Introducing Verdi Baritone Alberto Gazale

Alberto Gazale

Italian barihunk Alberto Gazale is new to us and we spotted him in the cast of Verdi's Il Corsaro at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste. Since we're celebrating the 200th anniversary of Verdi's death, we were hoping to discover some new Verdi baritones this year. The final performance of Il Corsaro is on Saturday, January 19th.

Gazale graduated at the Conservatory of Verona and the Accademia Lirica in Mantua, where he specialized in singing Verdi. In 1998, he made his operatic debut in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera in Parma. He has performed at most of the major opera houses in Italy, as well as the Wiener Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Teatro Real in Madrid and the Opernhaus in Zürich. His Verdi repertory includes Attila, La traviata, Il trovatore, Don Carlo, I masnadieri, Luisa Miller, Un ballo in maschera, Aida, Rigoletto, Il Corsaro, Macbeth and Otello.

Alberto Gazale sings Rigoletto's "Cortigiani vil razza dannata":  

  Alberto Gazale sings "Per me giunto è il dì supremo" from Don Carlo:

Alberto Gazale sings Iago:

Barihunk Role Announcements; Happy Birthday, Vincenzo Bellini

We've learned that Dmitri Hvorostovsky aka "The Siberian Hunky," will be singing Iago at the Metropolitan Opera during the 2015/16 season. We'll have more on this as the date approaches.

Since today is Vincenzo Bellini's birthday, here is Hvorostovsky singing a jaw-droppingly beautiful version of "Ah, per sempre io ti perdei" from "I Puritani."



The other big news regarding roles comes out of Santa Fe. Thomas Hampson and Mariusz Kwiecien will be bringing roles to the U.S. that that received critical acclaim in Europe. Hampson will be singing Scarpia in Puccini's "Tosca" and Kwiecien will be performing his sizzling hot portrayal of King Roger in Karol Szymanoski's opera of the same name. Visit the Santa Fe Opera website for additional cast and performance information.

Here is Hampson singing the Te Deum from Tosca in Zurich:



You can watch an entire performance of King Roger with "The Hot Pole" on YouTube. Here is the Part 1 of 10:



Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Don't forget to order your 2012 Barihunks calendar. Click HERE to order. All proceeds go to support young artists and young artist programs. It's a great gift and an easy way to support our next generation of baritones. You can read more about our calendar at this previous post.

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Celebrating Iago on Otello's Anniversary

Titta Ruffo

One of the unfortunate things about this site is that we don't find as many Verdi barihunks as we'd like. Some roles scream barihunk casting, particularly Attila and we've featured it regularly. Most of the roles range from the G below low C to the A♭ above middle C (G2 to A♭4), which includes singers like Ettore Bastianini and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. However, most barihunks seems to have a sweeter, lighter and slightly higher placed voice, so we tend to post a disproportionate amount of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Handel and baroque opera.

So on the occasion of the debut of Verdi's Otello on this date in 1887, we decided to celebrate the role of Iago, who we think should be regularly cast as a barihunk, as it adds such a wonderful dimension to the storyline.

Here are two of our favorite barihunks, Tito Ruffo singing the opera's famed duet with Enrico Caruso and Dmitri Hvorostovsky singing Iago's Credo.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky

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