Barihunks star in Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Rising Stars" Concert

Patrick Guetti, Emmett O'Hanlon and Takaoki Onishi

The Lyric Opera of Chicago will showcase their amazing young artists on Saturday, April 7th at the Lyric Opera House in their annual "Rising Stars" concert. Featured in the concert is a trio of singers who have been featured on Barihunks, including baritones Emmett O'Hanlon and Takaoki Onishi, along with bass Patrick Guetti. The three singers are also concluding their tenure with the company's Ryan Opera Center, a training program for young artists.

After leaving the program, Guetti has performances with Wolf Trap Opera as Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto and Bernstein's Songfest; Takaoki Onishi will perform Tchaikovsky's Iolanta with the Russian National Orchestra at Suntory Hall in Tokyo; and, Emmett O'Hanlon will wrap up a run as Wagner in Gounod's Faust at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Lyric tenor star of the future, Josh Lovell

The concert will feature music by Tchaikovsky, Offenbach, Massenet, Mozart, Verdi, Handel, Bernstein, Puccini and Rossini. Other artists include the gifted young lyric tenor Josh Lovell (keep your eyes and ears on this one!); sopranos Whitney Morrison, Diana Newman and Ann Toomey; mezzo-soprano Lindsay Metzger; contralto Lauren Decker; tenors Alec Carlson and Mario Rojas; and, bass-baritone Alan Higgs.

The concert will also be recorded for broadcast on 98.7WFMT the following day, Sunday, April 8, at 6 PM CST.

Barihunk duo in mariachi opera

Ricardo Rivera as Acalán

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.

Mariusz Kwiecien featured in Lyric Opera of Chicago's free concert

Mariusz Kwiecien

Barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien will be featured in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's annual "Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park" concert on Saturday, September 6 at 7:30 pm. The free concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion will feature previews of Lyric's upcoming 2014-15 season.

Kwiecien will be featured in one of his signature roles, that of the title character in Mozart's Don Giovanni. He will join sopranos Marina Rebeka and Ana María Martínez, and bass Andrea Silvestrelli in the final scene from the opera. For those of you unfamiliar with the history of this Barihunks site, it was inspired by a performance of Kwiecien as Don Giovanni. 

The program will also feature Wagner's overture to Tannhäuser, the Act One finale of Puccini's Tosca featuring baritone Mark Delavan and tenor John Irvin, the entire third act of Verdi's Rigoletto, and the chorus "Patria oppressa" from Verdi's Macbeth.

If you can't make the concert, you can listen to a live broadcast live on 98.7 WFMT or online at wfmt.com.

Performances of Don Giovanni run from September 27 to October 29. Kwiecien will return to the Metropolitan Opera from December 4-20 as Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.

David Adam Moore as Stanley Kowalski at Virginia Opera & Lyric Opera of Chicago

David Adam Moore as Stanley Kowalski (photo David Beloff)

American barihunk David Adam Moore looks like he'll be making a name for himself as Stanley Kowalski in André Previn’s opera A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams. He opened in the role on February 16th with the Virginia Opera with performances running through March in Norfolk, Richmond and Fairfax. Click on the highlighted links for tickets.

He then takes the role to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for a performance on April 5th. The single performance is a special night for high school and college students, who can buy tickets for $20. The remaining performances will feature barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Stanley Kowalski.

David Adam Moore in Virginia Opera's A Streetcar Named Desire
(photo David Beloff)

After his performance in Streetcar in Chicago, Moore will remain in the Windy Cindy to portray Jud Fry in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! Performances run from May 4-19 and tickets are available online.

David Adam Moore featured in The Examiner

David Adam Moore from the 2012 Barihunks calendar (photo Moses Jones)

Barihunk David Adam Moore received an extensive feature in the Southeast Texas issue of The Examiner, which you can read below.

Moore can next be heard on January 15th with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing Prior Walter in Eötvös' "Angels in America."The all-star cast also includes Brian Asawa, Measha Brueggergosman and Julia Migenes. Tickets are available online. In February and March, he'll be featured as Stanley Kowalski in Andre Previn's Streetcar Named Desire with Virginia Opera. On April 5th, he'll be featured in the same role with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The musical journey of Southeast Texas native  

David Adam Moore

From youth, people struggle to find their place in the world. They long to find their path, the road that leads them to the future. Students strive to decide what direction they want their lives to take. Once decided, obstacles in the path can cause people to choose to fork and leave completely the path they thought they wanted to follow, changing the course of their futures. Vidor native David Adam Moore faced obstacles and veered onto a path that would ultimately lead him to be a highly sought after operatic baritone.

The life of a performer, a life spent traveling, city to city, country to country, across continents, is a difficult yet rewarding one, according to Moore. He was raised in Vidor, born into a family with a musical background.

“I started making music from childhood because my family are all country and western musicians going back like five or six generations,” Moore said. “I think my grandfather, John Shirley Moore, actually had his own radio show as a teenager and started playing professionally locally in the nightclub scene from the time he was a teenager. My dad, John ‘Bubba’ Moore started working the nightclub scene in Southeast Texas when he was 13. Most of my aunts and uncles and my cousins play music…Most of them are nightclub musicians but some have played on the national level. My dad toured with Tracy Byrd for 15 years or so. So, I was around people making music.”

David Adam Moore pays homage to Leonard Bernstein

Moore said his interest was in electronic music, which had gained popularity at the time. He listened to bands like The Cure, The Smiths and Depeche Mode. He worked with synthesizers and learned about the technical side of music. He also started listening to classical music on KVLU while in high school. Moore said, at that time, he planned to go to college to study theology and possibly linguistics. A talent show at Vidor High School lead him to become a member of the choir, altering his course though he did not know it at the time. [Continue reading HERE]

Ildebrando d'Arcangelo featured in Musica; Starring in Chicago

Italian barihunk Ildebrando d'Arcangelo is featured in the new issue of Musica, which you can purchase for download online if you're not sipping a latté by a newstand in Milano.

The singer just wrapped up another successful run as Don Giovanni, this time at the Los Angeles Opera. He now heads to the Lyric Opera of Chicago where he'll be taking on the title role in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, which opens on November 25th. The production is directed by famed baritone Sir Thomas Allen.

Ildebrando d'Arcangelo rehearsing Don Giovanni:

After Chicago,  he returns to the Vienna State Opera as Alidoro in La Cenerentola and later in the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro. D’Arcangelo makes his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos in early 2013. Spring sees him in Spain at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Il turco in Italia and at the Fundación del Teatro Lírico in Madrid in the Verdi Requiem. 

Make sure to purchase your 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar:

David Adam Moore to star in Oklahoma! in Chicago

One of David Adam Moore's pictures from the 2013 Barihunks Calendar

The Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced that 2013 Barihunks Calendar model will be starring as the farmhand Jud Fry in their upcoming performances of the musical Oklahoma! Last year, the company scored a huge success with another musical, Show Boat, starring barihunk Nathan Gunn.

The performances mark the 70th anniversary of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic that remains one of the greatest musicals ever written. Thirty-seven members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra will perform the original orchestration. The production will feature a 24-person singer-dancer ensemble (including 12 members of the Lyric Opera Chorus) plus three solo dancers. The cast also includes Broadway stars John Cudia as Curly and Ashley Brown as Laurey.

Oklahoma! premiered on Broadway in 1943 and was the first musical written by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It ran for 2,243 performances with many songs becoming American classics, including “Oh, What A Beautiful Morning,” “People Will Say We’re In Love,” and “Surrey With The Fringe On Top.” Based on Lynn Riggs‘ 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs, the story is set in the Oklahoma Territory of 1906 near Claremore and tells the story of two pairs of young lovers.

The production of Oklahoma!, which includes the original choreography by Agnes de Mille, will have sixteen performances (including seven matinees) between May 4-19 at the Civic Opera House. Lyric subscribers will receive a 10% discount through December 15. Visit the Lyric Opera of Chicago's website for additional information and tickets.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Stanley Kowalski

Moore will also be starring as Stanley Kowalski in the April 2013 performances of Lyric’s “Student Night at the Opera” performance of Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire. The regular cast will feature fellow barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Stanley and Renee Fleming as Blanche.

Buy the calendar featuring David Adam Moore and 13 additional barihunks by clinking on the button below. All proceeds go to benefit young artists:

Watch Thomas Hampson's latest Mahler performance; Verdi's Simon Boccanegra in Chicago

Thomas Hampson & Ferrucio Furlanetto

The ageless American barihunk Thomas Hampson launched the 2012-13 season of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande singing music by the composer with whom he is perhaps most closely associated: Gustav Mahler. The performance of "Das Lied von der Erde" is now available online and we figured it was a beautiful way to the start the week, so we posted it below.

Hampson and tenor Paul Groves performed the piece under Music and Artistic director Neeme Järvi, for two concerts in September in Geneva’s Victoria Hall.  

This unique and transcendent “song-symphony,” featuring texts of Chinese poetry translated into German, with additional texts by Mahler himself, explores nothing less than the meaning of life, from the innocent joys of youth to the inevitable parting from this world.  True to the work’s inspiration, Mahler infuses the orchestral sound with many evocative Eastern touches.  

Hampson recorded “Das Lied” in 1995 with Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and again in 2007 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

Hampson is currently performing the title role in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Lyric Opera of Chicago through November 9th. As and added treat, the Fiesco is the great Italian Verdi specialist Ferrucio Furlanetto and Paolo is the rising Verdi baritone star Quinn Kelsey. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Kyle Ketelsen In Chicago's Carmen

Kyle Ketelsen as Escamillo (picture courtesy of Lyric Opera of Chicago)

Kyle Ketelsen as Escamillo (picture courtesy of Lyric Opera of Chicago)

Here are the first two pictures from the Lyric Opera of Chicago featuring barihunk Kyle Ketelsen as Escamillo. Tickets are selling fast, but are still available online.

Ketelsen Reprising Escamillo

John David Boehr as Wagner & Kyle Ketelsen as Méphistophélès.(Photo © Michal Daniel 2009)

Our favorite Escamillo is back in the bullring, this time at Lyric Opera of Chicago. The run begins on Wednesday, October 13 and runs through Sunday, March 27. As an added bonus barihunk Paul LaRosa will perform as Morales. Tickets are extremely limited and can be purchased online.

More, Morales, More!!!: Paul LaRosa

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

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Lyric Opera of Chicago: Listen To Faust Today

[Rene Pape and Lucas Meachem]


Listen to the Lyric Opera of Chicago's stunning performance of Gounod's Faust today at 1 PM CST. The cast features barihunks Rene Pape as Méphistophélès and Lucas Meachem as Valentin. For additional cast information visit the Lyric Opera of Chicago website. Click HERE to listen to the broadcast.


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Joyce DiDonato Blogs About Mariusz Kwiecien

If you don't read mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato's blog "Yankee Diva," you're missing one of the most entertaining opera blogs around. The talented diva just wrapped up a run in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Le Nozze di Figaro" which we featured prominently on this site. The Yankee Diva was lucky to be surrounded by two of our favorite barihunks, Kyle Ketelsen and Mariusz Kwiecien.

She posted the photo featured above with the following caption:

Hamming it up with the incomparable Mariusz Kwiecien, who is sheer perfection as the Count, and is a divine colleague in every way.

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Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!

[Mariusz Kwiecien]


[Erwin Schrott with Isabel Bayrakdarian in L.A.]


Oops, not the Rossini Figaro. But if you're looking to see two of the hottest Figaro's in Mozart's classic opera, now is the time. Mariusz Kwiecien is at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Erwin Schrott is at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Both of these barihunks are known for injecting sexuality into a role that in the hands of some baritones can be a little wooden.

Those attending the opera in Chicago get the added bonus of Kyle Ketelsen as the Count.

[Kyle Ketelsen with Danielle deNiese in Chicago]


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Dream Cast in Chicago Led by Mariusz Kwiecien

[Photos Dan Rest / Lyric Opera of Chicago]


We've been focusing a lot on Mozart's "Don Giovanni" lately, but the Lyric Opera of Chicago has assembled a dream cast for their "Le Nozze de Figaro," led by the "Hot Pole" Mariusz Kwiecien's Count. Other performers include barihunk Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro, Danielle de Niese as Susanna, Anne Schwanewilms as the Countess and Joyce DiDonato as Cherubino.

Even with a great cast like this one, Kwiecien always seems to dominate the stage with great acting and his amazing voice. He is indisputably one of the most compelling performers in opera today.

The Chicago Classical Review wrote:

More than most productions, this Lyric cast is dominated by Mariusz Kwiecien as the volatile, philandering Count. One can go a long time before hearing the tortuous Vedro, mentr’io sospiro delivered with this kind of technical ease and forceful malevolence. With his aristocratic bearing and saturnine presence, the Polish baritone owns this role like no other singer today, and his refined, commanding vocalism brought out the Count’s bluster as well as a surprising, touching vulnerability at the opera’s coda.

[Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro & Danielle de Niese as Susanna]


John von Rhein, the classical music critic for the Chicago Tribune, managed to include Kyle Ketelsen's barihunk status in his insightful review:

The "downstairs" servant couple, Kyle Ketelsen in the title role and Danielle de Niese as the maid Susanna, were finely balanced with their aristocratic counterparts, Mariusz Kwiecien as Count Almaviva and Anne Schwanewilms as the Countess.

Ketelsen, playing a good guy this time following his devilish turn as Mephistopheles in Gounod's "Faust" earlier in the season, brought a firm yet flexible bass-baritone to Figaro's two arias, "Se vuol ballare" and "Aprite un po' quegli occhi," in which the Count's manservant railed against the perfidy of women.

Since the comic drama turns on the extended battle of wits between Figaro and the Count — who has mounted an assault on the virtue of Figaro's intended, Susanna — the American "barihunk's" ability to create a virile, likable hero in both voice and manner, while keeping the recitatives crackling, was very much to the point.

[Kwiecien's virile Count]


The Tribune also mentioned that Kwiecien brought down the house on opening night, an occurance that is becoming pretty common with this gifted performer and singer.

Kwiecien made a formidable predator through his baritonal command as well as the vain, aristocratic hauteur he brought to the philandering Count Almaviva. Figaro had all he could do to stay one step ahead of this libidinous bully. "Vedro, mentr'io sospiro," the third-act aria in which the Count vows to punish both servants, brought down the house Sunday.

Performances run through March 27th and you can get more information by contacting the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

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Kyle Ketelsen as Nick Shadow

We recently featured a post with Kyle Ketelsen talking about his upcoming performance in Robert Lapage's production of the Rake's Progress at Covent Garden. Here is a photo of Ketelsen in that production, where he is performing through February 10th. He then heads back to the United States to perform Mozart's Figaro at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

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Kyle Ketelsen's (Almost) Birthday Suit

We're going to celebrate Kyle Ketelsen's birthday with the closest image we have of him in his birthday suit. The world's hottest Méphistophélès will be performing the role again this fall at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He'll be sharing the stage with the amazing young tenor Joseph Kaiser and fellow barihunk Lucas Meachem as Valentin.

We're looking to many more years of Kyle Ketelsen, who is just hitting his prime as a singer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, you hot devil.

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