Barihunk-laden Don Giovanni in bucolic setting

Gregory Gerbrandt and Nora Graham-Smith

Don Giovanni and his little black book are returning to Northern California, this time at the Hidden Valley Opera Ensemble. The burgeoning opera company is a little over 2 hours from San Francisco and just a half an hour from the beautiful resort of Monterey.

The title character will be sung by barihunk Gregory Gerbrandt, who has been a familiar singer on this site. Gerbrandt is returning to Hidden Valley Opera where he portrayed Jim in David Conte's The Gift of the Magi.  This is debut as Don Giovanni. Previous Mozart roles have included Count Almaviva in the Marriage of Figaro, Papageno in the Magic Flute and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. 

Gerbrandt earned his Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music and his Bachelor of Music from the University of Northern Colorado, where he studied voice and opera with his late father, Dr. Carl Gerbrandt.

Ryan Bradford

New to this site is the Masetto, Ryan Bradford, who is a familiar face to Bay Area opera audiences. A first prize winner at the Chicago and San Francisco National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competitions, he was a memorable Guglielmo in both the San Francisco Conservatory’s production of Mozart's Così fan tutte and the teacher in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar at Opera Parallèle. He is a recipient of the Joan and David Traitel Vocal Scholarship. You can check out Bradford on YouTube singing Schumann's Wehmut.

Don Giovanni opens on September 12  and runs through September 22 at the 300 seat Hidden Valley Theater in Carmel Valley, California. Call (831) 659-3115 for tickets.

Gregory Gerbrandt in South American production of Bernstein's West Side Story

Gregory Gerbrandt/Wilson Fitzer, Gregory Gerbrandt and Andrew Maloney

American barihunk Gregory Gerbrandt is making his debut at the Nacional Teatro Sucre in Quito, Ecuador as Riff in the quintessential American Broadway musical, "West Side Story." Riff is the leader of the Jets, who suggests setting up a "rumble" with the rival gang The Sharks. Riff's big number in the show is "Cool," which he sings with his Jets buddies. West Side Story was Leonard Bernstein's modern adaptation of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and the role of Riff would parallel Mercutio in the original version.

When Gerbrandt returns to the U.S. in September, he'll perform Marcello in Puccini's  La bohéme at the Hidden Valley Opera Seminars with fellow barihunks Gabriel Preisser and Isaiah Musik Ayala.

Leonard Bernstein rehearses "Cool" with baritone Kurt Ollmann:

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