Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco makes his Nashville debut

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco, who has made El Payador in Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires his signature role, will return to the role for what he estimates to be the fifteenth time. The Mexican-American barihunk will make his company debut with the role at the Nashville Opera from November 10-12.

Despite its reputation as the Capital of Country Music, it appears that this night of Argentinian opera and dance is the hottest ticket in town, as all three performances are sold out. However, there is a wait list that you can get on.

The production will be directed by John Hoomes and will feature Argentine dancers Mariela Barufaldi and Jeremías Massera (founders of Miami's Tango Axis Argentine Tango School) along with bandoneón player Rodolfo Zanetti and soprano Cassandra Zoe Velasco as Maria.

The opera has become popular in Germany, where is has been performed in apparently every city that starts with the letter "B": Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Biel and Bremen. The opera can next be seen at the San Diego Opera with barihunk Paul La Rosa as El Payador from January 26-28 and then at the Fort Worth Opera Festival on April 27 and May 5 (performers have not been announced, but we've learned that it will be Luis Alejandro Orozco). Both productions are directed by John de los Santos.

Malte Roesner, 2018 Barihunks Calendar/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!

A Birthday Tribute to Composer Clint Borzoni

Composer Clint Borzoni

There are a number of composers who have had an amazing gift for writing for the baritone voice. In an earlier era, Verdi, Wagner, Poulenc and Carl Loewe all wrote timeless music for baritones. In contemporary times, Jake Heggie and Clint Borzoni have kept the tradition alive, with Heggie writing baritone leads for almost every opera.

Randal Turner sings Clint Borzoni's "That Shadow, My Likeness":

Borzoni has written over seventy pieces, including two full-length operas, two one-act operas, a piano concerto, percussion quartet, work for orchestra, two string quartets, several works for chamber orchestra and over forty art songs.

Much of his vocal writing prominently features baritones, including the two lead roles in his recent opera When Adonis Calls, a leading bass role and baritone role in Antinous and Hadrian, two recent works for String Quartet and Baritone (Stufen and Margere Kost) written for Marco Vassalli, a set of Walt Whitman songs for baritone, the song cycle Awake the Dawn written for baritone Seth Kershisnik, and the song cycle Live Oak Growing written for baritones Tim Hill and Randal Turner.

Marco Vassalli sings Clint Borzoni's "Stufen":

His opera Antinous and Hadrian tells the story of the second century Roman emperor Hadrian and his love for the Greek youth Antinous. It examines the mystery behind the tragic death of the young Antinous. Upon his death, the distraught Emperor declared his beloved a god. Drawing on both historical sources and dramatic imagination the work has been written in the grand opera tradition.

 Wes Mason sings "Two Nooses" from "When Adonis Calls":

Borzoni recently completed his fourth opera, When Adonis Calls, based on the poetry of Gavin Dillard and arranged by John de los Santos. The opera was presented at Fort Worth Opera’s 2015 Frontiers Showcase.

He fifth opera, The Copper Queen, also written with librettist John de los Santos, won Arizona Opera’s new opera competition, Arizona SPARK.

Ryan Taylor takes over Minnesota Opera; Leaves great legacy in Arizona

Ryan Taylor now and in his singing days

Former baritone Ryan Taylor is taking over the Minnesota Opera, after he successfully revived the Arizona Opera. Taylor certainly would have been a candidate for barihunks during his singing days, but he was winding down his career as we were revving up the site. Taylor takes over on May 1 and you can read more on the Star Tribune website. We recently posted about another barihunk, Jason Hardy, who took over the reigns of OperaDelaware.

His current programming at Arizona Opera includes Bizet's Carmen in February with the barihunk trio of Ryan Kuster as Escamillo, Joseph Lattanzi as Morales and Calvin Griffin as Zuniga (and the sensational Daniella Mack as Carmen). That will be followed later in the month by Mozart's Don Giovanni with barihunks Morgan Smith and Joseph Lattanzi rotating the title role and Ryan Kuster singing Masetto.

Another of his great legacies will be Arizona Spark, which workshops new compositions. Our personal favorite is Clint Borzoni's Copper Queen, with a libretto by John De Los Santos. The opera tells the story of Julia Lowell, the ghost that haunts a famed hotel in Bisbee, Arizona, once prominent as a mining town for both copper and “Bisbee-blue” turquoise. You can hear sound clips HERE. The Minnesota Opera also has a long tradition of presenting new works, including composer Kevin Puts' Silent Night, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Borzoni will be presenting two new works in San Francisco next week for String Quartet and Baritone with barihunk Marco Vassalli. Tickets are available online.

Clint Borzoni's erotic "When Adonis Calls" to get NY workshop premiere

Grant Youngblood and Michael Weyandt

If you live in New York and missed the new opera workshop at Frontiers at the Fort Worth Opera, you're in luck. There will be a workshop reading of the sensational new work by composer Clint Borzoni and librettist John De Los Santos presented by operamission on Thursday, May 21 at 8 PM in the rehearsal hall at OPERA America's National Opera Center (330 Seventh Avenue at 29th Street) in New York.

The Poet will be sung by Grant Youngblood and The Muse by Michael Weyandt. The performance will feature string quartet and percussion and be conducted by Jennifer Peterson. The opera is based on the homoerotic poetry of Gavin Geoffrey Dillard.

You can watch the clips from Frontiers, which feature Tyson Deaton conducting with piano accompaniment by Stephen Carey. Wes Mason sang The Poet and Matt Moeller sang The Muse.

John De Los Santos and Clint Borzoni discuss "When Adonis Calls"

The performance will also include the world premiere of Clint Borzoni's song cycle "Earth, my likeness" featuring countertenor Daniel Bubeck. The piece is based on the poems of Constantine Cavafy, May Swenson and Walt Whitman.

Tickets are $20 in advance and are available online.

Introducing Barihunk Timothy McNair; Performing in The Grapes of Wrath

It's inadvertently turned into Ricky Ian Gordon week on Barihunks this week, but when you write great roles for baritones, it's bound to happen. Gordon just had a huge critical and artistic success with his mini-opera "Green Sneakers" in San Francisco directed by John de los Santos and starring the compelling barihunk Jesse Blumberg. Now his most heralded piece, "The Grapes of Wrath" is getting a few performances at Northwestern University this week.

In the role of Huston is 24-year-old Timothy McNair who is pursuing his Mater of Music degree at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music. McNair's character has a shower scene in Act 3, so the young bass-barihunk has been staying fit by working out with a personal trainer. His circuit workout includes rowing, plank, pushups, kettle bells, pull-ups and medicine ball presses. We think that the results are excellent!

Timothy McNair buffed up for his shower scene

Based on John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel, with a libretto by Tony nominee Michael Korie, the opera follows the Joad family from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl to California in search of a better life. Gordon’s score evokes American popular music of the 1920s and ’30s, bringing new depth to this tale of hope in the face of despair. Guest baritone Robert Orth, who played Uncle John in the opera’s 2007 premiere, reprises his role in this production.

Performances of The Grapes of Wrath are Friday, Feb. 22nd at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24th at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28th at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 2nd at 7:30 p.m. in the Cahn Auditorium at Northwestern University.

McNair is the full Eckstein scholarship recipient "Master of Music-Voice and Opera" for the class of 2014 at Northwestern's Bienen School of Music. and he starred as Luciano in the 2012 fall production of John Musto's chamber opera Bastianello. Tickets are available online.

West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers" creating media buzz

Cellist Kathyrn Bates Williams and Barihunk Jesse Blumberg (Photo by Michael Colbruno)

The West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers" has created quite a media buzz before its one-night only performance tonight at Fort Mason's Southside Theater in San Francisco. The Jewish Weekly, Bay Area Reporter and San Francisco Chronicle all named it as one of their top theater picks for the week.

The Advocate ran a lengthy interview with Ricky Ian Gordon today, who wrote the mini-opera as a way of dealing with the loss of his lover Jeffrey Grossi to AIDS in 1996. Gordon told the Advocate, "The world is so different now than it was when Jeffery died in 1996. Young people today missed seeing what it was really like at the height of the AIDS crisis so for them they think it’s OK because you just get to take a few pills all the time. Today, HIV is romanticized in a way because you get to be like that character in Rent, but young people need to know that there’s nothing romantic about it."

You can read the entire interview HERE.

Jesse Blumberg and the Del Sol Quartet (Photo by Michael Colbruno)

The San Francisco Examiner hailed Gordon as a natural successor to Stephen Sondheim along with Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel and John Michael LaChiusa. You can read the entire article HERE. San Francisco's KDFC radio also aired an interview with the composer.

Green Sneakers, which is broken into nineteen songs and runs about 80 minutes, is being directed by one of operas most exciting young talents John de los Santos. The theatrical song cycle was written for Baritone, String Quartet, and Empty Chair, with a libretto by the composer. It premiered on July 15, 2008 in Vail, Colorado and has had a number of subsequent performances since, mostly with Blumberg. Remarkably, it had never been performed in the two cities most impacted by AIDS - New York City and San Francisco. This performance and an upcoming show at Lincoln Center on April 6th finally bring this important piece to the audiences most touched by the epidemic. 

Jesse Blumberg in rehearsal for Green Sneakers in San Francisco (Photo by Michael Colbruno)

Tickets for the February 19th performance are available at the Fort Mason website. Tickets for the New York show are part of the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center and available HERE.

A complete photo album from the San Francisco rehearsals is available HERE. 

Orozco Hailed in Piazolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires"

Luis Alejandro Orozco

One more reason that we love our Reader Submissions is that we end up following careers as they breakthrough with major successes. The latest example is the hunky Luis Alejandro Orozco who thrived in a production of Astor Piazolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires" by the gifted young director John De Los Santos.

The Lexington Herald-Leader wrote:

In the part of the Payador, Maria’s lover and would-be savior, Luis Alejandro Orozco wields his strong, plangent baritone voice with tender artistry and also cuts a figure of rare physical beauty. His interaction with the utility players, effectively undertaken by Andrew McKinnon, Alexis Slocum and Josh Stone, fairly bristle with dramatic truth.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/02/02/2500437/review-with-maria-lexington-philharmonic.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

You can read the entire review online. 

There are performance remaining today and tomorrow and tickets are available online. Orozco will next perform the role at the Florida Grand Opera on Thursday March 21th, 22nd, 23rd and 24th. He can next be seen as Le Podestat in Bizet's rarely performed opérette Le Docteur Miracle at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music on February 15th - 17th. He will also cover the role of Young Emile in the new Terence Blanchard opera featuring fellowing barihunk Aubrey Allicock, which we've posted previously.

You can hear audio samples of Luis Alejandro Orozco on his website.  

Director John De Los Santos will be joining forces with yet another barihunk when he directs the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers." If you're anywhere near the San Francisco Bay Area, you want want to miss this "one night only" performance featuring Jesse Blumberg in Gordon's masterful mini-opera. Tickets are available online at the Fort Mason box office.

Luis Alejandro Orozco in Piazzolla's "Maria de Buenos Aires" in Lexington and Miami

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco will be performing Astor Piazzolla's tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires in both Lexington and Miami. We introduced him to readers last summer after a reader tip.

His first performances will be February 1-3 at the Black Box Theater in Lexington, Kentucky. The performance features the Lexington Philharmonic with mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian and narrator Enrique Andrade. We're particularly excited because John De Los Santos, our "Best Director" from our "Best of Barihunks 2011" list will be directing. De Los Santos will also be directing the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers," which we recently posted about.

Luis Alejandro Orozco sings "Deh, vieni alla finestra" from Don Giovanni:

Piazzolla’s style, now known as nuevo tango, was initially rebuffed, but later caused a resurgence of popularity in Argentinean tango and Piazzolla’s music. Using two singers and a narrator, the audience is lead through the story, as characters shift and Maria dies and her spirit confronts her life in the streets of Buenos Aires. It is an allegorical tale of Maria and her life, which is the spirit of tango, death and resurrection.

Tickets can be purchased by calling the Lexington Philharmonic box office at 859-233-4226 or visiting their website.

Hot directorial talents: John De Los Santos and José Maria Condemi

Orozco will reprise his performance from March 21-24 at the Florida Grand Opera. Maria will be performed by Catalina Cuervo and the piece will be directed by José Maria Condemi, another director whose work has been impressing us. He's currently directing Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas at the Utah Opera with barihunk Nmon Ford.

Tickets for Maria de Buenos Aires are available online.

Luis Alejandro Orozco was born in El Paso Texas, but raised in Juarez, Mexico for most of his life. Orozco is currently an artist diploma candidate at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He has performed with such companies as Lake George Opera (Saratoga Opera), Des Moines Metro Opera, El Paso Opera and Cincinnati Opera.

Teatro di Capua's trailer of Maria de Buenos Aires:

Des Moines Metro Opera singers hit the gym

Des Moines Metro Opera singers hit the gym
(L-R) Alexander Elliot, Marco Cammarota, Ian Richardson, Gabriel Nochlin-Gargari and Michael Mayes

Our recent post about the quartet of barihunks at the Merola Opera Program generated a lot of interest, which made us realize that you like your singers delivered to you in bunches. So we couldn't resist this group photo of five singers from the Des Moines Metro Opera company hitting the gym. Alexander Elliot, Ian Richardson and Michael Mayes (front center) are all baritones, while Marco Cammarota and Gabriel Nochlin-Gargari are tenors. We have to admit, it's nice to see that tenors are hitting the gym, too. We've heard Nochlin-Gargari used to be a gymnast, so fitness is nothing new to this emerging character tenor.

Michael Mayes working out for "Dead Man Walking" in Tulsa

Michael Mayes will be the lead in Mozart's Don Giovanni, which opens on June 22 and runs through July 15. His Masetto will be Edward Hanlon, who was a 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Semi-Finalist. Also, don't forget to tune in to Michael Mayes' hilarious Texapolitan Opera Roadshow podcast, which is some of the most entertaining stuff about opera on the web. We highly recommend Episode 21 with tenor Chad Johnson, which was taped last year in Des Moines and remains some of the funniest stuff around. PERIOD.

Alexander Elliot

Alexander Elliot, who is an apprentice artist, will be covering John Moore in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

Edward Hanlon in La boheme at Seagle Music Colony

Ian Richardson will be covering Hanlon as Masetto and starring in the Des Moines Metro Opera apprentice artist scenes. There are four remaining performances of the scenes on June 27 and 30, and July 5 and 11. Many of the scenes are directed by John De Los Santos, who we named as our Best Director in our "2011 Best of Barihunks" feature for his work on Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado at the Fort Worth Opera Festival. He will also be choreographing Don Giovanni and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Check out his work below.

In addition to Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin, the Des Moines Metro Opera season will feature Puccini's La Rondine. Tickets for all of the operas and apprentice scenes are available on their website. If you're anywhere nearby (and we know it's a quick trip from Omaha, Minneapolis and Chicago), you should check out this opera company, which continues to present some of the best young talent around.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

BARIHUNKS BEST OF 2011

HOTTEST BARIHUNK PHOTO OF 2011 - CHRISTOPHER JOHNSTONE

Christopher Johnstone: Model singer

We couldn't believe it when we saw Christopher Johnstone's new website this year. The Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music graduate defines himself as a "Singer, Actor, Model" and it's tough to argue with it. The lyric baritone has sung with the Glimmerglass Opera, Lyric Opera San Diego, Opera Pacific, Cincinnati Pops, Boston Pops and performing Poulenc’s Le bal masqué for Baritone and Chamber Orchestra with Maestro James Levine of the Metropolitan Opera.

HOTTEST BARIHUNK PHOTO OF 2011 (RUNNER UP) - NICHOLAS NELSON

Nicholas Nelson: Singer or Abercombie & Fitch model?

When we first saw these pictures, we thought they were from an Abercombie & Fitch catalogue. If there is any question left in anyone's mind that singers are taking better care of their bodies these days, these pictures should dispel those thoughts. Nelson is currently with the Portland Opera Studio, one of the beneficiaries of funds from our 2012 Barihunks charity calendar.

BEST STUDIO RECORDING - HENK NEVEN

Henk Neven: Best baritone studio CD of the year

Henk Neven was nominated for a presitigious Gramophone Award in the category of "Solo Vocal." Neven was nomintated for his recording of Carl Loewe's "Ballades" and Robert Schumann's Liederkreis with Hans Eijsackers on piano. It's an amazing recording that should belong in everyone's playlist.

BEST TREND - LIVING AMERICAN COMPOSERS

Daniel Okulitch, Randal Turner & David Adam Moore

The music of living American Composers was all the rage this year. Barihunks Randal Turner and Daniel Okulitch both released brilliant CDs based on the theme. The Five Burroughs Music Festival run by barihunk Jesse Blumberg featured music by living American composers, including performances from fellow barihunk David Adam Moore. The New York Festival of Song, under one of our favorites, Steven Blier, also continued to deliver some of the best new American music on the scene.



BEST NEWCOMERS - PHILIPPE SLY and DOMINIK KöNINGER

PHILIPPE SLY and DOMINIK KöNINGER

We had a great post this year which asked the question: Can barihunks sing? If there was any question about it, two newcomers to the site Philippe Sly and Dominik Köninger quickly dispelled the myth. Sly blew away audiences during his brief tenure at the Merola Opera Program and went on to win the Metropolitan Opera Auditions.  He was identified early on as a favorite to win the competition and his version of Schubert's haunting Der Erlkönig drew comparisons to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and other great baritones.


In a year where baritones won almost every vocal competition, German barihunk Dominik Köninger took the top prize at the 2011 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. His seamless phrasing and beauty of tone instantly became the talk of European impresarios and critics.

BEST NUDE SCENE - CHRISTOPHER MALTMAN IN "JUAN"

Christopher Maltman in Juan

Ever since we posted that Christopher Maltman appeared nude in Kasper Holten's abbreviated and updated film version of Mozart's "Don Giovanni," our inbox was filled with queries asking us where they could see the film. Unfortunately, the film had VERY limited release in the U.S. and wasn't made available on DVD to North Americans. Fortunately, a fan of our site directed us to this LINK where the film can be viewed online for free. We suspect that they're getting a sudden uptick in traffic.

BEST AND WORST OPERAS OF THE YEAR
BEST - HYDROGEN JUKEBOX IN FT. WORTH
WORST - GRISELDA IN SANTA FE

Dan Kempson & Justin Hopkins

The Ft. Worth Opera Festival continues to establish itself as a mandatory summer stop for any serious opera fan. This year's production of Phillip Glass' "Hydrogen Jukebox" was the surprise hit of the year. Directed by the Lawrence Edelson and featuring barihunks Dan Kempson and Justin Hopkins (who often appeared only in boxers), the production made an excellent case for this opera entering the standard repertory.

Gronk working on the Griselda sets

If you were looking for a short night at the opera, then you should have been at the Santa Fe Opera's production of Vivaldi's "Griselda." Director Peter Sellars and artist Gronk created an incoherent updating of a baroque masterpiece that had people scrambling for the exits. After Act 1 Santa Fe was filled with opera goers at local bars asking, "What the hell was that?"

BEST AND WORST DIRECTORS
BEST: JOHN DE LOS SANTOS
WORST: MICHAEL GRANDAGE

John de los Santos and Michael Grandage

We return to Ft. Worth for our best young director, John de los Santos, who brought such vibrancy to Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado" that it seemed like a brand new hit show. We've been featuring a video of his work in our sidebar, as we think that his work should be more widely known to opera fans. He will be working on his first Wagner opera this year, when he joins the creative team at the Dallas Opera for their "Tristan und Isolde."

We've always had great respect for Michael Grandage as an actor and for much of his theatrical work. However, he needs to stay away from the opera house. He is the antithesis of everything that this site stands for, which is making opera accessible and interesting to modern audiences, as well as making it sexy when appropriate. He took all of the sexual tension out of Britten's "Billy Budd" at Glyndebourne and then mounted what the Guardian called a "disastrously dull" Don Giovanni at the Met. Two operas that thrive on sexual tension were basically emasculated by Grandage.

BEST BARIHUNK FEAST - MINNESOTA OPERA'S "SILENT NIGHT"

Mike Nyby

Kevin Puts' opera "Silent Night" contains more sexy men than a World Cup soccer championship. There were four barihunks in the premiere at the Minnesota Opera who had appeared on this site before, including Mike Nyby, Gabriel Preisser, Ben Wager and Liam Bonner, as well as Andrew Wilkowske. The opera is based on the screenplay for Joyeux Noël by Christian Carion and recounts a miraculous moment of peace during one of the bloodiest wars in human history.

BEST BARIHUNK WEDDING - ZACH ALTMAN & DAN KEMPSON

Zach Altman & Dan Kempson

This isn't you're grandmother's world of opera anymore. Baritones aren't the villains anymore, they're getting married to each other. Two of the most popular barihunks on this site tied the knot this year, Zach Altman and Dan Kempson. We wish them well!

YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD AWARD - NATHAN GUNN

Nathan Gunn as Tarquinius in Vienna

We're going to leave you with Nathan Gunn, whose popularity with Barihunks fans is off the charts. The 41-year-old singer still looks hotter than guys twenty years his junior. He returned to the role of Tarquinius in Vienna this year and still looked as sexy as when he sung the role in Philadelphia years ago. He's also about to return to the role of Billy Budd, which is often performed by guys 10-20 years younger. Gunn also promotes his fitness routine, which we think is good for opera and good for the singers.

HAVE A GREAT 2012!!!

Announcing our Second Beneficiary for our 2012 Barihunks Charity Calendar: Seagle Music Colony

Seagle Barihunks: Christopher Temporelli, Seth Mease Carico and Wes Mason.

 

We’re pleased to announce our second recipient of a donation from the 2012 Barihunks calendar, the Seagle Music Colony at Schroon Lake in beautiful upstate New York. There are many reasons to support this great training program, but the fact that it was founded in 1915 by baritone Oscar Seagle, an early 20^th century singer, certainly helped us in our decision. It’s also run by Darren Woods, who runs one of the best opera festivals in the world, the Ft. Worth Opera Festival. If your summer festival schedule includes Ravinia, Tanglewood and/or Spoleto and you haven’t checked out Ft. Worth, then you haven’t experienced the best of American opera.

A number of barihunks have trained at Seagle, including Ned Hanlon, John Cabrali,  Joe Hagar, Anthony Reed, Nicholas Wardcan and FOUR of our calendar models, Wes Mason, Seth Carico, Christopher Temporelli and Dan Kempson.  Since it’s founding in 1915, numerous singers have gone on to have amazing careers in opera and on Broadway. Their mission statement is “To identify, train and develop gifted singers and to present quality opera and musical theatre performances to the public.” They’ve obviously been successful, as Seagle alumni have performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera and, of course, the Ft. Worth Opera.

Oscar Seagle made several concert tours in the United States and Europe, and recorded albums for Columbia, including the popular World War I hit "Dear Old Pal of Mine." He served from 1903-1914 as teaching associate in Europe with his teacher, the great Polish tenor Jean de Reszke. De Reszke was a star of the Metropolitan Opera as well as Queen Victoria's favorite singer.

Darren Woods has served as General Director at the Seagle Music Colony since 1996. In 2000, it was named "Best Summer Vocal Training Program in the United States" by Classical Singer Magazine. Seagle receives over 500 applicants each year and it has expanded from two productions and eight performances per summer to six full productions and over thirty-five performances. Our favorite young director, John de los Santos (whose video you can see at the right) is also a regular at Seagle. 

We’re delighted to have them join the Portland Opera studio as one of our beneficiaries this year. We encourage you to purchase a calendar and help support his amazing organization. If you’re feeling extra generous this holiday season, please visit them online to make a donation HERE or mail a check to Seagle Music Colony, 999 Charley Hill Road, PO Box 366 – Schroon Lake, NY 12870.

Randal Turner (top), Seagle participant Dan Kempson (bottom left) & David Adam Moore (bottom right)

  BUY YOUR 2012 BARIHUNKS CHARITY CALENDAR TODAY BY CLICKING HERE!

Another Winning Season in Ft. Worth

Malcolm MacKenzie in Trovatore; Dan Kempson & Justin Hopkins in Hydrogen Jukebox

The Ft. Worth Opera Festival continues to establish itself as a major force among summer opera festivals internationally. The company continues to showcase some of the best emerging talent in the business today, as well as mixing standard repertory with operas that both challenge audiences and appeal to a new generation of opera goer.

Among the "second tier" of opera companies, Ft. Worth practically stands alone in terms of both innovation and quality of performance. Next season is no exception, when they will feature two standard repertory operas, Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" and Puccini's "Tosca," with two contemporary operas, Mark Adamo's "Lysistrata" and Jake Heggie's "Three Decembers."

This year's surprise hit is Philip Glass "Hydrogen Jukebox," which has been completely sold out for weeks. It also happens to feature two emerging barihunks, Dan Kempson and Justin Hopkins. The show also features them baring a bit of skin, so warn your grandma. It's no secret that we're huge Glass fans on this site where you can watch his opera "Kepler" in its entirety, so we're thrilled that Glass is being performed deep in the heart of Texas.

Emerging Barihunk Jesse Enderle and Director John de los Santos

This year's Fort Worth Opera Festival is also featuring a critically acclaimed production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" with baritone Malcolm MacKenzie. Also on the program is an updated version of Gilbert & Sullivan's "Mikado" directed by our favorite young director/choreographer John de los Santos, who choreographed last year's hit "Before Night Falls." Fans of countertenors will be delighted with the production of Handel's "Giulio Cesare," which features two countertenors and a male soprano. Despite the high male voices, barihunk fans will be delighted to know that Achillas will sung by the stunning and gifted young singer Donovan Singletary, who was a standout in the Lindeman Young Artists program.

Donovan Singletary

Here is Singletary performing some Rachmaninov songs:



The festival runs through June 5. Check out the Ft. Worth Opera website for performance times and additional cast information.

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Mirco Palazzi as Leporello

Here is a snippet of Mirco Palazzi's Leporello currently running at the Dallas Opera.



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