Hey, New Yorkers: Win two tickets to Met Donizetti screenings at BAM

We're giving away 10 sets of tickets to our New York City-area readers. The winner will send us either A) A singer that we haven't featured on the site that is worthy of Barihunk status, or B) A top for a story or feature on the site.

The winners will receive 2 tickets to see "Met Duet: Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda" on Sunday, June 22. It is a double encore Met: Live in HD screening that features Anna Netrebko (in Anna Bolena) and Joyce DiDonato (in Maria Stuarda) with in-person introductions to each opera by Deborah Voigt and a CD signing with Voigt.

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Four baritones/basses advance to Met Semi-Finals

Patrick Guetti and Scott Russell

One-fifth of the singers advancing from the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions to the Met Semi-Finals will be baritones or basses. They include Patrick Guetti, Scott Russell, Alex DeSocio and Ao Li. A panel of judges will hold closed auditions on March 20 to determine who will advance to the final round of the competition at the Met Grand Finals Concert under the baton of conductor Marco Armiliato on Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. At the end of the concert, winners will be announced, each of whom will receive an individual cash prize of $15,000.

Alex DeSocio and Ao Li

On Tuesday, April 1 at 7 p.m., the winners will perform a concert of varied operatic repertory at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR 105.9, New York City’s all-classical station. They will be joined by a Met star and former National Council winner, soprano Deborah Voigt. The event will be broadcast live on WQXR and there will be a live video webcast on both www.wqxr.org and www.thegreenespace.org.

The regional winners were chosen from nearly 1500 singers who participated in the auditions held in 40 districts and 13 regions throughout the United States and Canada, sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council and administered by National Council members and hundreds of volunteers from across the country.

You can check out our January post to read about the baritones and basses who entered the competition this year.

Solomon Howard and Norman Garrett to join Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program

Norman Garrett (left in Carmen) and Soloman Howard with Indra Thomas and Noah Stewart

The Washington National Opera has announced its roster for their 12th season of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. It will include four baritones/basses, including two who we've featured on this site, Soloman Howard and Norman Garrett. They will be joined by baritone Christian Bowers and bass Wei Wu.

The program is expanding from ten artists to twelve artists this year and will include mentorship by its new Artist in Residence, soprano Deborah Voigt, as well as voice teachers Diana Soviero and William Stone, guest master teachers Carol Vaness and Peter Kazaras, and visiting vocal coach Kathleen Kelly.

The new class of young artists will participate in several world premiere productions during the 2013-2014 season, including new commissions from WNO’s American Opera Initiative and Jeanine Tesori’s new family opera The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me. The program will also continue its exchange with the Bolshoi Young Artists Opera Program and will send several artists to Moscow for a two-week period in 2014.

Other participants will include soprano Jacqueline Echols, tenor Yuri Gorodetski, tenor Yi Li, pianist Kevin Miller, pianist Tomoko Nakayama, mezzo Deborah Nansteel, tenor Patrick O’Halloran and soprano Shantelle Przybylo.

Choose Your Weapon: Gunn replaces Spear in Texas

Deborah Voigt (photo NYTimes) and Nathan Gunn as Billy Budd

Barihunk Nathan Gunn will replace one of the great spear carrying Brunnhilde's of all-time, Deborah Voigt, on March 20th in Ft. Worth. Gunn is stepping in for Voigt at the Cliburn Concerts at Bass Hall. Voigt withdrew because of illness. The performance also serves as a preview to local audiences, who will see Gunn in the Dallas Opera's production of Dominik Argento's The Aspern Papers  in 2013.

Accompanying Mr. Gunn in performance will be his wife, pianist Julie Gunn.

Single tickets are available from $15-$90, and can be purchased at Cliburn.org or by calling 817.212.4280. Tickets to Deborah Voigt's recital will be honored.

Gunn is currently wrapping up a highly acclaimed performance in Show Boat at Lyric Opera of Chicago. After the Ft. Worth recital, he heads back to the stage in two of his most heralded roles at two of America's greatest opera houses. On May 4th, he portrays the title character in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at the Metropolitan Opera. He then heads to the San Francisco Opera on June 13th, where he will portray Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute. The San Francisco Opera summer season also includes John Adams' Nixon in China and Verdi's Attila. 

Nathan Gunn as Papageno in Julie Taymor's famous production:

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Rod Gilfry to Join Deborah Voigt in "Annie Get Your Gun'

Barihunk Rod Gilfry, who is currently singing the role of Emile de Becque in a touring cast of “South Pacific” is joining forces with soprano Deborah Voigt to perform "Annie Get Your Gun" at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. Gilfry will play Annie Oakley’s love interest, Frank Butler.

Gilfry appears to have made a seemless transition from opera to Broadway following a long tradition of baritones that includes Ezio Pinza, Giorgio Tozzi and fellow barihunk Paulo Szot, who created a sensation in “South Pacific.”

“Annie Get Your Gun” is one of four productions scheduled for Glimmerglass. Recently appointed artistic director Francesca Zambello has decided to add an unamplified performance of a Broadway musical to future seasons, which in the past were strictly operatic.

Operas in the upcoming festival will include Carmen, Jeanine Kushner's A Blizzard in Marblehead Neck, John Musto's Later the Same Evening.

Glimmerglass' Young American Artists Program will also feature two barihunks that we've previously feature, Michael Krzankowski and Steven LaBrie.

Here is Rod Gilfry singing "My Heart Is So Full Of You" from The Most Happy Fella:



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