.

On February 16th, he makes his debut as Figaro at the Theater an der Wien in Giovanni Paisiello's rarely performed version of Il Barbiere di Siviglia under early music specialist René Jacobs. The opera was adapted from Beaumarchais' play Le Barbier de Séville by librettist Giuseppe Petrosellini and premiered in Saint Petersburg in 1782. The plot of the Paisiello opera and the Rossini version closely resemble each other, with the main difference being Petrosellini's libretto putting greater emphasis on the love story and less on the comic aspects.

Performances run through February 27th and tickets are available online. On March 6, the work will be performed at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels.

Fans in the U.K. will finally have the chance to see Schuen live when he makes his Wigmore Hall debut on March 22nd. Joined by pianist Daniel Heide, he'll perform Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 24, Frank Martin’s Jedermann and three Harfenspieler songs from Wolf’s Goethe-Lieder. Tickets are on sale now online.  

He currently has no U.S. engagements on his calendar.  

Only 36 hours left to buy your 2015 Barihunks Calendar featuring 19 of opera's sexiest barihunks! Order now.

 

Don Giovanni at Perm Opera gets 18+ age rating

Simone Alberghini in Don Giovanni, on stage and in rehearsals

We love it when an opera is listed as appropriate for those 18 and older. That's a pretty sure sign that it's going to be a sexy production and the Don Giovanni at the Perm Opera in Russia is no exception.

This production is the final opera in their Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy and it's being promoted as "a feminine view" of the opera. The role of Don Giovanni will be alternated between two barihunks, Simone Alberghini and Andrè Schuen, who many might remember from his shirtless and sexy performance in Donizetti's Elixir of Love in Graz.

Andrè Schuen as Don Giovanni in Vienna (right)

Argentinean director Valentina Carrasco, who was behind Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in Buenos Aires and Britten’s Turn of the Screw in Lyon, is directing this production. Carrasco plans to stylize the production in Perm in the spirit of film noir and populate the stage with mannequins and ‘surrogate’ people, among whom the only real person to be found is Don Giovanni. The production is the concept of the Catalan troupe “La Fura dels Baus,” which reproduces the "soul of the music in effective scenic images."

We have to raise our number one gripe with opera company websites, which is not listing casts. The Perm Opera list all of the technical staff, but not a single singer. We had to go to Operabase to find the cast. Let's hope that they fix this oversight soon.

Performances are September 21, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28 and tickets are available at http://permopera.ru/en/playbills/playbill/detail/4963.

André Schuen debuts as Don Giovanni in Montpellier and Versailles

André Schuen as Belcore in Graz (right)

We just learned the André Schuen will be singing the title character in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opéra National Montpellier for the first time in his young career. He had previously sung the role of Masetto in Graz. The opera opens today and there will be six performances running through June 16. The opera then travels to Versailles with the same cast on June 23, 25 & 27, 2013.

We've been watching his rapidly emerging career, which included his sensational shirtless performance as Belcore in Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love" at the Graz Opera in Austria in November 2012. After this run of Don Giovanni, Schuen returns to Graz where he will perform Die Heerrufer des Königs in Wagner's Lohengrin, Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflote and  Alphonse in Donizetti's La favorite.

We will try to post pictures as soon as they are available. 

Sexy "Elixir of Love" in Graz

Andrè Schuen  (Foto © Werner Kmetitsch/Oper Graz)

Two years ago we received an email from Germany alerting us to the emerging young Tyrolean talent Andrè Schuen. Remarkably, we lost track of him until we were alerted a second time. This time it was for his sexy and shirtless performance of Belcore in Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love" ("Der Liebestrank" in German) at the Graz Opera in Austria.

Schuen is another in a long list of barihunks who have been winning vocal competitions, having taken first place in both the Walter-und-Charlotte-Hamel-Stiftung competition and the Mozarteum Internationale Sommerakademie competition. In Salzburg, he made a name for himself by conquering everything from Luigi Nono to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Andrè Schuen sings "Hai gia vinta la causa! from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro:

Graz's Elixir was co-produced with Valencia and Madrid and the sets look like a beach party on a Mediterranean beach resort, with giant cans of beer, bars, beach balls, lifeguards, cheerleaders,  shirtless boys, women in bikinis and a foam party. We still believe that opera can succeed in attracting younger audiences with old warhouses and this production is a prime example. From all accounts, the production has been enthusiastically received.

Margareta Klobucar as Adina with her sexy ensemble boys

Schuen will next appear in Graz as Ford in Verdi's Falstaff opening in January 2013 and Gasparone in Karl Millöcker's Der Fremde opening a month later. 

Next summer, Schuen will graduate to the title character in Mozart's Don Giovanni from the role of Masetto, which he has performed in Graz. His Don Giovanni will premiere in Montpellier on June 6-16, 2013 and Versailles on June 23, 25 & 27, 2013.

Wilfried Zelinka as Dulcamara

Oberwölz native Wilfried Zelinka also cut a sexy figure as Dulcamara. A member of the ensemble at Graz, he's sung Bartolo in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," Masetto in Mozart's "Don Giovanni," Talbot in Donizetti's "Maria Stuarda," Raimondo in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," and Escamillo in Bizet's "Carmen." He will portray Pistola opposite Schuen in next year's "Falstaff."

Andrè Schuen

There are a number of performance of Elixir left in Graz, including an alternate cast, so check their website for dates and casts.

If you want to see 14 more singers as sexy as Andrè Schuen, buy our 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar and enjoy them all year:

Andre Schuen

We received an email from Germany informing us that barihunks Bo Skovhus and Christopher Maltman would be performing Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" and that Erwin Schrott and Simon Keenlyside would be perfoming "Le Nozze di Figaro" at the Salzburg Festival in Austria. Those performances will be in August 2011 and July 2011 respectively, so we have plenty time of time to cover it.



At the end of the email they asked us if we were familiar with Andre Schuen. They raved about his voice and incredible fidelity to the text. We thought that he was good enough and sexy enough to introduce him to the site. Let us know what you think at Barihunks@gmail.com.

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email