Barihunk Quartet making Lyric Opera of Chicago debuts in Don Giovanni

Ildar Abdrazakov, Brendon Cedel and Davide Luciano

Four barihunks will be making their Lyric Opera of Chicago debuts in the upcoming production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, which opens on November 14. Russian bass-barihunk Ildar Abdrazakov will alternate the title role along with Davide Luciano, while Brandon Cedel sings Masetto. Finnish basso Mika Kares also makes his debut with the company as the Commendatore after an impressive performance in Mozart's Requiem earlier this year with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

They will be joined by Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Donna Anna, Ben Bliss as Don Ottavio, Amanda Majeski as Donna Elvira, Matthew Rose as Leporello and Ying Fang as Zerlina.

Mika Kares

Don Giovanni was the first opera that the company produced in early 1954 in an effort to gauge Chicago's support for a new opera company. Needless to say, it was quite a success, considering the cast included Nicola Rossi–Lemeni as Don Giovanni, John Brownlee as Leporello, Eleanor Steber as Donna Anna, Léopold Simoneau as Don Ottavio and Bidú Sayão as Zerlina. The debut season also included Maria Callas performing her signature role of Norma.

The current production will be the company's eleventh performance of the season. There will be nine performances from November 14 through 8. Tickets are available online. David Luciano will perform on December 3 and 8, while Ildar Abdrazakov sings on all other dates.

Barihunk Trio in Boston's Rape of Lucretia

Brandon Cedel, Duncan Rock and David McFerrin (Photos from artist's websites)

Boston Lyric Opera’s season of rebels, dissenters and tales of strong women continues with Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, The entire series of operas is being led by women directors.

The Rape of Lucretia will feature a trio of barihunks, led by Duncan Rock as Tarquinius, Brandon Cedel as Collatinus and David McFerrin as Junius. They'll be joined by Kelley O’Connor as Lucretia, Margaret Lattimore as Bianca, Sara Womble as Lucia, and Jesse Darden and Antonia Tamer as the Male Chorus and Female Chorus. The opera runs from March 11-17 at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in Boston's Fort Point Neighborhood. Tickets are available online.

Brandon Cedel  & Duncan Rock rehearsing (Photo: BLO)

Duncan Rock created a sensation when he performed the role of Tarquinius with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in a performance that was broadcast worldwide. He also performed the role at the Deutsche Oper Berlin to great acclaim. Rock made his U.S. stage debut the Boston Lyric Opera in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni in 2015.

The opera tells the story of Lucretia, who is raped by the tyrant Tarquinius Superbus, ruler of Rome. Unable to live with the shame, Lucretia  commits suicide. The action of the opera is commented on throughout by a Male and Female Chorus who occupy another dimension, at times narrating the story and at times voicing the thoughts of the different characters.  The opera was not particularly well received by audiences or critics at the time, but the chamber opera has grown in popularity in recent years.

Duncan Rock rehearsing Tarquinius (Photo courtesy BLO)

Brandon Cedel is making his role debut as Collatinus. David McFerrin has been a regular at the Boston Lyric Opera, appearing as Ferguson in Burke & Hare, an Officer in Glass' In The Penal Colony, Kuligin in Katya Kabanova, Captain McFarlane in Lizzie Borden and Yamadori in Madam Butterfly.

Did you know that Duncan Rock started his musical career playing the bagpipes, and that he also played basketball as well as the bass?

Brandon Cedel in Verdi rarity Il corsaro in Franfurt

Brandon Cedel

Brandon Cedel will sing the bass role of Giovanni in Oper Frankfurt's concert performances of Verdi's Il corsaro. He'll be joined by an all-star cast that includes Dorothea Röschmann as Medora, Željko Lučić as Seid and Mario Chang as Corrado.

The performance is part of the company's series of early and middle period operas by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto is based on Lord Byron's 1814 poem The Corsair, which many believe was based on the life of the 19th century French pirate Jean Lafitte. The composer expressed interest in Byron's poem The Corsair as early as 1844 when he was planning an opera for Venice, but a suitable baritone was not available. Therefore, he completed I masnadieri for London before completing Il corsaro, which premiered in Trieste on October 25, 1848. With the exception of two other productions, the opera all but vanished from the repertory after just three performances in Trieste. It didn't appear in the U.K. until 1966 and in the U.S. until 1981. The San Diego Opera produced it in 1982 with a cast that included June Anderson, Rosalind Plowright, Alfonso Navarrete and J. Patrick Raftery.

Thomas Hampson sings "Alfin questo corsaro...Cento leggiadre vergini" from Il corsaro:

The opera is about a noble pirate who battles the Muslims, is loved by a harem maid but in turn loves another, and who finally kills himself after his true love poisons herself when she thinks he is dead.

Performances are on November 7th and 9th and tickets and additional information is available online. Cedel is currently performing Angelotti in Puccini Tosca and the Messenger in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex with Oper Frankfurt.

Gordon Bintner leads (almost) all-male cast of "From the House of the Dead"

Gordon Bintner (left and right), Gal Fefferman and Brandon Cedel (Photo: Barbara Aumüller)

Oper Frankfurt is presenting Leoš Janáček's From the House of the Dead from April 1-29 with a cast led by Canadian barihunk Gordon Bintner and an array of barihunks familiar to readers of this site, including Barnaby Rea, Mikołaj Trąbka and Brandon Cedel. Bintner portrays the main character, Alexandr Petrovič Gorjančikov, a well-born political prisoner who is dismayed by his new surroundings in a Siberian prison camp.

Leoš Janáček completed his revolutionary opera From the House of the Dead in May 1928, which became his final and, arguably, most powerful work. 
  
The work was first performed posthumously in 1930 and is based on Dostoyevsky’s semi-autobiographical novel describing life in a Siberian gulag. Janáček does not soften that harsh reality at the heart of his tale, but imbues the work with compassion in its honest depiction of humanity’s difficult truths. 

Barnaby  Rea, Mikołaj Trąbka and Brandon Cedel

He used a radically new music language to convey the epic demands of the work. The astonishing score includes eruptive elements, piercing dissonances, laconic, short motifs, rhythmical ostinati and language as "instant photography of the soul," as the composer called it. He also uses folk music, which often embued his works, to show how the prisoners create a sense of community even in bleak surroundings.

The brief appearance of a prostitute is the only female figure in a world of men whose movement is governed by constant monotonous repetition and whose symbolic expression is found in a wounded eagle. 

The piece was initially deemed by some to be too pessimistic, but the opera eerily foresaw the totalitarian era that was on the horizon and has new-found resonance in today's geo-politcal world.

Tickets and additional cast information is available online. 

Brandon Cedel in world premiere of "A Wintery Spring"

Brandon Cedel

American barihunk Brandon Cedel will sing in the world premiere of Jordanian-born German composer Saed Haddad’s dramatic lament "A Wintery Spring," which premieres on February 22nd at the Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt. It will have six performances in Frankfurt as part of a co-production with Ensemble Modern and the Frankfurt Opera. It will have one performance in Köln on April 8th.

The piece deals with the current political, social structures and attitudes in the Middle East – without attempting to portray a concrete story about the Arab Spring, but rather searching for paths which might unite people and traditions.

The lament is based on aphorisms by the Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran, who emigrated with his mother and siblings to the United States in 1895. Gibran’s central motifs are life and death, and love as their uniting element.

Michael Porter & Brandon Cedel in A Wintery Spring (Photos: Monika Rittershaus)

The premiere will be combined with the first staged performance of the baroque cantata "Il Serpente di bronzo" (The Bronze Serpent) by the Bohemian baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka, in which God punishes the doubts of the people of Israel with a plague of snakes, making the people realize the errors of their ways.

The composer wrote several outstanding spiritual works for the court in Dresden. This unconventional orchestral vocal work enjoyed a Renaissance in the last third of the 20th century.

Cedel will sing the unnamed bass-baritone role in A Wintery Spring and God (Dio) in The Bronze Serpent. Tickets and additional cast information for the double-bill are available online. Click HERE for the Köln performance.

Brandon Cedel wins Annenberg Fellowship Fund career grant

Brandon Cedel before Met's Manon Lescaust & stretching before Barber of Seville

Bass-baritone Brandon Cedel was one of nine early-career artists awarded a grant from the prestigious Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts. The Fund  awards $50,000 a year for up to two years to help promising artists make a breakthrough in their careers, broaden their skills, and achieve professional success.

In addition to Cedel, fellowships totaling $450,000 were awarded to violinist Robyn Bollinger; actors Jeremie Harris, Miriam Hyman and David Pegram; cellist and conductor Nico Olarte-Hayes; visual artist Nyugen Smith; ballet dancer Devon Teuscher; and musician and musicologist Daniel Walden.

The Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund has paid or pledged more than $5.5 million in career-development grants to artists, including the current group, over the last nine years. The funding has enabled promising artists with world-class talent to film a movie, record new music, experiment in performance, afford studio time or training, buy materials, pay for living expenses and pay down student debt. The fellows, selected in consultation with partners such as The Public Theater, American Ballet Theatre, and the Perlman Music Program, work with mentors chosen by the partners and the Leonore Annenberg Fund.

Cedel just appeared in the Pittsburgh Opera production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville with his husband, fellow barihunk Jonathan Beyer. Upcoming performances include Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Philadelphia, Masetto in Don Giovanni at the Münchner Opernfestspiele, and Leporello at Glyndebourne.

Cedel will join Oper Frankfurt in 2016 when he completes his third year of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, which sponsored him. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Cedel won a Grand Prize at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2013) and a Richard Tucker Career Grant (2015). The New Yorker's music critic Alex Ross wrote of Cedel: "Capable of singing anything from Cavalli to Wagner, he may be destined for stardom."  

Barihunk duos in two Opera Philadelphia performances

Zachary James and John Moore in Mazzoli's Breaking Waves

Opera Philadelphia announced their 2016-17 season, which will include the barihunk duo of John Moore and Zachary James in the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s chamber opera Breaking the Waves, which features a libretto by Royce Vavrek. Mazzoli is a graduate of Opera Philadelphia’s Composer in Residence program.

The opera is based on the Oscar-nominated 1996 film by Lars von Trier. The libretto tells the story of Bess McNeill (sung by Kiera Duffy), a religious young woman with a deep love for her husband Jan (sung by John Moore), a handsome oil rig worker. When Jan becomes paralyzed in an off-shore accident, her marital vows are put to the test as he encourages her to seek other lovers and return to his bedside to tell him of her sexual activities. He insists that the stories will feel like they are making love together and keep him alive. Bess’s increasing selflessness leads to a finale of divine grace, but at great cost.

Performances will run from September 22 through October 1st. The cast also includes the rising tenor sensation David Portillo, Eve Gigliotti and Patricia Schuman.

Brandon Cedel and John Chest in The Marriage of Figaro

The company's new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro will feature the barihunk duo of Brandon Cedel as Figoro and John Chest as the Count. Performances will be at the Academy of Music and will also feature Ying Fang as Susanna, Layla Claire as the Countess, John Chest, Cecelia Hall as Cherubino and Patrick Carfizzi as Bartolo.

Other operas in the season include Puccini's Turandot with Christine Goerke in the title role and Daniel Belcher as Ping; a re-imaging of Verdi's Macbeth by South African director Brett Bailey set in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the title character as a Congolese warlord: and Stephanie Blythe making her role debut as the title character in Rossini’s Tancredi along with Daniel Mobbs as Orbazzano.

You can find more information on the Opera Philadelphia website.

Barihunk trio in Boston's La bohème

Andrew Garland and Brandon Cedel (left), Jonathan Beyer and Cedel (center) and a rehearsal break

The Boston Lyric Opera kicked off their new season with a production of Puccini's La bohème. The cast features the barihunk trio of Jonathan Beyer as Marcello, Brandon Cedel as Colline and Andrew Garland as Schaunard. Beyer and Cedel are a couple offstage, making one wonder what is really going on in that Parisian garret.

Directed by Rosetta Cucchi, the opera is updated to the 1968 Paris student revolts that reflected generational unrest and supported strikes that brought the city to its knees, this production is influenced by the spirit of defiance embodied in French New Wave films (particularly Jean-Luc Godard’s “Masculin Féminin”) and the mod clothing inspired by London fashion that upended the city’s haute couture reputation.  Boston Lyric Opera's new La Bohème places Puccini’s familiar story of bohemian artists fuled by idealism and passionate love in a graffiti-laden student flat, the revolutionaries’ gathering place Café Momus, and alongside a barricade erected during the student riots.  Audio recordings from the era and from the riots are an integral part of the production’s sound design.

Beyer is returning to the company after having performed Figaro in their 2012 production of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Garland sang Schaunard in the company's 2007 production of La bohème and Cedel is making his company debut. Also in the cast are Jesus Garcia as Rodolfo and the stunning Kelly Kaduce as Mimì.

There are remaining performances on October 4, 7, 9 and 11. Tickets and addition production information is available online.

Our 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar is now on sale. Order today by clicking below. All proceeds will go to the creation of the Foundation for the Advancement of Baritones (FAB).

 

Brandon Cedel discusses barihunks on WQXR

Brandon Cedel in a lovely tee shirt

Barihunk Brandon Cedel, whose career is on the steady ascent, joined some operatic royalty on WQXR's show with Naomi Lewin. The AVA graduate and winner of the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions joined legendary soprano Renata Scotto, superstar tenor Michael Fabiano and fellow Richard Tucker Grant award winner Jennifer Johnson Cano for a discussion and selection of music.

Watch the video HERE. At 16:30 you can hear him discuss being in the 2012 Barihunks Charity Calendar.

He'll be performing at the Metropolitan Opera in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk opening on November 10 and Verdi's Don Carlos next March.  In the Summer of 2015, he heads to the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis where he will be performing in Handel's rarely produced Richard the Lionhearted. Fans on the West Coast can catch him with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas on January 9 and 10.

Shirtless pictures from Edwin Crossley-Mercer in L.A. "Nozze"

We posted about the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Mozart -Da Ponte Trilogy with a barihunk in Le nozze di Figaro trio back May. The main eye candy in that production, which also included Christopher Maltman and Brandon Cedel, was an oft-shirtless Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Figaro.

The production set was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, with costumes by couturier Azzedine Alaïa. On alternating nights you barihunk connoisseurs feasted their eyes on a Don Giovanni cast that included barihunks Mariusz Kwiecien and Ryan Kuster.

(Click to enlarge)

We posted a semi-shirtless of picture of Crossley-Mercer back in May, but we now have additional photos from the production. We can see why we received a generous amount of emails begging us to find some photos.

If you want to catch Crossley-Mercey live, on August 10th, he'll be performing a song recital with accompanist Fernando Pérez at the Sala Verdi in Montevideo, Uruguay. From October 13-21 he reprises his huge success as Pollux in Rameau's Castor et Pollux at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris. Tickets and additional cast information are available online. 

Edwin Crossley Mercer sings Brahms' "Wie soll ich die Freude"

Also, don't forget about his upcoming release of Michael Linton's 17-movement song cycle Carmina Catulli, which we posted about last week. 

Trio of Barihunks in new Glyndebourne Don Giovanni

Elliot Mador, Brandon Cedel and Edwin Crossley-Mercer

If you followed any of the press around Tara Eraught's treatment by British reviewers concerning her appearance as the Octavian in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne, you can rest assured that no such criticism will be hurled at director Jonathan Kent’s updated production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. The company has assembled an ensemble of great singers who also look like they were cast for a Baz Luhrmann blockbuster Hollywood film.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer and Elliot Madore (photo: Robert Workman)

In the title role is the rising Canadian star barihunk Elliot Madore, who is joined by Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Leporello and Brandon Cedel as Masetto. Madore returns to Glyndebourne after his successful 2012 Festival debut in Ravel's L’heure espagnole. Madore joins a distinguished roster of Don's that dates back to the legendary performances of John Brownlee in the 1930s and includes Giuseppe Valdengo, Kim Borg, Enest Blanc, Ruggero Raimondi, Benjamin Luxon, Brent Ellis, Sir Thomas Allen, Richard Stilwell, Olaf Bar and Gerald Finley.

The current cast also includes the sensational young British tenor Ben Johnson as Don Ottavio,  Canadian soprano Layla Claire reprising her 2012 appearance as Donna Anna, Italian soprano Serena Farnocchia as Donna Elvira, Lenka Máčiková as Zerlina and Andrés Orozco-Estrada making his Glyndebourne debut conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lenka Máčiková, Elliot Madore and Brandon Cedel

If you can't make the performance, you can watch their 2010 production featuring Gerald Finley as Don Giovanni, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and Guido Loconsolo as Masetto on July 6th. Later today, you can watch the aforementioned production of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier live from Glyndebourne, starring Kate Royal, Teodora Gheorghiu and Tara Erraught, and conducted by Robin Ticciati. The broadcast begins on Sunday June 8 at 4.30pm GST/11:30am EST/8:30am PST. Click HERE to watch.

Brandon Cedel to appear in recital with Uncle Mark Cedel

Brandon Cedel

Brandon Cedel, one of the six winners of the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a recent finalist in the Queen Sonja Vocal Competition, will be a featured soloist with the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra on Sept. 12th at 8 p.m. at Hodgson Hall. He will be appearing under the baton of Mark Cedel, who happens to be his uncle and the director of orchestral activities at Hodgson School. Both Cedels attended Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music.

The performance will kick off the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s 2013-2014 Second Thursday Scholarship Concert Series. The Cedels will present opera arias by Handel, Bellini and Rachmaninoff, as well as Suite No. 2 from Manuel de Falla’s “The Three-Cornered Hat” and Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.” 

Tickets for the performance are $18 for the general public and $5 for UGA students and are available at the UGA Performing Arts Center box office, by calling 706-542-4400 or online.

Raves for Crossley-Mercer and Maltman in sexy Marriage of Figaro

Malin Christensson and Edwin Crossley-Mercer in Los Angeles (Lawrence K. Ho, Los Angeles Times)

We posted about the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Mozart -Da Ponte Trilogy awhile back. If you missed getting tickets for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, you missed some serious eye-candy, with three barihunks who have been on this site. Leading the way was the sexy Figaro of Edwin Crossley-Mercer.  

The LA Times wrote, "Baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer was a distant, angry, virile yet, as Alaïa dressed him, metrosexual Figaro." After seeing the pictures, we would have added "smoking hot" to the list of superlatives. Also in the cast is Christopher Maltman as the Count. The LA Times wrote, "Maltman [wore] tight whites that only a powerful man could get away with, but Maltman is a magnetic baritone scarily uncowed. When outwitted, he still holds all the power, and he sang that way." In the small role of Antonio is Barihunk calendar model Brandon Cedel.

Dorothea Röschmann and Christopher Maltman (Genaro Molina)

There are still two performances remaining on May 23 and May 25. Conducting wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel is leading the orchestra. Visit their website for tickets.

If you want to catch Crossley-Mercer in the United States, you may want to catch one of these performances. When he wraps up on May 25th, he heads back to Europe for a series of concerts and operas in France and Germany. He kicks of on June 9th at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch Partenkirchen before heading to the Théâtre des Champs Élysées on June 20th for Fauré's Pénélope. There are no other U.S. performances listed on his schedule.

If you want to catch Brandon Cedel, he'll be appearing at the Wolf Trap Opera beginning on June 21st in Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims. That production also includes barihunks Aaron Sorensen, Norman Garrett and Steven LaBrie. Additional information is available online. 

Watch the Met Audition winners on WQXR

Met audition winner Brandon Cedel performs in the WQXR studio

Fresh off of their thrilling wins as Met audition winners, a handful of singers appeared in the WQXR studios the next day to reprise some of their winning arias. Brandon Cedel kicked it off with Aleko's cavatina from Rachmaninoff's opera of the same day. Click HERE to watch.

Sydney Mancasola sings the Silver Aria from the Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe; Michael Brandenburg sings Lensky's aria from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin; Musa Ngqungwana sings "Riez, allez, riez du pauvre idéologue” from Massenet's Don Quichotte; Rebecca Pedersen sings “Pleurez, mes yeux” from Massenet's Le Cid; and, Thomas Richards has been ill and didn't sing, but former winner Eric Owens wraps it up singing from Verdi's Macbeth.

BREAKING NEWS: 6 of 10 Met Audition finalists are BARITONES!!!

Richard Ollarsaba

If there was any doubt remaining that we're in the "Golden Age of Baritones," it was put to rest today at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions semi-finals. An astonishing six of the ten singers advancing to next Sunday's finals are baritones or basses. Those singers include Matthew Anchel of the Eastern Region, Brandon Cedel of the Middle Atlantic Region, Musa Ngqungwana of the Middle Atlantic Region, Richard Ollarsaba of the Upper Midwest Region, Thomas Richards of the Central Region and Efraín Solís of the Western Region.

The ten winners will now perform on March 10 at 3 p.m at the Grand Finals Concert accompanied by the Met Orchestra. The singers will have a week of preparation with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the concert, which is open to the public.   Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert may be purchased at the Met Box Office, by phone at 212-362-6000, or online atwww.metopera.org.

Efraín Solís

Other singers advancing are tenor Michael Brandenburg of the Central Region, soprano Tracy Cox of the Western Region, soprano Sydney Mancasola of the New England Region and Rebecca Pedersen of the Rocky Mountain Region.  Barihunks would like to congratulate all of the finalists and wish them well (but we will unabashedly be pulling for the baritones!).

Met Competition Finalists Arrive in NY: Includes Seven Baritones

Brandon Cedel showing off his barihunk cred

Twenty singers, including seven baritones, who won regional competitions around the United States arrived in New York yesterday to begin rehearsals for the semi-finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The Met Auditions, this year celebrating their 60^th anniversary, are a major stepping stone to a career as an opera singer and were crucial in introducing many of today's best-known stars, such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Samuel Ramey, Deborah Voigt, and Dolora Zajick.

We were thrilled that over a third of the semi-finalists are baritones, who we will be rooting for. They include: Matthew Anchel, bass (Eastern Region; New York, NY); Brandon Cedel, bass-baritone (Middle Atlantic Region; Edward Nelson, baritone (Mid-South Region; Los Angeles, CA); Musa Ngqungwana, bass-baritone (Middle Atlantic Region; Richard Ollarsaba, bass-baritone (Upper Midwest Region; Tempe, AZ); Thomas Richards, bass-baritone (Central Region; Burnsville, MN); and, Efrain Solis, baritone (Western Region; Santa Ana, CA).

The semi-finalists will rehearse with the company's music staff for two days in preparation for the Semi-Finals competition on Sunday, March 3. The winners of that event will go on to sing in the Grand Finals Concert accompanied by the Met Orchestra on March 10 at 3 p.m. The finalists will have a week of preparation with Met musical and dramatic coaches to prepare for the Concert, which is open to the public. 

Tickets for the Grand Finals Concert may be purchased at the Met Box Office, by phone at 212-362-6000, or online atwww.metopera.org. 

Other finalists include: Michael Brandenburg, tenor (Central Region; Austin, IN);  Hershey, PA); Tracy Cox, soprano (Western Region; Dallas, TX); William Davenport,  tenor (Middle Atlantic Region; Rockville, MD); Hye Jung Lee, soprano (Gulf Coast Region; Seoul, South Korea); Juan José de León, tenor (Great Lakes Region; Corpus Christi, TX); Christopher Lowrey, countertenor (New England Region; Johnston, RI); Sydney Mancasola, soprano (New England Region; Redding, CA); Felicia Moore, soprano (Eastern Region; Princeton, NJ);  Port Elizabeth, South Africa);  Rebecca Pedersen, soprano (Rocky Mountain Region; Bountiful, UT);  Jessica Strong, soprano (Northwest Region; Winnipeg, Manitoba); Karen Vuong, soprano (Eastern Region; Los Angeles, CA); Benjamin Werley, tenor (Midwest Region; Pittsburgh, PA); and,  Melinda Whittington, soprano (Southeast Region; Charlotte, NC).

BREAKING NEWS: Brandon Cedel wins Middle Atlantic Met Regional Auditions

Brandon Cedel

Eleven months after winning the 2012 George London Foundation Competition, Brandon Cedel has won the Middle Atlantic Metropolitan Opera Regional Council Auditions at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.. Cedel sang Henry Purcell's "Arise ye subterranean winds" from the Tempest and Aleko's Cavatina by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Also competing in tonight's competition was barihunk Matthew Morris. Both Morris and Cedel appeared in our 2012 calendar. 

Brandon Cedel can next be seen performing the role of William Dale in the Opera Company of Philadelphia's production of Kevin Puts' "Silent Night." Performances run from February 8-17 and the cast includes barihunks Liam Bonner, Craig Irvin, Gabriel Preisser and Troy Cook. Tickets are available online.

Multi-Barihunk Schubert-fest in New York City

John Brancy, Kelly Markgraf and Michael Kelly

When we woke up this morning and saw the announcement of New York's first performance of the complete songs of Franz Schubert, we thought that we had died and gone to heaven. It wasn't because of the thought of eight months of virtually non-stop Schubert, but it was the lineup of singers, which includes a dozen of our favorite barihunks.

The project is the brainchild of Lachlan Glen and Jonathan Ware who run Schubert & Company in the Big Apple. They've assemble fifty-three singers who have volunteered their services to perform all 603 songs at the Central Presbyterian Church the corner of 64th Street and Park Avenue.

The roster of barihunks consists of a virtual Who's Who of this site, including Tyler Simpson, Edward Parks, Kelly Markgraf, Michael Kelly, Jonathan Estabrooks, Jeong-Cheol Cha, Brandon Cedel, John Brancy, Jesse Blumberg, Julian Arsenault and others.

The duo is trying to raise the necessary funds for this project on Kickstarter and we encourage everyone to give even a few dollars/euros to makes this a reality.

Keep the Barihunk Winning Streak Alive: Vote for Jonathan Beyer Online at the Paris Opera Awards

Barihunk couple

We've given extensive coverage to the winning streak that barihunks (and baritones) are having in vocal competitions across the globe. If you've ever fantasized about being a judge in one of those competitions you now have your chance.

The Paris Opera Awards, in honor of Maria Callas, are holding an online vocal competition. One of the contestants is Jonathan Beyer, who may have the most amazing winning record of any singer in vocal competitions. We know of at least eighteen competitions where he's taken the top prize.

You can register online to vote and if you register as a premium member you'll be entered into a drawing for a deluxe trip to Paris for two or a brand new car. Once the online voting is complete, the top 100 singers with the highest ranking will compete before a panel of judges. Ten of the top 50, five female and five male, will then be announced will participate in a gala performance.    

Jonathan Beyer has selected "Ah, per sempre" from Bellini's I puritani, which was an opera in which Maria Callas had one of her most triumphant successes.

This competition is loaded with sopranos and has very few baritones, so show your support for the low voices and vote at the Paris Opera Awards website.

Scott Conner wins Loren L. Zachary Competition

Scott Conner

Baritones and basses continue to dominate vocal competitions, as bass Scott Conner took away the top prize at the Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition over the weekend. Earlier this year, Conner won the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition. A District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Conner has been a finalist in the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, and was named a Gold Winner in Voice by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA).

He is an Artist in Residence at the Academy of Vocal Arts where he has performed the title role in Don Giovanni, Colline in La bohème, La Roche in Capriccio, Oroveso in Norma, First Man in the world premiere of Scarlet Letter. the Four Villains in Les contes d'Hoffmann, the title role in Verdi's Oberto, and Dulcamara in L'elsir d'amore.

Two other barihunks walked away with top prizes, as Eugene Brancoveanu and Wes Mason also won prizes. Brandon Cedel, who was an early favorite to win the competition, had to withdraw due to illness. Other winners this year included, mezzo Olivia Vote, soprano Chloe Moore, soprano Anush Avetisyan, tenor Viktor Antipenko, tenor Benjamin Bliss and soprano Anna-Lisa Hackett.

Scott Conner sings "Fin ch'han dal vino" from Don Giovanni:

A number of barihunks have walked away with top prizes at the Loren L. Zachary competition in past years, including Zachary Nelson and Brandon Cedel in 2011, Donovan Singletary and Jonathan Beter in 2010, Kelly Markgraf in 2009 and Matt Trevino in 2007.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com