Günther Groissböck virile and youthful Ochs in Salzburg Rosenkavalier

Günther Groissböck and Sophie Koch
(© Salzburger Festspiele / Monika Rittershaus)

The Salzburg Festival just opened Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier with an all-star cast that includes barihunk Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau. A trio of superstar women join him in the opulent production, as Krassimira Stoyanova sings the Feldmarschallin, Sophie Koch plays Octavian and Mojca Erdmann sings Sophie. For the first time in the history of the Salzburg Festival, Der Rosenkavalier will be performed without any cuts with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst.

The production, which is set in pre-1914 Vienna, was staged by the formidable team of director Harry Kupfer and his designers, Hans Schavernoch and Yan Tax.

Groissböck was singled out in early reviews for portraying a virile and more energetic Ochs than is traditionally seen. The character is often portrayed as a happy and somewhat buffoonish oaf. He's certainly the sexiest Baron Ochs that we've ever seen.

Günther Groissböck, Sophie Koch & Krassimira Stoyanova
(© Salzburger Festspiele / Monika Rittershaus)

Performances of Der Rosenkavalier continue from August 5th through the 23rd.

If you can't make it to Salzburg, the opera will be recorded by ORF in cooperation with UNITEL, NHK and Bayerischen Rundfunk and broadcast on August 18th at 10:20 PM on ORF2 and on Bayerischen Rundfunk on August 21st at 10:45 PM.

Barihunk Festival at Salzburg Festival

Add Günther Groissböck and Alessio Arduini

The 2014 Salzburg Festival will run from July 18-August and will feature barihunks in almost all of their productions, including many of the biggest names in opera.

The Festival will be paying tribute to Richard Strauss' 150th  birthday by performing Der Rosenkavalier. The opera will feature barihunk Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs in his role debut (which he will reprise at the Met). The cast also includes Krassimira Stoyanova as the Marschallin and Sophie Koch as Octavian.

The Festival will continue their Mozart/da Ponte cycle introduced in 2013 with a new production of Don Giovanni directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf. The cast includes a trio of barihunks led by Ildebrando d'Arcangelo in the title role, Luca Pisaroni as his sidekick Leporello and the dashing Italian baritone Alessio Arduini as Masetto.

René Pape will be featured in a concert performance of music from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde featuring the prelude, Act 2 and Isolde’s transfiguration featuring Waltraud Meier.

Austrian barihunk Markus Werba will sing Roland opposite the Florinda of Dorothea Röschmann in Schubert's rarely performed Fierabras. The libretto combines two episodes from the cycle of legends associated with the Frankish leader Charlemagne and is set against the background of the skirmishes between Christians and Muslims.

Jean-Sébastien Bou and Markus Werba

Baroque specialist Jean-Sébastien Bou will star in the premiere of librettist Barbara Honigmann and composer Marc-André Dalbavie's Charlotte Salomon, which is dedicated to Gerard Mortier. Directed by Luc Bondy, Charlotte Salomon is based on the work of a Jewish artist who died at age 26 in the gas chamber at Auschwitz. Saloman fled to southern France following the Kristallnacht pogrom in Berlin where she joined her grandparents. Her grandmother threw herself to her death from an upstairs window, which was the same way that her mother had died when the girl was nine.

Other productions include Anna Netrebko as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore, which includes Plácido Domingo in the baritone role of the Count di Luna, Rossini's La Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli and a children's performance of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail featuring Salzburg young artists.

All in all, the Festival will feature over 250 performances including opera, theater and concerts. Tickets and additional performance information is available online.

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.