Teddy Bare to Make Chicago Debut: Craig Verm Heads Barihunk Casting in Windy City

Teddy Bare aka Teddy Tahu Rhodes

The Lyric Opera of Chicago has released its 2012-13 schedule and two of the sexiest men in all of opera have been cast. Teddy Tahu Rhodes will make his Lyric debut as Stanley in a semi-staged version Andre Previn's "Streetcar Named Desire." There will be four performances, which will be made available to subscribers first before being sold individually. Renee Fleming will sing the role of Blanche Dubois. There will also be a single students-only performance with an understudy cast.

Fans of Teddy Bare will have other opportunities to see him in 2012. In the United States, he will perform Guglielmo in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" at the Washington National Opera and will also return to the Metropolitan Opera. On the other side of the Equator, he will tackle his first Scarpia with the West Australian Opera and return in his signature role of Don Giovanni with both Opera Australia and Opera de Bordeaux.

Craig Verm as Aeneas

Craig Verm, who unquestionably has one of the nicest chests in opera, is one of the numerous barihunks cast next season. Verm, who has bared his torso as much as Teddy Bare, will be performing the unsexy role of Albert in Massenet's " Werther." However, with Verm playing Albert, we can certainly understand why Charlotte's mother wanted her to marry him and not the suicidal tenor.

For those who want to see Verm in some of his sexier fare, you'll have to travel to the Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile. He'll be performing in both Bizet's "Carmen" and the title role in Britten's "Billy Budd."

Ildebrando d'Arcangelo (L) & Bo Skovhus (R)

Although they've cast a good number of barihunks, none of them will be in roles that show off their non-vocal assets.  For those of you who like "more mature" barihunks, Lyric is rolling out some of the hotter over-40 singers around in some Verdi and Wagner.  

Craig Verm as Zurge and Sean Panikkar as Nadir in the famous Pearl Fishers duet:

Other barihunks appearing with Lyric next year include Bo Skovhus as Beckmesser in Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg," Thomas Hampson as the title character in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo in the title role of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" and Lucas Meachem as Marcello in Puccini's "La boheme." Visit the Lyric website for tickets and additional performance information.

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The Verdi Kings

Samuel Ramey as Attila and a young Sherrill Milnes

We're going to continue exploring Verdi this week with a look at the Verdi kings. We'll start with Verdi's first major success, Nabucco. This is the story of the Babylonian king Nabucodonosor, who assaults, conquers and drives the Jewish people from their homeland. Despite the story, it contains some of the most dramatically exciting and hair raising music in all of Verdi. The famous chorus "Va pensiero" is universally known and has become the unofficial national anthem of Italy. In a country filled with music, nothing stirs the heart of an Italian like this piece of music.

Not many barihunks have sung the title role of Nabucco, but we found this version of Ettore Bastianini from the San Francisco Opera in 1961.



Just for fun, here is the famous chorus sung by some of the greatest singers who were around in 1985, including Montserrat Caballe, Agnes Baltsa, Gwyneth Jones, Jose Carreras, Giuseppe di Stefano and baritones Christian Boesch, Renato Bruson (a great Nabucco), Sherrill Milnes, Giorgio Zancanaro and Juan Pons.



We now move to Amonasro, the king of the Ethiopians and father of the title character Aida. He plays a key role in the plot line and has been played by some of the greatest baritones in history. Here is the Act 3 duet between Aida and Amonasro "Ciel, mio padre...Rivedrai le foreste imbalsamate" with performances by seven of the greatest baritones and sopranos to ever sing the opera. We have a definitive favorite in this bunch, but we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.



Verdi based his ninth opera on the Solera play "Attila, King of the Huns." Besides the title role, there is a another wonderful role for a more lyric baritone, that of Ezio, who sings the aria "E gettata la mia sorte." You can watch Sherrill Milnes perform the aria below. We've always wondered why more young singers don't audition with this show stopper. It's a sure winner if you can nail the ending.



No one has owned the role of Attila in recent years more than the great Samuel Ramey, who always sang it with barihunk swagger and his chest bared. Here he is singing the great baritone duet with the Ezio of Giorgio Zancanaro, followed by the thrilling aria "Or son libere i miei sensi."





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What a Dahl

Over the last decade Gregory Dahl has forged a career primarily in the principle opera houses of Canada. With the Winter Olympics having recently wrapped up, it seems appropriate to highlight yet another Canadian barihunk.

Dahl is known for singing both the standard repertory and for his dedication to new operas. One of his first roles was in "Beatrice Chancy" by George Elliott Clarke and James Rolfe. He also created the role of Charlie in Calgary Opera's production of John Estacio's and John Murrell's "Filumena," performed George in the Canadian premiere of Jake Heggie's "Dead Man Walking" at the Calgary Opera, created the role of Robert Peary in Linda C. Smith's "Facing South" for Tapestry New Opera Works and he created The Alchemist in Murray Schafer's "The Palace of the Cinnabar Phoenix," which was broadcast on Canada's CBC Radio Two.



Despite all of his Canadian credentials, his entry onto Barihunks comes via the St. Louis Opera where we got this stunning photo of him performing Jokanaan in Richard Strauss' "Salome." We can certainly understand why Salome sang, "Ah! Ich habe deinen Mund geküsst, Jokanaan." (Ah! I've kissed your mouth Jokanaan!).

As an added treat, here is Dahl singing Scarpia's "Te Deum" from Puccini's Toscs:


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Former Buff Keith Miller's Buff Photos

Barihunk Keith Miller, who used to play football for the Colorado Buffaloes (aka Buffs), is starting to become a regular on the Metropolitan Opera's roster. To read about his road from the football field to the opera stage, read this NY Times article.

Hopefully, Miller will be cast in some barihunk roles, as he may have the hottest chest in opera.

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Where Chest Voice Comes From

BRIAN LEERHUBER

ERIC T DUBIN

At Barihunks we're not interested in academic arguments involving glottal cycles, laryngeal cartilage and anything else involving where the voice comes from. John Chest (his real name), got us thinking about barihunks with great chests, not great chest voices. Many of the more established singers with great chests were featured in our recent hottest Billy Budd contest.

There are two younger singers who we think have great chests: Eric T. Dubin and Brian Leerhuber. We'll leave the chest voice question to the vocal experts.

Eric Dubin was suggested to us via email by somebody with a very funny email nom de plume. He's a graduate of The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, whose graduates seem to send us more suggestions than anyone else. [Keep them coming!]

He's already performed in the Barihunk standard, Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, and we hope that he showed off his chest (and chest voice).

Brian Leerhuber has been on our list of potential barihunks forever and we've just been waiting for the opportunity to post him shirtless. The problem has been that he's been cast in some pretty unsexy roles, an obvious waste of his non-singing talents. Can you get any unsexier than Robert E. Lee, Schaunard, Dandini and Marco in Gianni Schicchi?

We're really, really, really hoping that someone at a major opera house sees this and says, "That's the guy we need to cast shirtless opposite Angela Gheorgiu." If anyone at San Francisco Opera is reading this, keep casting him but spice it up from Marcello and a Civil War general!

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