Barihunk duo in Edmonton Opera revival of Les Feluettes

Zachary Read and Jean-Michel Richer

Australian composer Kevin March and Quebec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard's opera Les Feluettes (Lilies), which had its world premiere last year at Opéra de Montréal, followed by a revival at Pacific Opera Victoria, will now be performed at the Edmonton Opera. It is the first overtly gay-themed opera that the company has presented. Edmonton Opera will use the same designs and staging that were used in Montreal and Victoria.

Dominique Côté

The opera is based on the play, which tells the story of the confession of an aging prisoner to a bishop. Through the confession we learn that the bishop and the prisoner were part of a gay love triangle and that the bishop was responsible for the death of a young man many years ago. The play was was made into a film called Lilies, which was directed by John Greyson. All of the roles in the opera, including the female roles of La Comtesse Marie-Laure de Tilly and Mademoiselle Lydie-Anne de Rozier, are sung by men as the story is told by actors in an all-male prison.

 Zachary Read and Jean-Michel Richer discuss the opera Les Feluettes:

The term Feluette is a Quebec expression with its root in the word fluet, (thin, frail in appearance) which, in common parlance of the time, referred to men who were weak, frail, or effeminate.

Edmonton Opera will present the piece from October 21-27 with barihunk Zachary Read as Young Simon and Jean-Michel Richer returning as the Count Vallier de Tilly. Dominique Côté , who we introduced to readers last year will sing the Countess Marie-Laure de Tilly.  Performances are at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton on October 21, 24 and 27. The opera is sung in French with English supertitles. Tickets are available online.

Our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!

Gay-themed "Les Feluettes" gets two revivals

Étienne Dupuis and Jean-Michel Richer

Australian composer Kevin March and Quebec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard's opera Les Feluettes (Lilies), which had its world premiere last year at Opéra de Montréal, will now be presented at Pacific Opera Victoria and the Edmonton Opera.

The production opens at Pacific Opera Victoria on April 20 and runs through April 30.  Barihunk Étienne Dupuis will reprise the lead role of Young Simon Doucet and hunkentenor Jean-Michel Richer will return as the Count Vallier de Tilly, who is in love with Simon. Tickets are available online.

The opera is based on the play, which tells the story of the confession of an aging prisoner to a bishop. Through the confession we learn that the bishop and the prisoner were part of a gay love triangle and that the bishop was responsible for the death of a young man many years ago. The play was was made into a film called Lilies, which was directed by John Greyson. All of the roles in the opera, including the female roles of La Comtesse Marie-Laure de Tilly and Mademoiselle Lydie-Anne de Rozier, are sung by men as the story is told by actors in an all-male prison. 

Zachary Read (left) and Jean-Michel Richer and Etienne Dupuis (right)

The term Feluette is a Quebec expression with its root in the word fluet, (thin, frail in appearance) which, in common parlance of the time, referred to men who were weak, frail, or effeminate.

Edmonton Opera will present the piece from October 21-27 with barihunk Zachary Read as Young Simon and Jean-Michel Richer returning as the Count Vallier de Tilly.

Barihunk duo in Edmonton's Merry Widow

Aaron Durand and Mike Nyby

Two barihunks are featured in the Edmonton Opera's English language production of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. The operetta opened last night and will be performed again on Tuesday, October 27 and Thursday, October 29.

Michael Nyby sings Danilo Danilowitsch, Hanna Glawari's ex-lover who is less excited about being her lover and sharing in her recently inherited wealth, than most men.  Aaron Durand, who appeared with the company in their Barber of Seville last year, takes on Vicomte Cascada.

Preview of The Merry Widow at Edmonton Opera:

Nyby and lead soprano Sally Dibblee have been tasked with dancing duties as well as singing, as director Brent Krysa and choreographer Dave Ganert have found inspiration in Hollywood dance musicals. Dibblee even took ballroom dancing lessons for the part.

Nyby is a native of Hamilton, Ontario who created the roles of William Dale in Kevin Puts' Silent Night, Brent Colgate in Gregory Vajda's Georgia Bottoms and Demetrio in the US premiere of Kristin Hevner Wyatt's Il Sogno. This season he'll be creating the role of Seth in the Canadian opera Peter-Anthony Togni's Isis and Osiris with Opera in Concert. He'll be joining hunkentenor Karim Sulayman for Händel's Messiah with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario on December 7 and 8.

Aaron Durand talks about being an opera singer:

Durand hails from 100 Mile House, British Columbia After graduating from the University of British Columbia in 2012, he joined the Vancouver Opera's Yulanda M. Faris young artist program, performing roles in several mainstage productions including La bohème, The Pirates of Penzance, Albert Herring and Don Giovanni. He was Masetto in the innovative production of #UncleJohn with the Against the Grain Theatre.

You can follow Aaron Durand on Twitter @Gingervanni. 

MAKE SURE TO ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR BEFORE THE HOLIDAY RUSH; 18 OF THE WORLD'S HOTTEST SINGER FROM 9 COUNTRIES.

 

John Brancy in Edmonton's Magic Flute

John Brancy returns to the role of Papageno in Edmonton Opera's The Magic Flute, which opens Saturday, January 31st and runs through February 5th.

The opera, which was created and designed in house, will be presented as a visually stunning, exotic pop-up storybook. The vibrant hues and angular set pieces hint at an exotic location without placing it in any one specific locale or time period.

Tickets available ONLINE. You can watch highlights of the production below.

Next up for Brancy is another Mozart role, when he takes on Figaro in the composer's The Marriage of Figaro at Opera Lyra Ottawa. Performances run from March 21-28th at Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre. This will be his debut with the company.   

John Brancy takes WWI tribute to Carnegie Hall

John Brancy & Wallis Giunta (left): Brancy as Papageno (right)

On January 13th, John Brancy will be at Carnegie Hall to perform his recital honoring the centenary of World War I that he performed last month with Vocal Arts DC. The concert is titled "Silent Night: A World War I Centenary Tribute in Song" and features songs from England, Germany, Austria, France & America. He'll be joined by Ken Noda at the piano in Weill Recital hall. The program includes music by Butterworth, Gurney, Orff, Alma Mahler, Ravel, Poulenc, Debussy, Ives and renditions of "My Buddy" and "Danny Boy"

The gifted young singer, was the winner of both the Sullivan Foundation and Marilyn Horne Song Competitions before graduating from Juilliard. Brancy has also already made solo recital debuts at both Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, and has appeared in opera in Paris, Dresden, and Frankfurt.

Tickets are available online.

If you want to see him in opera, you'll have to head to Canada where he takes on Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute with the Edmonton Opera opening on January 31 and then Figaro in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with Lyra Opera Ottawa opening March 21.  The latter production includes his girlfriend Wallis Giunta as Cherubino.

All-star "Three Barihunks" concert coming to Edmonton

Philippe Sly, Elliot Madore & Gordon Bintner (L-R)

We can't begin to tell you how often we're contacted because someone wants to put on a "Three Barihunks" concert, yet they never seem to come to fruition. It looks like the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Edmonton Opera are going to beat everyone to the punch and they're appropriating the name "No Tenors Allowed" from the 1999 concerts and recording by Thomas Hampson and Samuel Ramey. [The funniest barihunk concert proposal we heard about was going to be called "No Shirts Allowed" and it was supposed to be an AIDS fundraiser in New York].

The Edmonton team has managed to bring in three of the hottest and most vocally gifted baritones singing in the world today and they all happen to be Canadians. Gordon Bintner, Elliot Madore, and Philippe Sly will join forces with conductor Bill Eddins for a program of from music from Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Macbeth, Rossini's Barber of Seville, and Wagner's Tannhäuser.

The concert will be on Monday, March 24, 2014 at 7:30 PM at Enmax Hall in the Winspear Centre in Edmonton. For lovers of barihunks, we have to think that this is the hottest ticket of 2014! We've heard all three singers live and we can pretty much guarantee a night of visual and aural bliss. You can listen to six audio selections from Elliot Madore on his website.

Phillipe Sly sings Gustav Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen":

 Gordon Binter performs at FestiVoix:

This season, Elliot Madore continues as a member of the ensemble at Opernhaus Zürich where he made his role debut as Valentin in Jan Philipp Gloger’s new production of Gounod's Faust. The title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni will serve as his return to both Oper Philadelphia and the Glyndebourne Festival in the summer of 2014. Future seasons will see him at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zurich, Glyndebourne Festival, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse.

Philippe Sly continues as an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera in the 2013 – 2014 season. He will make his debut at Opéra de Lyon in Laurent Pelly’s production of Rossini's Le comte Ory as Raimbaud and will be seen as Bartolo in San Francisco Opera’s Barber for Families. He also opens the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s season as Méphistophélès in concert performances of Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust under Kent Nagano. In concert, Sly makes his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in Fauré’s Requiem and with Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, both under Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  

In the past few months, Gordon Bintner made his debut in Berlin with the role of Bill in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place with Ensemble Modern and Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon at l’Opera de Montreal. He made his European debut singing the role of Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème with Angers-Nantes Opera in France. Other appearances included the role of Nardo in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera at the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. Operatic performances in 2014 include the role of Don Alfonso in the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.

Daniel Okulitch gets villainous in Edmonton

Daniel Okulitch famous naked in "The Fly" and in Tales of Hoffmann

Canadian barihunk Daniel Okulitch has remained one of our most popular singers since we first posted him in . He's opening tonight as all four villains in Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann." Performances are running through February 7th and tickets are available online.

Samuel Ramey sings "Scintille, diamanti" from The Tales of Hoffmann:

Okulitch, who has made a name for himself as a great exponent of Mozart, will take on both baritone roles in Le nozze di Figaro after wrapping up in Edmonton. He heads to the Arizona Opera in April for three performances of the Figaro and three more at the Komische Oper in Berlin, before switching to the Count in the same opera at the Santa Fe Opera in June.

Benjamin Covey

Another emerging Canadian barihunk will be in the cast of The Tales of Hoffmann. Benjamin Covey, who received his master’s in opera at University of Toronto and honed his skills San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola Program, returns to being a student (at least on stage) playing Hermann. Covey can next be seen at the Toronto Masque Theatre in "The Lessons of Love," an operatic double bill of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis and the premiere of Alice Ping Yee Ho's The Lesson of Da Ji.