Kasper Holton's Don Giovanni (left) and Ryan McKinny at the Los Angeles Opera (right)
Bass-barihunk Ryan McKinny will make his role debut as the title character in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Houston Grand Opera from April 20 through May 5. The cast includes Paolo Bordogna as Leporello, Ailyn Pérez as Donna Anna, Melody Moore as Donna Elvira, Ben Bliss as Don Ottavio, Dorothy Gal as Zerlina, Daniel Noyola as Masetto and Kristinn Sigmundsson as The Commendatore.
The new production by Kasper Holten will be on a rotating set with projections to let the audience delve into the mind of the serial philanderer. Set designer Es Devlin has designed sets for Beyoncé, Jay Z, U2 and Adele, as well as the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Tickets are available online.
Ryan McKinny sings Schubert's "Gute Nacht":
If you can't make it to Houston, McKinny will return to the role at the Washington National Opera from February 29-March 22. The cast includes fellow barihunk Kyle Ketelsen as Leporello, Vanessa Vasquez as Donna Anna, Keri Alkema as Donna Elvira, Alek Shrader as Don Ottavio and Peter Volpe as The Commendatore. Tickets are available online.
Other upcoming performance for McKinny include Mahler's 8th Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, his role debut as Joseph De Rocher in Heggie's Dead Man Walking a the Lyric Opera of Chicago and a Mahler concert with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and the San Francisco Symphony.
Franco Pomponi as Richard Nixon & Kyung Chun Kim as Chou En-Lai (Photo: Marie-Noëlle Robert)
Today is the 30th anniversary of the great American opera Nixon in China by composer John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman. The work premiered at the Houston Grand Opera on October 22, 1987, in a
production by Peter Sellars with choreography by Mark Morris.
The three act opera was inspired by U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972. When Sellars approached Adams with the idea for the opera in 1985, Adams was initially reluctant, but eventually decided that the work could be a study in how myths come to be, and accepted the project. Goodman's libretto was the result of considerable research into Nixon's visit, though she disregarded most sources published after the 1972 trip.
The work had been commissioned jointly by the Houston Grand Opera, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Netherlands Opera and the Washington Opera, all of which were to mount early productions of the opera. Fearful that the work might be challenged as defamatory or not in the public domain, Houston Grand Opera obtained insurance to cover such an eventuality. Before its stage premiere, the opera was presented in concert form in May 1987 in San Francisco, with intermission discussions led by John Adams.
Jonathan Beyer sings "News has a kind of mystery" from Nixon in China:
In June 1988, the opera received its European premiere at the Muziektheater in Amsterdam followed by its first German performance later that year at the Bielefeld Opera and its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival.
For the Los Angeles production in 1990, Sellars made revisions to darken the opera in the wake of the Tiananmen Square protests. The original production had not had an intermission between Acts 2 and 3; one was inserted, and Sellars authorized supertitles, which he had forbidden in Houston. Adams conducted the original cast in the French premiere, at the Maison de la Culture de Bobigny, Paris, on December 14, 1991. Despite their love for Western music, the opera has never been performed in China.
Remarkably, a number of barihunks have performed the role of Richard Nixon, beginning with James Maddalena at the premiere, followed notably by Franco Pomponi, Brian Mulligan and Ola Eliasson. A number of baritones have used the Act 1 aria "News has a kind of mystery" as an audition piece or in competitions to great effect, most notably Jonathan Beyer.
Nixon in China contains elements of minimalism., which originated in the United States in the 1960s and is characterized by stasis and repetition in place of the melodic development associated with conventional music. The opera is scored for an orchestra without bassoons, French horns, and tuba, but augmented by saxophones, pianos, and electronic synthesizer. The percussion section incorporates numerous special effects, including a wood block, sandpaper blocks, slapsticks and sleigh bells.
The next scheduled performance is at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg in
Germany in May 2018. Houston reprised the opera in January with Scott
Hendricks in the title role.
Joa Helgesson and Derek Chester from the Barihunks photo book
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!
The Lyric Opera of Chicago just wrapped up a run of Jose “Pepe” Martinez’s mariachi opera El Pasado Nunca Se Termina/The Past Is Never Finished, which included the barihunk duo of Paul La Rosa as Enrique and Ricardo Rivera as Acalán.
The opera will now travel to the revamped San Diego Opera on April 25 for a day/night doubleheader and then head to the Houston Grand Opera for performances on May 13, 16, and 17 at the Wortham Theater Center. The duo will be joined by the internationally renowned ensemble Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, soprano Abigail Santos Villalobos and the gifted young tenor Daniel Montenegro.
Paul La Rosa as Enrique
El Pasado is the second mariachi opera from the creative team of José "Pepe" Martínez and Leonard Foglia, who collaborated to create the international hit Cruzar la Cara de la Luna/To Cross the Face of the Moon.
The story takes place in Morelos, Mexico in 1910, where the son of a wealthy European landowner
falls in love with a humble Mexican servant girl living on his family's
hacienda. The story begins on the eve of the Mexican Revolution and
blazes a riveting path through forbidden passion, the fight for freedom,
and political destiny all the way to the modern-day United States.
If there was any doubt left that Ryan McKinny has emerged as a major talent it was erased with the announcement that he'll sing Stanley Kowalski opposite megastar Renée Fleming in Andrè Previn's Streetcar Named Desire at the Los Angeles Opera. It also cements his budding reputation as a major barihunk, adding the notoriously sexy Stanley to his growing list of barihunk roles that includes Hercules, Escamillo and Jochanaan.
McKinny truly emerged last summer as the Dutchman in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer at the Glimmerglass Festival under the direction of Francesca Zambello. McKinny's Dutchman was the sexiest portrayal of that role in operatic history and it worked masterfully. Regular readers know that we consider Zambello the "Queen Mother" of barihunks for her early and enthusiastic concept of casting baritones as not just villains and angry fathers, but as genuine sex symbols.
Ryan McKinny as the Dutchman
Streetcar Named Desire is being performed in a semi-staged concert production under the baton of Patrick Summers. The cast also includes the riveting tenor Anthony Dean Griffey as Blanche’s guileless suitor Mitch and the wonderful soprano Stacey Tappan as Stella. Performances are on May 18, 21 and 24 and tickets are available online.
It's nice to see Ryan McKinny return to the LA Opera, as it's the company that provided him many opportunities early in his career. He debuted there in 2008 as Montano in Verdis's Otello, and subsequently appeared as the Servant in Ullmann's The Broken Jug, Dr. Grenvil in Verdi's La Traviata, Don Basilio in Rossini's Barber of Seville and Leone in Handel's Tamerlano.
He can currently be seen in two productions at the Houston Grand Opera. He's currenlty singing Donner in Wagner's Das Rheingold, also conducted by Patrick Summers, which runs from April 11-26 and then he switches to Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen from April-May 10. McKinny is a former participant with the Houston Grand Opera Studio. (We should also mention that you don't want to miss Stefan Margita as Loge in Rheingold. His is the definitive performance!).
Perhaps one of the most anticipated American premieres this year is that of exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger. We covered the opera two years ago when it was at the English National Opera with barihunk Leigh Melrose as Tadeusz. A year earlier the piece was done in Bregenz with Artur Rucinski in the baritone role.
In January 2014, the opera is coming to the Houston Grand Opera with barihunk Morgan Smith as Tadeusz, in a cast that also includes rising tenor sensation Joseph Kaiser, two of our favorite sopranos Kelly Kaduce and Melody Moore, as well as mezzo-soprano Michelle Breedt. David Pountney’s production and Johan Engels’s two-level set, which received critical acclaim at ENO and in Bregenz, will be brought to Houston.
Leigh Melrose in The Passenger
The libretto is based on the eponymous novel by Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz and is set in the late 1950s. It depicts a German couple, Liese and Walter, on board an ocean liner where former SS officer Liese thinks she recognizes an Auschwitz prisoner among their fellow passengers. Although Weinberg completed his score in 1968, the opera was not performed until 2006 and not fully staged until the 2010 Bregenz Festival.
The Houston Grand Opera will present a number of activities related to the opera. A series of three free concerts begins on November 10 with the world premiere of a new work by HGO Studio alumnus and composer David Hanlon, commemorating the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht and based on the story of his grandfather, one of the thousands of Jewish people arrested on that infamous night and sent to Dachau. On December 9, they will host a concert exploring the music, art, poetry, and philosophy that emerged from Terezín, a concentration camp located in the Czech Republic. The third and final performance on February 22 features music of memory and hope with world premieres of works by Lawrence Siegel and Paul English based on text and inspiration from Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren.
Morgan Smith
Morgan has a number of new roles besides Tadeusz that he is adding to his repertoire next season. In Novemeber 2013, he takes on
Captain Brandt in Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra at the Florida Grand Opera. In March 2014, he debuts the role of
Fritz in Erich Korngold's Die Tode Stadt at the beautiful Winspear Opera House in Dallas. When he wraps up, he heads down Interstate 30 to the Fort Worth Opera where he performs Lt. Audebert in Kevin Puts' Silent Night in a cast full of his fellow barihunks.
If you've not had the chance to see Morgan Smith live, we highly recommend adding one of these performances to your opera travel calendar. He is one of the most compelling young artists to hit the scene in years.
Ryan McKinny is making his much anticipated debut in the role of Kurnewal tonight with the Houston Grand Opera. The all-star cast in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is headed by Nina Stemme and Ben Heppner in the title roles. Performance will run through May 5 and tickets are available online.
The former Houston Grand Opera Studio artist and Metropolitan Opera Auditions finalist, has become a regular with the company. He has appeared as Collatinus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia (2012), the Royal Herald in Wagner's Lohengrin (2009), Theseus in Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2009), Don Pedro in Mozart's Beatrice and Benedict (2008), The Refuge by Christopher Theofanidis (2008, 2007), Mr. Flint in Britten's Billy Budd (2008), Samuel in Verdi's A Masked Ball (2007), Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni (2006), and Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
Ryan McKinny as Jochanaan
Last season, Ryan McKinny made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Britten's Billy Budd, sang his first Jochanaan in Salome at New Orleans Opera (remember that sexy picture?), and sang Hercules in Alceste with Leipzig Opera.
In 2010, he was named the first recipient of the Birgit Nilsson Prize for singing Wagner at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition. He also represented the United States in the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, where he was a finalist in the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize.
Ryan McKinny seems an ideal fit
for the Wagner bass-baritone roles he is pursuing — Amfortas, the
Dutchman. In fact, he has spent a long time trying to figure out what
his voice is, and what it isn't. "When you enter competitions in your
early twenties," he says, "if you are a lyric soprano or Rossini tenor, I
think you kind of understand what you're supposed to be doing. With
lower male voices or bigger soprano voices, it's not always clear.
You're not always ready to sing what you're supposed to sing."
Make sure to catch McKinny's upcoming performances in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. He'll be performing Melot with the Canadian Opera Company from January 29 to February 23, 2013 and then Kurnewal with the Houston Grand Opera from April 18 to May 5. The Isolde in Houston will be Nina Stemme, who is arguably the reigning Wagnerian soprano in the world today.
Ryan McKinny sings "Die Frist ist um" from the Flying Dutchman:
If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area don't miss tonight's Schwabacher Summer Concert featuring the latest class of participants. The concert will feature works by great Italian composers, as well as a little Tchaikovsky. The concert will feature scenes from "Don Carlo," "I Capuleti e i Montecchi " "Lucia di Lammermoor," "Rigoletto" and "Eugene Onegin." The scenes concert will be directed by renowned stage director Peter Kazaras, who currently serves as Seattle Opera's Artistic Advisor and Principal Artistic Instructor of the Young Artist Development Program, and was recently appointed Director of Opera and Music Theater at UCLA.
Two Merola participants are of particular interest to us this year, as they have already created a buzz in the opera world for their amazing singing talent and barihunk good looks: Phillipe Sly and Mark Diamond. Both singers have also won major vocal competitions, with Diamond taking first place at the Eleanor McCollum Competition at the Houston Grand Opera and Sly winning the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions Competition.
Mark Diamond
Diamond has already been scooped up by the Houston Grand Opera and he'll be joining their esteemed young artist program after Merola. Houston has engaged him to perform Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Marchese d’Obigny in La Traviata. He will be studying the roles of Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, and Rodrigue in Don Carlos. You can hear his sound clips HERE.
Phillipe Sly in performance
We've featured Phillip Sly prominently on this site since he first came to our attention. You can hear his sound clips HERE. A little trivia about Sly: he originally started out as a countertenor (like fellow barihunk Zachary Gordin). Here is Sly singing Schubert's Der Erlkönig, which we've previously posted, but we can't get enough of.
Both singers will appear in the Merola performances of Rossini's "Barber of Seville" this year. Diamond as Figaro and Sly as Bartolo. Performance are on August 4, 5, 6 and 7 and tickets can be purchased HERE. For those who can't make tonight's concert, there will be a FREE version of the concert at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Park on Sunday, July 24th at 2 PM.
Birthday boy: Jordan Shanahan
We'd also like to wish Jordan Shanahan a HAPPY BIRTHDAY today. Shanahan and his wife soprano Luna recently won the Barihunks "Favorite Opera Couple" poll. We've been trying to find a video of the popular couple singing together and we promise to post one when it becomes available.
Luca Pisaroni joins Adriana Kucerove (L) & Ellie Dehn (R) for a curtain call at HGO
In an age when most opera companies are cutting back performances, it was refreshing to see that the Houston Grand Opera had to add a performance of the Marriage of Figaro. Of course, this was the debut of barihunk Luca Pisaroni in the role of Count Almaviva, so we can understand the buzz. Pisaroni has made the other baritone role in the opera, that of Figaro, virtually a calling card role. He's sung it all over the world, including recent perfromances in Vienna, San Francisco, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Salzburg and Madrid. He turned over the role to the talented Patrick Carfizzi for the run in Houston.
Performances run through April 30 and you can click HERE for additional cast and performance information.
Here is Pisaroni singing Figaro's aria "Aprite un po quegli occhi" in Amsterdam.
We couldn't find a video of Pisaroni singing the Count's aria "Hai gia vinta la causa," but here is his father-in-law Thomas Hampson performing the aria in Salzburg. How would you like to be sitting around the piano at one of their family get togethers?
Low voices ruled the day at the 23rd annual McCollum Competition fro Young Singers in Houston. Among the eight finalists, two baritones, a soprano and a bass were named winners in the final round of voting at the Wortham Center in Houston.
Guest judge mezzo Federica von Stade, Houston Grand Opera General Director Anthony Freud and Music Director Patrick Summers selected the winners of the competition following their performances in the Concert of Arias.
Mark Diamond
First place went to baritone Mark Diamond, who performed "Hai già vinta la causa" from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen" from Korngold's Die tote Stadt.
Thomas Florio
Second place went to baritone Thomas Florio, who performed "Within this frail crucible of light" from Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and "Papagena! Papagena!" from Mozart's The Magic Flute.
Adam Lau
The audience cast their ballots at intermission for the Audience Choice Award, selecting bass Adam Lau, who performed "When my cue comes, call me" from Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and "La calunnia" from Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
Barihunks would like to congratulate these gifted young singers. Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com
With and all-star cast and the composer and librettist in the audience, the Houston Grand Opera scored an artistic triumph with their production of Jake Heggie's "Dead Man Walking."
The Houston Chronicle wrote:
Cutlip's De Rocher is, as he must be, a major source of the darkness. He sings with tough force and acts the hardened killer with the right scary edge and jeering arrogance. Then as Sister Helen gradually begins to reach him, he lets us see glimmers of humanity, his fear, his shame. Cutlip makes the transition very convincing, from his initial wariness, to the pained confession of his guilt to Sister Helen, and finally to their bond of forgiveness and support as he prepares to die.
Read the entire review at the Houston Chronicle website.
The Houston Grand Opera has assembled an all-star cast for Jake Heggie's "Dead Man Walking" that would make La Scala or the Metropolitan Opera envious. Heading the cast is barihunk Philip Cutlip as Joseph De Rocher, who has created a buzz on opera blogs and in the mainstream press [see the feature from Houston magazine below]. Joining Cutlip will be the legendary mezzo Frederica von Stade, who will make her farewell to the stage as De Rocher's mother. Two of the world's greatest Rosina's from the Barber of Seville, Joyce Di Donato and Susanne Mentzer, will portray Sister Helen Prejean and Jade Boucher respectively. Measha Brueggergosman will make her Houston Grand Opera debut in the role of Sister Rose.
"Dead Man Walking" has become one of the most popular contemporary operas and has quickly made it into the standard repertory. Like Simon Boccanegra, Don Giovanni and Boris Godunov, it has become a vehicle for the greatest baritones of our time. Because the character works out in prison and has to look impressive physically, the role has always been portrayed by barihunks. The Canadian premiere featured Daniel Okulitch, who also performed the role at the Ft. Worth Opera. Other barihunks who have sung the role include Mel Ulrich, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Marcus DeLoach and John Packard, who will perform the role of Owen Hart in Houston's current production.
Philip Cutlip sporting his prison mustache
Performances will run from Saturday January 22nd through Sunday February 6th. Tickets and additional cast information are available at the Houston Grand Opera website. Here is the highlight video from the opera's website:
Here is the #1 feature of Houston magazine's "Best of Culture," featuring the star of "Dead Man Walking":
Barihunk Philip Cutlip: Best of Culture (Photo by Dorothy Hong)
DEATH Becomes HIM
Best o f Cu lt u r e
#1 Opera stars die many deaths. But for “barihunk” Philip Cutlip, 44, facing execution in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking for HGO—based on the same true story as the 1995 Sean Penn movie—is different. Tougher than performing in boxers in H-Town fave Heggie’s The End of the Affair. “I’ve never been squeamish about exposing all of myself onstage, [but] portraying a man being executed will be far more internally emotional,” says Cutlip. “With every breath he takes, word he utters, person he sees, he knows that he will die.” Besides poignancy, the now 10-year-old show is rife with milestones: Joyce DiDonato reprises the role of Sister Helen Prejean, in which she debuted in New York, and world-renowned Frederica von Stade will retire after playing Cutlip’s mother. “A very moving passing of the torch,” says San Francisco-based Houston fan Heggie, 49, “and to be here for the 10th anniversary is so special.”
There are a number of barihunks who as individuals are worth the price of admission. Simon Keenlyside, Mariusz Kwiecien and Erwin Schrott certainly come to mind as singers who look good, are great actors and are also amazing singers. There are lesser known barihunks like Kyle Ketelsen, Wes Mason, Kelly Markgraf and Randal Turner who we feel also deliver the complete package night in and night out. However, if there is one barihunk who probably already belongs in a class with Keenlyside, Kwiecien and Schrott it is Luca Pisaroni.
His recent video of Ercole that we featured is a tour de force and he may already be one of the ten best exponents of Mozart in the world today. Period. Here are three clips of this gifted young singer performing Mozart, so that you can judge for yourself. Few singers can bring these characters to life like Pisaroni and his vocal nuances are nothing short of phenomenal.
Apparently, opera houses are recognizing his gifts as a Mozartean, as his schedule includes a current run of Figaro in Amsterdam, Leporello at Glyndebourne this summer, Figaro in San Francisco this fall and then the Count in Houston early next year. If you can make it to any of these performances, we guarantee that you will be in for a real treat.
Luca Pisaroni sings Figaro's "Aprite un po' gli occhi"
Maite Beaumont as Dorabella and Luca Pisaroni as Guglielmo sing "Il cuore vi dono" from "Così fan tutte"
Nathan Gunn is premiering his second Andre Previn opera, Brief Encounter, based on the play by Noel Coward. Top Gunn joins his colleague from Previn's Streetcar Named Desire, Elizabeth Futral at the Houston Grand Opera. According to the program notes, the opera is an honest and compassionate look at emotional infidelity with a couple that is torn between love and loyalty.
