Reader Submission: Bernhard Hansky

Bernard Hansky (Photo: Matthias Creutziger)

A reader alerted us to barihunk Bernhard Hansky, who hails from Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany near the Polish border.

He was joined the opera studio at the Semperoper in 2015 and the house’s solo ensemble for the 2017-18 season. His roles with the company have included Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, Baron Douphol in Verdi's La traviata, Morales in Bizet's Carmen, Fiorello in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and Kilian in Weber's Der Freischütz.

He can next be seen with the company as Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte beginning July 6th. He'll have eleven additional performances of the role through June 2020. He will also be performing Don Alvaro in Rossini's comic masterpiece Il viaggio a Reims from September-November 2019.

Other career highlights have included Don Giovanni at Volkstheater Rostock and the Estates Theatre in Prague, Falke in Die Fledermaus at Staatsoperette Dresden, and Dandini in La cenerentola at the National Opera Brno, the Opera Festival Lignano and at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad.

In 2008 he was awarded the Franz Grothe Foundation Award at Germany's Bundeswettbewerb Gesang.

Hansky has some barihunk pedigree, having studied with both Hanno Müller-Brachmann and Roman Trekel.

Thomas Tatzl's pa-pa-pa-passionate Papageno

Thomas Tatzl as Papageno (photos by Sandra Then)

Austrian barihunk Thomas Tatzl is one of the few singers who has performed Papageno by two different composers, having frequently sung Mozart's in Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), but also Peter von Winter’s in his production of Das Labyrith at the Salzburger Festspiele. Now he's also one of the few singers to have performed the role in a dress (topless with a chorus of transsexual nuns!) .

Tatzl, who has sung 10 Mozart roles in his young career, will perform Papageno through March 28th at the Theater Basel. He'll be singing some additional Mozart at Sage One in Newcastle, England on February 5th when he performs the composer's Mass in C-minor with an all-star cast that includes Sally Matthews, Rosemary Joshua and Stuart Jackson with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus.

Tickets for the Magic Flute are available online.

ONLY 9 DAYS UNTIL THE NEW YEAR! Time is running out to order your 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar, featuring 18 of the sexiest men in opera. ORDER TODAY by clicking HERE (you won't regret it!).

Seth Carrico, Cyril Rovery & Patrick Egersborg

John Chest alternating to very different roles

John Chest

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.

Dominik Köninger catching birds and debuting baritone Hoffmann

Dominik Köninger as Papageno in the Barrie Kosky production

German barihunk Dominik Köninger is at the Edinburgh Festival reprising his highly-acclaimed Papageno in Barrie Kosky's magical production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, which has performances remaining on August 29 and 30.

The innovative Barrie Kosky production of Die Zauberflöte is a collaboration with the amazing British theater group “1927," who put together a production that mixes silent movies, Weimar era cabaret, David Lynch and a touch of the Grimm's Fairy Tales.

The oft-shirtless Dominik Köninger

If you can't catch Köninger as Papageno in the U.K., you'll have plenty of additional opportunities as he's singing the role in the same production at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein beginning on September 19th, then again in Barcelona next summer at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

We've been huge fans of Dominik Köninger since he won the 2011 Wigmore Hall Song Competition and have been enjoying his regular appearances at the Komische Oper Berlin, where he's sung in Monteverdi's Orpheus, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Pantalone in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, Oreste in Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride and Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.  

 Dominik Köninger sings Hai gia vinta la causa from the Marriage of Figaro:

He returns to Berlin on September 11th to sing the title role in Handel's Giulio Cesare with fellow barihunk Günter Papendell as Achilla. On October 2nd, he'll open in Barrie Kosky's new production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. For the first time in the opera's 132-year performance history, the role of Hoffmann will be sung by a baritone, which was Offenbach's original intention.

Bjorn Bürger and Edwin Crossley-Mercer share Papageno in Paris

Bjorn Bürger

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Two of the hottest barihunks in all of opera will be performing the role of Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Paris Opera.  Edwin Crossley-Mercer will sing the first half of the run from April 17-May 14, with Bjorn Bürger taking over from May 26-June 28th. The production is directed by Robert Carsen.

In April, Bürger will be singing Dandini in Rossini's La cenerentola at the Frankfurt Opera, where he will return after his Papageno to take on another Mozart role - Masetto in Don Giovanni. Crossley-Mercer will stay at the Paris Opera where he takes on Brander in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust later this year.

Reader Submission: Anas Séguin

Anas Séguin

We have another reader submission today, which come from a reader in France. They are attending Rachmaninov's Aleko at the Opéra-Théâtre de Clermont-Ferrand and noticed that the title role was being sung by Anas Séguin. They emailed us and asked if he'd ever appeared on our site, which he has not.

Anas Séguin sings Largo al factotum from the Barber of Seville:

The Moroccan barihunk began his musical studies playing the piano and the trumpet, before embarking on 10 years of vocal training at the Paris Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional. He's been a frequent prize winner in major vocal competitions, including second prize in the opera category in Arles and first prize for Mélodie at the International Competition of Lyric Singing in Marmande.

He recently performed Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in Marmande, a role that he'll reprise in Mérignac in March 2015. Aleko will be performed on December 18th at the Opéra-Théâtre de Clermont-Ferrand. Additional information is available online. The opera, which is based on The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin, includes the baritone aria "Ves' tabor spit," which is frequently performed by baritones in vocal competitions.

Edwin Crossley-Mercer poses for Karl Lagerfeld

Edwin Crossley-Mercer in a Dior trenchcoat (Photo: Karl Lagerfeld)

We posted about barihunk Edwin Crossley-Mercer in Robert Carsen's production of Rameau’s Platée set at 31 Rue Cambon, birthplace of the Chanel fashion empire. Crossley-Mercer's Jupiter was styled as a Karl Lagerfeld lookalike with white ponytail and dark glasses. Juno, the queen of the gods, was decked out as Coco Chanel.

Karl Lagerfeld and Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Lagerfeld, an opera fan in his own right, attended a performance at the Opéra Comique and even greeted the singer backstage. The production also played at the Theater an der Wien and at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Lagerfeld must have been quite impressed with what he saw, because he followed up with a photo shoot of the popular baritone shooting him in a variety of couture.

Beginning on April 17, 2015, Crossley-Mercer will appear in another Robert Carsen production when he sings Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Paris Opera.