Levent Bakirci in revealing Il Prigioniero at Maggio Musicale

Levent Bakirci in Il Prigioniero

Levent Bakirci, who we recently featured starring in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Teatro Municipal Santiago in Chile, just made his debut at the Festival del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Bakirci is singing the difficult title role in Luigi Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero and spends much of the opera in little more than a pair of briefs. 

Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero is a 7-part, 50-minute opera which was first performed on May 3, 1948 for the XIII Maggio Festival, and was considered one of the cornerstones of 20th century musical theater. It was first broadcast by the Italian radio station RAI on December 1, 1949.

The opera has two remaining performances on June 21 and 23. Tickets are available online and start at only € 10. 

Levent Bakirci in Il Prigioniero

The work is based on the short story La torture par l'espérance ("Torture by Hope") from the collection Nouveaux contes cruels by the French writer Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and from La Légende d'Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak by Charles de Coster. Some of the musical material is based on Dallapiccola's 1938 choral work Canti di prigionia. After ruminating on the idea, he started work on the piece in 1939 at the suggestion of his wife Laura.

Bakirci, graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara before pursuing his career as a singer, including studying at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.

He has performed Don Giovanni at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, where he is an ensemble member, as well as the Theater Bremen, where he was a member of the ensemble from 2008-11. He has appeared at some of the leading opera houses of the world, including the Theatre du Caputole Toulouse, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Oper Stuttgart, as well as with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester and with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie Orchestra (NDW).

Bo Skovhus to perform double-bill of operatic rarities

Bo Skovhus in Reimann's Lear

One of our most popular posts with readers was entitled "Lauri Vasar Strips Down for Il Prigioniero," which prompted us to put up a follow up post with additional photos of the barihunk in his scivvies. So imagine our excitement when we found out that über-barihunk Bo Skovhus would be performing the piece with Oper Köln in March and April 2015.

Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero is a 7-part, 50-minute opera which was first broadcast by the Italian radio station RAI on December 1, 1949. The work is based on the short story La torture par l'espérance ("Torture by Hope") from the collection Nouveaux contes cruels by the French writer Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and from La Légende d'Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak by Charles de Coster. Some of the musical material is based on Dallapiccola's 1938 choral work Canti di prigionia.


Despite the taxing nature of the role, Skovhus will return after intermission to sing an equally demanding role, that of the bass solo in Bernd Alois Zimmerman's Ekklesiastische Aktion: Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht das geschah unter der Sonne ("I turned and saw all the injustice there was under the sun")

Bo Skovhus and Silvana Dussmann in The Merry Widow: 

The 35-minute piece is scored for two speakers, bass soloist, and large orchestra, with text based on the words of the Preacher in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. The work also requires enormous physical stamina, as it includes the stamping of feet, gesturing, jumping and performing in various yoga-like poses.

The piece was commissioned by the city of Kiel for the Munich Olympic Games in 1972. Ekklesiastische Aktion was Zimmermann's final composition before he killed himself and the music quotes Bach's, "Es ist genug" (It is enough). That section is played fortissimo by trumpets and trombones in a jolting expression of mortality.

Bo Skovhus is currently singing the role of Graf Danilo in Franz Lehár's Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) at Oper Köln. Tickets and additional cast information for both shows are available online.

David Adam Moore & Xavier Rivera

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Lucky Vixen chased by shirtless Lauri Vasar

Lauri Vasar in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Whenever we post about Estonian barihunk Lauri Vasar he seems to be either shirtless or pantless. We've featured him as Billy Budd without his shirt and in Il Prigioniero without his shirt or pants. Vasar who has been incredibly popular with our readers also made our coveted "Barihunks Best of 2013" list along with Christopher Burchett for "Best Underwear Shots," one of our favorite categories.

Lauri Vasar from previous Barihunks posts

Vasar is shirtless again and in an opera that is known for showing more fur than skin, Leoš Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen (Das schlaue Füchslein. Vasar is playing the role of the Forester at the Hamburg State Opera, a character which was based on Janáček himself. At the heart of the story is a sexy and evasive Vixen who is pursued by the Forester.  The character of the vixen was inspired by a younger woman who Janáček was somewhat obsessed with in real life. 

We won't tell you how the opera ends, but if a shirtless Lauri Vasar was chasing us around, it would definitely have a happy ending. 

The Cunning Little Vixen, which opened yesterday, runs through April 5th and tickets are available online. 

Lauri Vasar as Billy Budd; Don Giovanni on the horizon

Lauri Vasar as Billy Budd

We think that one of our hottest posts was of Lauri Vasar in Luigi Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero. Vasar is definitely one of the hottest barihunks in the over 40 category and he consistently seems to perform in various states of undress. We thought about him again when a German fan of the site sent us this video of Vasar as Billy Budd at the Deutsche Opera am Rhein in Düsseldorf. We posted about this performance when it happened and it proved instantly popular with fans, which led to the Pigioniero post. 

We wondered what was up next for the Estonian singer and were thrilled to find out that he'll be portraying the hot Latin lover Don Giovianni in Mozart's classic opera. Director Doris Dörrie's production at the Hamburg opera explores the opera from a woman's point of view, wondering why women seemingly can't live with a man like Don Giovanni. To stress her point, each of the three main women is portrayed from a different period of history.

Nicola Ulivieri as Don Giovanni

Performances will run in October 2012 and May 13. Vasar will alternate in the title role with Nicola Ulivieri. Visit the Hamburg State Opera website for additional information.

Nicola Ulivieri sings the Catalog aria:

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Lauri Vasar a Hit With Readers

Lauri Vasar in Il Prigioniero

We always love it when we post a barihunk on the site and he proves popular with the readers. The latest to have an instant following seems to be Estonian baritone Lauri Vasar whose pictures from Billy Budd attracted quite a bit of traffic.

Of course, we loved it when we received an email that began, "If you thought he was hot as Billy Budd, you should have seen him in Il Prigioniero." So we found some photos that we thought you'd enjoy and we're going to start keeping an eye on this hunky performer. In fact, he opens tomorrow at the Hamburgische Staatsoper (Hamburg State Opera) in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.

Lauri Vasar in Il Prigioniero

The following month he heads to the Gran Theatre del Liceu singing Ottokar in Der Freischutz. We'll certainly be keeping an eye out for photos in the future.

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