The Deutsche Oper Berlin continues its foray into the operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer, who at his death in 1864 was one of the most performed composers in Europe. The company featured a new production of his Les Huguenots in 2016, which was followed by Le prophète the next year. On March 4 and 7 they will perform two concert performances of his rarely seen opera Dinorah, ou Le
Pardon de Ploërmel. more commonly referred to as just Dinorah.
French barihunk Régis Mengus sings Hoël and American barihunk Seth Carico takes on the huntsman. They will be joined by Rocío Pérez in the title role, Philippe Talbot as Corentin, Gideon Poppe as the Harvester, and Nicole Haslett and Karis Tucker as the shepherds. Principal Guest Conductor Enrique Mazzola will lead both
performances.
Jerry Hadley and Thomas Hampson in the Act 2 duet from Dinorah:
The story takes place near the rural town of Ploërmel and is based on two Breton tales by Émile Souvestre, "La Chasse aux trésors" and "Le Kacouss de l'Armor," both published separately in 1850.
Dinorah is betrothed to Hoël. Her cottage has been destroyed in a storm. Hoël, in order to rebuild it, goes into a region haunted by evil spirits searching for a hidden treasure. Dinorah thinking that she's been abandoned loses her reason and wanders through the mountains in search of Hoël accompanied by the sound of her goat's bell.
American barihunk John Chest, who just finished a successful run as Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Philadelphia, is back in his home base of Germany where he's pulling off an amazing feat of operatic stamina: He'll be singing two English language operas in Germany simultaneously!
Chest opened on May 26th in the title character of Britten's Billy Budd at the Deutsche Oper Berlin before heading off to the Semperoper Dresden to sing the role of the wealthy stockbroker Nick Carraway in John Harbison’s The
Great Gatsby tonight, tomorrow and on June 1st. Hunkentenor Peter Lodahl is singing jay Gatsby and tickets are available online. He then heads back to Berlin for Billy Budd (where the Barihunks team will be in attendance!). To top it off, he also became a father for the first time this year along with his wife soprano Layla Claire.
Chest originally started working on Billy Budd back in 2008 as an apprentice artist and chorus member at the Santa Fe Opera. He made his role debut in 2014 in Berlin in a highly-acclaimed performance, which was the first performance of the piece at the Deutsche Oper. The current production features Gidon Saks as John Claggert, Richard Croft as Edward Vere, Simon Pauly as Donald and fellow barihunk Seth Carico as Mr. Redburn. Tickets are available online.
John Chest at Billy Budd and Gidon Saks as the evil John Claggert
After he wraps us Billy Budd, the jet-setting baritone heads off to the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World
Competition. Chest, where he'll represent the U.S. along with baritone Anthony Clark Evans. He'll be singing more American music, as he plans on performing Aaron Copland’s “Old America Songs.”
Other barihunks in the competition include bass Dominic Barberi
representing England, bass Roberto Lorenzi representing Italy and
calendar model Iurii Samoilov reprenting the Ukraine.
The Song Prize rounds will be broadcast in the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime
Concert (June13 -16) with the song prize final live on Radio 3 In
Concert (Friday, June 16) and on BBC Four presented by Petroc Trelawny
and American soprano Angel Blue (Saturday, June 17).The four concerts at
St David’s Hall, Cardiff will be broadcast on BBC Four (June13 - 16).
The Grand Final will be broadcast live on both BBC Four and BBC Radio 3
on Sunday, June 18.
We first introduced American barihunk Dean Murphy to readers back in 2015 when he was singing Top in Aaron Copland's Tender Land at Opera North in Lebanon, New Hampshire. His career has clearly taken off since then, as he has now joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he'll start performing as part of the ensemble in January 2018.
He'll be performing Dancairo in Bizet's Carmen, a judge in Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane, Fiorillo in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, a mocker in Prokovfiev's The Love for Three Oranges, a Flemish Deputy in Verdi's Don Carlo, Wagner in Gounod's Faust, the sargeant in Puccini's La bohème, a singer in Ponchielli's La Gioconda, a delivery boy in Verdi's La traviata, an officer in Meyerbeer's Le Prophète and the bailiff in Verdi's Rigoletto.
Murphy holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Hartt School of Music. He will graduate from Yale’s School of Music with a Master of Music degree in the spring of 2017. He was a resident artist with Opera Connecticut from 2013-2014 where he performed a number of roles. He has been a regular at a number of other New England companies including Salt Marsh Opera, Opera Connecticut, Connecticut Lyric Opera and Yale Opera.
Murphy can next be heard on May 20th as Mercutio in excerpts from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette with the Opera Theater of Connecticut in Clinton. Tickets are available online.
Bastiaan Everink opens today as Lord Ruthven in Marschners's Der Vampyr at the Theater Koblenz, which runs through June 24. We haven't featured Everink on this site before, which is surprising, since he has some pretty sexy pictures on his website and is not shy about displaying his barihunkiness.
Everink has had an interesting path to the opera stages of the world, serving as a soldier in the Royal Dutch Marines Corps. He was decorated for his participation in the first Gulf Gar in 1991. After being inspired by a recording of Wagner's Parsifal at a friend's house, he decided to study singing at the Conservatory in Enschede and Amsterdam and then at the The Studio of Vocal Arts with former tenor and US Marine James McCray.
Bastiaan Everink
In 2002, he made his debut in Bonn, Germany, and has joined the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as appearing with the Dutch National Opera, Frankfurt Oper, Innsbruck, Tiroler Theater, Staatstheater Nurnberg, the State Theater in Wiesbaden and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. His roles have included the title role in Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, Scarpia in Tosca. the title role in Verdi's Nabucco, Jago in Otello, Amonasro in Aida, Klingsor in Parsifal, Gerard in Andrea Chenier, Monterone in Rigoletto, Tonio in Pagliacci, Michele in Tabarro, Jochanaan in Salome, Wolfram in Tannhauser and the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
You can hear Everink talk about his exciting career in the military, as an opera singer and a sculptor on his Ted Talk.
Iurii Samoilov discussing Billy Budd at a recent press conference
Barihunk Iurii Samoilov made history on November 25th, when he became the first singer to perform the title role in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at Russia's Bolshoi Theatre. Samoilov, who is on the roster of Oper Frankfurt and appeared in last year's Barihunks calendar, joins an all-star cast that will perform again on November 27 and 29, and December 1.
The Bolshoi performance is a co-production with the English National Opera and Deutsche Oper
Berlin and it features a number of other barihunks, including Gidon Saks as the evil John Claggart, Bogdan Volkov as A Novice and Aleksandr Utkin as Arthur Jones.
Billy Budd had its world premier at London’s Royal Opera House on December 1, 1951 conducted by the composer with the role of Captain Vere sung by
Britten’s partner Peter Pears. In 1966, in preparation for a
television broadcast, Britten cut the score from four acts to two with a prologue and epilogue, which has become the standard version for the opera.
Iurii Samoilov sings Rachmaninov's "Don't sing to me beauty":
The first production of Billy Budd in Russia occurred 100 years after the birth of Britten at St. Petersburg’s
Mikhailovsky Theatre in 2013. Billy Budd received its United States premiere in 1952 at the Indiana University Opera Company with Jack Gillaspy in the title role.
Britten originally intended the title role for Sir Geraint Evans, but he felt that the role sat to high for his voice, so he switched to the role of Mr. Flint. Britten then opted for barihunk Theodor Uppman to replace Evans in the title role. The performance launched Uppman's international career and he went on to become one of the definitive Billy Budd's off all-time. Uppman sang in an acclaimed performance in 1970 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which included Sir Geraint Evans as Claggart and Richard Lewis as Vere.
Bogdan Volkov, Gidon Saks and Aleksandr Utkin (L-R)
A number of famous barihunks have sung the role of Billy Budd, who many believe was secretly desired by the evil Claggart. Famous barihunk Billy Budd's include John Chest, Simon Keenlyside, Richard Stilwell, Nathan Gunn, Rod Gilfry, Bo Skovhus, Thomas Hampson, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Peter Mattei, Lauri Vasar, Craig Verm, Lucas Meachem, Jacques Imbrailo, Daniel Belcher and Liam Bonner.
Other upcoming performance of Billy Budd include Jacques Imbrailo at the Teatro Real in Madrid opening on January 31 and John Chest reprising his stunning debut in the role at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on May 24 (and Team Barihunks will be in the house!).
If you want to enjoy the sexiest barihunks year 'round, make sure to order your 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar NOW by clicking below.
We've been following barihunk Edwin Crossley-Mercer since early in his career, mesmerized by his good looks, dark creamy voice and charming stage presence. The singer, who is Northern Irish on his father's side and French Alsatian–Jewish on his mother's side, has rapidly emerged as a major talent in the world of opera.
He is currently featured in the October 2016 issue of Opera News, where he talks about his career, which has focused mostly on lieder and Mozart operas, as well as his desire to sing Handel. Remarkably, he claims that no one has asked him. Opera News also recognized the attention that he's received from fans of Barihunks, where he has an enthusiastic following [see quote below]'
"THOUGH NOT YET A HOUSEHOLD NAME in
the opera world, Edwin Crossley-Mercer is certainly well known where it
matters. All kinds of connoisseurs—from devotees of some quite
recherché song repertoire to barihunk fans—admire this French lyric
baritone; more crucially, so do those in charge of casting at several of
the best opera house addresses." - OPERA NEWS
He is so popular with our readers that we asked him to appear in our upcoming 2017 "Barihunks in Bed" calendar, which he graciously agreed to do. We hired a photographer in France to take a photo and made him our December feature, since his stunning prematurely gray hair evoked a perfect wintry night. You can purchase a copy online.
Glenn Seven Allen & Edwin Crossley-Mercer in 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar
He next appears as Polydorus with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ on October 20 in Edinburgh and October 21 in Glasgow. He'll be joined by bass-barihunk Jérôme Varnier as Herod (who also appears in this year's calendar in April).The performance is conducted by Emmanuel Krivine and tickets are available online.
On November 5th, he'll appear at the Deutsche Oper Berlin's 22nd Grand Opera Gala in support of the AIDS Foundation. The event also features fellow barihunk Andrea Mastroni, Patrizia Ciofi, Gregory Kunde and a host of other operatic luminaries. Tickets are available online.
Barihunk Jarrett Ott will be singing Dandini in Syracuse Opera's upcoming production of Rossini's La Cenerentola (Cinderella) on October 28 and 30. He first performed the role with the Curtis Opera Theatre while a student. He'll be joined in the cast by hunkentenor Jonathan Blalock as Don Ramiro, Corrie Stallings as Angelina, Peter Strummer as Don Magnifico and Adelaide Boedecker as Clorinda. Tickets are available online.
Last October, Opera News named him one of the 25 rising stars of opera, calling his voice "polished and immaculately produced."
On November 7, Ott will perform excerpts from Jake Heggie's new opera It's a Wonderful Life at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
In 2017, he will make his major European opera debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin singing the role of the Angel in the world premiere of Andrea Scartazzini's Edward II, directed by Christoph Loy. The title role will be sung by fellow barihunk Michael Nagy and will also feature hunkentenor Ladislav Elgr singing the role of his alleged lover Piers de
Gaveston.
The libretto by Thomas Jonigk focuses entirely on the role of the
outsider Edward II and looks at society’s attitude towards homosexuals
both then and now. Whether the close bond between Edward and Gaveston in
the early 14th
century was sexual in nature remains a contested issue, but among art
circles Edward II has long been an icon of the gay movement. Gaveston
was decapitated for being gay and King Edward II was executed in 1327 by
having a red hot roasting spit shoved into his anus.
The subject matter inspired Christopher Marlowe’s bloody 1593 play about
the self-assertive strivings of the hapless English king, the 1923 version
by Bertolt Brecht of the same name and Derek Jarman’s 1992 famous film
adaptation “Edward II.”
Performances run from February 19-March 9 and tickets are available online.
Barihunk Michael Nagy will play the title role in Swiss composer Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini new opera about Edward II. The piece will be performed from February 19-March 9 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with hunkentenor Ladislav Elgr singing the role of his alleged lover Piers de Gaveston.
The libretto by Thomas Jonigk focuses entirely on the role of the outsider Edward II and looks at society’s attitude towards homosexuals both then and now. Whether the close bond between Edward and Gaveston in the early 14th
century was sexual in nature remains a contested issue, but among art
circles Edward II has long been an icon of the gay movement. Gaveston was decapitated for being gay and King Edward II was executed in 1327 by having a red hot roasting spit shoved into his anus.
The subject matter inspired Christopher Marlowe’s bloody 1593 play about
the self-assertive strivings of the hapless English king, the 1923 version
by Bertolt Brecht of the same name and Derek Jarman’s 1992 famous film
adaptation “Edward II.”
Scartazzini most recent operatic work was The Sandman, which premiered in 2012 at the Theater Basel with Christof Loy directing. Tickets for Edward II are on sale now online.
Nagy can next be heard on June 9 and 10 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzing performing Bach's St Matthew Passion with Peter Mattei and Ann Hallenberg. On June 19 and 20, he joins tenor Klaus Florian Vogt for Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Munich Philharmonic.
American barihunk John Chest, who is a now a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, is singing two very different roles simultaneously in Dresden and Berlin through the end of the year. From December 6-21 he'll be in Dresden singing Nick Carraway opposite hunkentenor Peter Lodahl's Jay Gatsby in John Harbison's operatic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. On December 12 and 29, he'll be in Berlin singing Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte opposite Alexandra Hutton's Papageno.
It's hard to imagine two different roles that the wealthy stockbroker Nick Carraway and the awkward, comical birdcatcher Papageno, but he will sing them back-to-back on December 11 and 12.
Next year he sings Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and the Marchese d'Obigny in Verdi's La traviata in Berlin, as well as the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Angers Nantes Opéra and Albert in Massenet's Werther at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.
Romain Dayez, Jason Duika, Marco Vassalli and Malte Roesner (L-R)
There is only one month left to purchase your 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar, which you can order HERE. This year the proceeds will be used to fund the creation of the Foundation for the Advancement of Baritones (F.A.B.),
which will fund baritone and bass cash prizes at song competitions,
commission music for baritones and basses, and be used to fund other
projects featuring low male voices. New York-based composer Clint
Borzoni has already been commissioned to write two songs for string
quartet and baritone, which will be performed by Marco Vassalli in
January.
Italian barihunk Ildebrando D'Arcangelo is starring in director Philipp Stölzl’s psychologically gripping production of Gounod's Faust at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Stölzl, who has also directed Wagner's Rienzi and Parifal with the company, has also made his name in film. He directed
“North Face,” “Goethe!” and “The Physician,” as well as music videos for Madonna and Garbage.
There are additional performances on June 27 and 30, and July 2 and 5.
Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Méphistophélès
After Faust, D'Arcangelo heads to Verona to perform the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni. In November, he returns to Berlin to perform the Count in Le nozze di Figaro at the Staatsoper with fellow barihunks Lauri Vasar as Figaro and Olaf Bär as Antonio.
We wouldn't normally think of pairing sexy German barihunk Günter Papendell with provocative director Calixto Bieto in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, but neither would we think of pairing the Puccini comedy with Bartok's bleak Bluebeard's Castle. Leave it to the Komische Oper in Berlin and Bieto to do just that.
Papendell, who've we've seen in various states of undress at the Komische, will play the role of the Schicchi.
The two operatic masterpieces both premiered in 1918, the same year that the Germans surrendered and ended WWI. The works could hardly be more different, and yet they are
combined to form an operatic double bill - black Italian comedy meets
Hungarian psycho-drama.
The Komische website states, "Little would appear to link Gianni Schicchi and Bluebeard’s Castle -
except for their unadorned depiction of the human abyss. That master of
melody Giacomo Puccini spices up his story of the family arguing about
their inheritance at the deathbed of the patriarch with tearjerkers such
as "O mio babbino caro". Béla Bartók penetrates into the depths in the
complex landscape of the soul with his dense score. A grim mystery is
hidden behind the seven forbidden doors in Count Bluebeard's Castle, and
exposing this mystery will prove the downfall of one young woman."
Bluebeard's Castle and Gianni Schicchi at the Komische Oper
Gidon Saks will sing the role of Bluebeard in the Bartok opera. The operas are being performed without intermission, running approximately 2 1/2 hours. Performances run from March 1 through July 8.
This season Papendell can also be seen at the Komische as Don Giovanni, Escamillo, Achille in Handel's Giulio Cesare and Odysseus. In May, Gidon Saks heads across town to portray Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at the Deutsche Oper.
When we think of Cassandra in opera, we immediately think of the great leading ladies of opera who have portrayed her on the stage, particularly in Berlioz's masterpiece Les Troyens. One thinks of Geraldine Ferrar, Jessye Norman, Deborah Voigt, Anna Caterina Antonacci and Janet Baker, all of whom had career defining moments in the role of King Priam's daughter and prophetess. Well, move over divas, there's a new girl in town...and it's a guy!
Barihunk Seth Carico is currently starring as Kassandra (Cassandra) in Iannis Xenkis' Oresteia at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The production has been mounted on the upper deck
of its multi-story parking garage rather than on their mainstage. The premiere of the work was actually performed on a baseball field in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
The work is somewhat of a hybrid between dance and opera, with ancient Greek tradition being upheld as the chorus tells much of the story. As in other productions, the bass-baritone is expected to sing in both his natural voice and a falsettto making this an extremely difficult feat for Carico. In this production Cassandra is portrayed as one of two spirits trying to inhabit one body.
Michael Hofmeister as Athenaphoto by Bernd Uhlig)
The story begins at the close of the Trojan War and touches on Agamemnon’s
return with Cassandra and the murder of them both by his wife, Clytemnestra. The core questions posed in the piece relate to guilt, ritual, religion and personal responsibility – or the
agreeable system of social organization. The work ends with Athena’s establishment of mortal justice
and her conversion of the Furies into the more benign Eumenides.
Seth Carico as Cassandra (photo by Bernd Uhlig)
The staging is by
director David Hermann and set designer Christof Hetzer, who teamed up at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Helmut Lachenmann’s
The Little Match Girl. Performances continue from September 12-16 and tickets are available online.
This isn't Seth Carico's first appearance dealing with gender, regular readers will remember this post of him at the Fort Worth Opera in Mark Adamo's Lysistrata.
We thought that you might enjoy seeing how Davide Luciano is preparing for his upcoming role as Figaro in Teatro Real's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. The opera is kicking off their new season on September 15th and includes two casts. Other upcoming operas include Donizetti's La fille du Régiment, a double-bill of Goyescas and Gianni Schicchi, and Britten's Death in Venice.
Davide Luciano will be paired with the Count Almaviva of Andrey Bondarenko, while the other cast features barihunk Luca Pisaroni as Almaviva and Andreas Wolf as Figaro.
DavideLuciano, was borninBenevento, Italy toa family of musicians. Before taking up singing, heplayedpiano, percussion, bassand classical guitar.When he was 19 hebegan studying voice with the baritoneGioacchinoZarrelli.
Davide Luciano
Five years later, he won his firstcompetitionandwasawarded "Best New Artist"attheAssociazioneLiricaeConcertisticaItaliana.Hesubsequently made his debut asPapagenoin Mozart'sDie Zauberflöte at Operadomani, followed by hisdebutat the RossiniFestivalin PesaroasDonProfondo in Rossini's comic masterpiece Il viaggio a Reimsunder the batonofAlbertoZedda. He won first prize and the audience prize at thePremiointernazionaledicantoliricoSantaChiarainNaples.
After singing Figaro, he heads to Sāo Paolo, Brazil to sing Silvio in Pagliacci. He then returns to his home base at the Deutsche Oper Berlin where he will perform Nottingham in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, Ping in Puccini's Turandot, Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.
We've been following Seth Carico since his amazing turn as Victor in Jorge Martin's Before Night Falls at the Fort Worth Opera Festival. We followed him from his larger-than-life portrayal of the Castro-esque revolutionary leader to his fitness obsession and invitation to appear in our Barihunks calendar.
He eventually landed for a year at the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco before being snatched away by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he has impressed audiences in Billy Budd, Les Troyens, Don Giovanni, Tosca, Die Zauberflöte, Otello, Rigoletto, Le nozze di Figaro, and Champert’s Hoffmann.
Carico recently returned to his hometown of Signal Mountain, Tennessee to perform in the "King and I," where he started his career as one of the King's children in 1991. This time he'll be the king and perhaps surrounded by some children who dream of following in his footsteps.
He was recently interviewed by Chattanooga's Chatter magazine about his career and his return to his hometown, which you can read in its entirety HERE.
In the article he also talks about his obsession with fitness, stating:
"I’d say the biggest part of my life other than singing is fitness. It’s become a real obsession of mine. I was really unhealthy a few years ago. I was doing a show, and I felt really terrible and decided that something had to change. I had to get in shape. It was actually The King and I in Virginia that gave me my deadline to get in shape, because I knew I would be shirtless for that show. I lost 75 pounds, and I kept it off. Now it’s become an important part of who I am as a performer and who I am as a person."
On August 14th, he'll be appearing in Richard Strauss' Salome at the Proms in London under the baton of Donald Runnicles. He then returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin where he'll be performing Junius in Brittens' The Rape of Lucretia, Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen and The Speaker in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.
Anyone who has ever seen or heard barihunk John Chest, with his golden locks and golden voice, immediately thinks of him as the perfect Billy Budd. Fortunately, conductor Donald Runnicles had a chance to hear and see Chest while they were both in San Francisco. The two are being reunited at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for five performances of Benjamin Britten's masterpiece running from May 22th-June 6th. Tickets are available online.
John Chest is a recent graduate of the Opera Studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper,
where he sang over eighty performances including Fiorello in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Schaunard in Puccini's La Bohème with Anja Harteros, Dandiniin Rossini's La Cenerentola, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Lovec in Dvorak's Rusalka, Petrucci in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia with Edita Gruberova, Bizet's Carmen with Jonas Kaufmann.
Chest is now part of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he has sung Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Il Conte Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Albert in Massenet's Werther. In November, he'll return to the U.S. to perform Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème at the Washington National Opera with fellow barihunks Joshua Bloom as Colline and Steven LaBrie as Schaunard.
The Deutsche Oper Berlin has two exciting concert performances coming up in June. First up on June 4th is French composer Pierre-Louis Dietsch's “Le Vaisseau Fantôme” (The Ghost Ship), an opera based on the same story as Wagner's “The Flying Dutchman.” Dietsch's opera actually proceeded Wagner's by two months in 1842.
Although the opera has some of the same characters and is based on the same story, the plot is a bit more dense even though it's 20 minutes shorter than Wagner's opera. However, the piece had its proponents, including Hector Berlioz. We're excited because the opera has three baritone roles. Josef Wagner will sing Troïl, Nicolas Cavallier will sing Barlow and barihunk Seth Carico will sing Scriften.
Tickets and additional performance information are available online.
Erwin Schrott and Dalibor Jenis
Next up on June 19th and 22nd are concert performances of Verdi's Attila featuring Erwin Schrott in the title role and Dalibor Jenis as Ezio. Adding to the vocal excitement is the thrilling soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska, who is singing the demanding role of Odabella. This performance is all the chatter amongst Verdi lovers and a "must see" for anyone who can get to Berlin.
We love the idea of an age appropriate Attila, who actually ruled from the age of 29 to his death at age 47. Schrott can be heard singing the aria "Mentre gonfiarsi l'anima" on his 2012 release of arias on Sony.
We haven't posted about American baritone John Chest in awhile. He's another of the long list of barihunks who have been cleaning up at vocal competitions, having won the Arleen Auger Prize in the
2012 Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition. Previously, he also won the prestigious Stella
Maris International Vocal Competition.
We first saw Chest when he was with the Merola Opera Program, where he brought down the house with his shirtless Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte .
He is a recent graduate of the Opera Studio at the Bayerische
Staatsoper, where he sang over eighty performances including Fiorello Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Schaunard La Bohème, Lovec Rusalka, Petrucci Lucrezia Borgia, Carmen with Jonas Kaufmann, La Bohème with Anja Harteros, and Lucrezia Borgia with Edita Gruberova.
If you're in the Munich area, you may want to catch his recital on Friday, November 16 at the Historischer Reitstadel. He'll be performing works by Samuel Barber, Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf with accompanist Marcelo Amaral. Call 09181/255-125 for tickets.
Many of his future engagements are in Europe, including Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni in Bari, a recital at the Wigmore Hall and revivals of La finta giardiniera
in Morocco and in Luxembourg.
Actor Terence Stamp as the blond Billy Budd from the movie
In the 2013/14 season he will take up a
Fest contract with Deutsche Oper Berlin, the highlight of which will be
his debut in the title role of Britten's Billy Budd in a new production by David Alden. Many people watching Chest's career have said that this role was practically written for him, as it perfectly suits his voice and appearance. Details have not been posted yet, but you can subscribe to the Deutsche Oper's free newsletter HERE for updates.
You can listen to Chest sing Pierrot's Tanzlied from Korngold's Die tote Stadt by clicking HERE.
Have you bought your 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar, which benefits young singers like John Chest? Click on the button below to help the next generation of singers:
Seth Carico will be returning from the Deutsche Oper in Berlin where he is performing in Verdi's "Don Carlo" and Puccini's "Tosca" to give a recital at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Carico will perform Ned Rorem's "War Scenes," Ibert's "Quatre Chansons de Don Quichotte," and Brahms' "Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121." The performance is on Tuesday, November 8 at 7:00pm.
Carico can next be seen on stage in the U.S. at the Fort Worth Opera, where he created a sensation as Victor in Jorge Martín’s "Before Night Falls." Carico is returning to perform another contemporary role when he tackles Leonidas in Mark Adamo's "Lysistrata," which runs from May 26 to June 3.
