Matthew Morris in World Premiere Songs; Part of Barihunk Quartet in Don Giovanni

Matthew Morris

Matthew Morris will be joining the Brooklyn New Music Collective for  for an evening of song cycles, most of them performed for the first time ever. The concert will feature world premieres from James Kallembach, Glen Roven and Roger Stubblefield, plus songs from James Matheson and Steven Gerber. There will be a reception with wine after the show.

Glen Roven told us that his "Four Surreal Songs" were inspired by a visit to the Helly Nahmad Gallery where they were exhibiting a show of surrealist painters -- Jean Arp, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst. The catalog featured poems by Paul Éluard in English translations, which Roven decided to set to music.

The October 16th performance will be at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn. Tickets are available online.

Also, don't forget about Morris' upcoming performance as Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni with New York's newest and highly innnovative opera company, Venture Opera.

He'll be joined by Philip Cutlip in the title, Eric Downs as Leporellod and Christian Zaremba will sing the Commendatore. The perfect Barihunk Quartet!

Venture Opera's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni casts the serial seducer as a Catholic priest who abuses his power to have his way with women. Taking place in one of the oldest surviving gothic-revival religious buildings in New York, the adaptation revolves around the theological question of the Act of Contrition.

Performances will be on November 6, 8 and 10 at the Angel Orensanz Foundation in the heart of the Lower East Side. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

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Baritone quartet in updated Don Giovanni

Baritone quartet in Venture Opera's Don Giovanni

Four of the hottest guys in opera are coming together to create a Barihunk Quartet in Mozart's Don Giovanni with New York's newest and highly innnovative opera company. Venture Opera was founded by Jonathon Thierer in 2014 and perform installation opera throughout New York City in venues that enhance their artistic vision.

Philip Cutlip will sing the title role and be accompanied by his sidekick Eric Downs as Leporello. Matthew Patrick Morris will sing Masetto and Christian Zaremba will sing the Commendatore. 

Philip Cutlip (left) and Matthew Morris (right)

Venture Opera's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni casts the serial seducer as a Catholic priest who abuses his power to have his way with women. Taking place in one of the oldest surviving gothic-revival religious buildings in New York, the adaptation revolves around the theological question of the Act of Contrition.


Performances will be on November 6, 8 and 10 at the Angel Orensanz Foundation in the heart of the Lower East Side. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Kyle Ketelsen as Sexual Revolution-era Escamillo

Barihunk Kyle Ketelsen is starring in Minnesota Opera's updated version of Carmen, which is running through May 10th. Director Michael Cavanagh has set the opera in 1975, when Spain was coming out from under 40 years of oppressive rule by the dictator Francisco Franco. The opera is set in Seville in the heart of the sexual revolution, when many in the western world were embracing romantic freedoms, while Spain was still mired in an era of repressive misogyny.

Ketelsen is joined in the opera by two other familiar singers to readers of this site, Christian Zaremba as Zuniga and Andrew Lovato as El Dancaïre. Richard Ollarsaba, a 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions grand finalist, will perform the role of Escamillo on May 1, 3, 8 and 9.

Ketelsen's Escamillo next travels to the Théâtre antique d'Orange this Summer, where he'll be joined by hunkentenor superstar Jonas Kaufmann and mezzo Kate Aldrich.

Barihunk rich Manchurian Candidate premieres in Minnesota

Brenda Harris as Eleanor Iselin (left) and Matthew Worth as Sergeant Raymond Shaw; Leonardo Capalbo as Captain Ben Marco (right) Photos (c) Michal Daniel

Kevin Puts' latest opera The Manchurian Candidate is having its world premiere at the Minnesota Opera on Saturday, March 7th. The cast includes four barihunks who have been featured on this site, led by Matthew Worth in the pivotal role of Sergeant Raymond Shaw. Joining him in the cast are Christopher Job as Senator Thomas Jordan, Christian Zaremba as General Tracy and Andrew Lovato as Young Raymond. Added to the mix is hunkentenor Leonardo Capalbo as Captain Ben Marco.

The Manchurian Candidate is part of Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative, a program designed to invigorate the operatic repertoire with an infusion of contemporary works. The opera follows Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning first opera Silent Night, also led by Michael Christie and with a libretto by Mark Campbell, which Minnesota Opera premiered in 2011.

Matthew Worth in rehearsals for The Manchurian Candidate:

The Manchurian Candidate is based on a 1959 novel by Richard Condon, which inspired two film adaptations. In the story, Captain Ben Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw and the rest of their infantry platoon are kidnapped during the Korean War and brainwashed to believe that Shaw saved their lives in combat –for which Congress awards him the Medal of Honor. Years after the war, Marco begins having a recurring nightmare about Shaw murdering two of their men while under observation by Chinese and Soviet officials. When Marco learns that another soldier from the platoon has been suffering the same nightmare, he determines to solve the mystery.

The opera runs from March 7-15 and tickets are available online.

Barihunk quartet in Minnesota Opera's Girl of the Golden West

Christian Zaremba as Ashby and Andrew Lovato as Sonora (Photo: Michal Daniel)

Apparently, Don Giovanni isn't the only opera that deliver barihunks in bunches. We recently posted about a barihunk duo in Puccini's La fanciulla del West (Girl of the Golden West), only to find out that the Minnesota Opera has doubled the eye candy and presented a barihunk quartet in their current production.

Led my the amazing and ageless Greer Grimsley in the critical role of Jack Rance, the opera also features Andrew Lovato as Sonora, Rodolfo Nieto as Castro and Christian Zaremba as Ashby. We recently featured Lovato when he was part of the Santa Fe Apprentice Artist Program. Zaremba and Nieto are new to this site and have both somehow managed to sneak below our radar.

Greer Grimsley as Jack Rance (Photo: Michal Daniel)

Zaremba made his debut this summer at the Glimmerglass Festival as the bass soloist in David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion and appeared as Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff with the Martina Arroyo Foundation. Other credits include Il Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen and Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca, as well as Don Basilio in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia with Long Island Opera and Capitol Heights Opera. This past season, he was the bass soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Annapolis Chorale and Mozart's Requiem with the St. Cloud Orchestra.

He made his debut with Minnesota Opera last season as Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Lamoral in Richard Strauss' Arabella and the Innkeeper in Puccini's Manon Lescaut). He returns to the Minnesota Opera next season as Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen.

Rodolfo Nieto

Rodolfo Nieto has appeared with the Minnesota Opera in various roles including Horatio in Thomas' Hamlet, Johann in Massenet's Werther, Scottish Soldier #1 in the world premier of Puts' Silent Night, Joseph in Wuthering Heights, and Colline in Puccini's La bohème. Other roles include Alidoro in Rossini's La cenerentola with Lakes Area Music Festival, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Green Mountain Opera Festival, and Don Alfonso in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. 

There are additional performances of La fanciulla del West on September 25, 27 and 28. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Nicholas Nelson

UPDATE: We've just learned that it's actually a quintet of barihunks, but the Minnesota Opera didn't list the complete cast, so we missed Nicholas Nelson as Jim Larkens. (SHAME ON THEM!!!)