Five low male voice in Metropolitan Opera semi-finals

Baritone Xiaomeng Zhang

There will be two baritone, two bass-baritones and a bass among the 23 singers chosen to compete in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions semi-finals. They will move on to a closed competition on Monday, February 24 for the chance to advance to the Grand Finals on March 1st conducted by Bertrand de Billy.

The low male voices include Brent Michael Smith, bass-baritones Joel Allison and Ben Brady, as well as baritones Blake Denson and Xiaomeng Zhang. The remaining competitors includes sopranos Erika Baikoff, Claire de Monteil,  Cara Gabrielson, Courtney Johnson, Chasiti Lashay, Jana McIntyre, Whitney Morrison, Alexandria Shiner, Denis Vélez and Suzannah Waddington; mezzo-sopranos Katherine Beck, Gabrielle Beteag, Lindsay Kate Brown and Katherine DeYoung; countertenor Key’mon Murrah; and, tenors Jonah Hoskins, Joseph Leppek and Joshua Sanders.

Met Opera 2020 semi-finalists

This year’s semifinalists were chosen from more than 1,000 singers who participated in auditions held in 40 districts throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, and who then competed in the 12 regional finals. These auditions are sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council and administered by National Council members and hundreds of volunteers from across the country.

Brent Michael Smith performs "I'm a Lonely Man" from Susannah:

The singers who advance to the Grand Finals will have a week of training with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the Grand Finals Concert. Each finalist will sing two arias on the Metropolitan Opera stage. Tenor Javier Camarena will perform for the audience while the judges deliberate. Following the performance, the winners will be announced, each of whom will receive a cash prize of $15,000 and career-making exposure.

Results will be posted to @MONCAuditions Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.          

Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert are available online.

Christian Van Horn wins 2018 Richard Tucker Award

Christian van Horn

The Richard Tucker Foundation as announced that bass-barihunk Christian Van Horn is the winner of the 2018 Richard Tucker Award. He is the first bass-baritone to be win the award since John Relyea in 2003 and only the third in the award's 40-year history. He receives $50,000 for winning the award.

Past winners include Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, and Matthew Polenzani. 

Van Horn, who just finished a run as Mephistopheles in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Faust, can next he heard as Enrico in Donizetti's Anna Bolena at the Canadian Opera Company from April 28th-May 26th. In September, he will perform Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Philadelphia, followed by Mefistofele and Colline at the Metropolitan Opera.

Introducing Bass-Barihunk Brad Baron

Bran Baron

We've gotten know bass-baritone Brad Baron through Twitter and love following his tweets @BaronAsInRed. We've been meaning to post him many times over the last two years. In fact, he's been recommended to us by a few of his colleagues, particularly while working at the Des Moines Metro Opera. When we say his latest selfie...we knew it was time!

He has peformed Sir Anthony Absolute in the New York premiere of Kirke Mechem’s The Rivals with the Bronx Opera Company, Harapha in Handel’s Samson and premiered The Soldier in the first orchestra performance of Theo Popov’s Once Upon the Wind with The Secret Opera. At the aforementioned Des Moines Metro Opera he sang the role of an Old Gypsy in Bizet's Carmen and one of Flora's attendants in Verdi's La traviata at their 2014 Festival.  He sang in the first public performance of Clint Borzoni’s opera Antinous and Hadrian as the High Priest with operamission.

He was an Encouragement Award winner in the Violetta DuPont Competition, a finalist in Classical Idol 8, a semi-finalist in the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Solo Competition, and a semi-finalist in the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition.  He will be a resident artist at the Ohio Light Opera this summer.

In addition to his work as a he singer, he's an actor and writer. His play 140 Characters or Less had its first reading as a part of the Annual Short Play Festival at Luna Stages. Brad is the author of five full-length plays and many more one acts. His full-length play Where We Always Go received its first staged reading as a part of the New Playwrights Series with The Villagers Theater in Somerset, New Jersey, and his play Homochondria had its regional premiere as a part of the Ringwald Theatre’s Gay Play Series in Michigan.

In addition to writing plays, Baron is a published contributing writer for a number of online blogs. He periodically writes for the site GayGamer.net and also cultivates his own personal blog.

Baron graduated from Princeton University with an AB in English and Certificates in Theatre and Vocal Performance. He is currently in pursuit of his Masters of Music at Louisiana State University.