Showing posts with label male model. Show all posts
Showing posts with label male model. Show all posts

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Pietro Di Bianco to make US Debut in Minnesota

Pietro Di Bianco as Thoas in Iphigenie en Tauride at the Opéra national de Paris (left)
Italian barihunk will make his long-overdue US debut on January 26th at the Minnesota Opera in Nino Rota’s The Italian Straw Hat. The 2014 Paris Opera Awards Competition winner has sung to great acclaim at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra national de Paris, Wexford Festival Opera and the Innsbrucker Festwochen.

In this absurdist farce by the composer of the music for The Godfather films, groom-to-be Fadinard gallops around Paris on his wedding day in search of a straw hat to replace the one his horse has inadvertently eaten. The bright and breezy score captures the increasingly ridiculous situation that rides on the edge of chaos. Di Pietro will sing the role of the jealous husband Beaupertuis, who suspects that his wife Anaida is having an affair.

The Straw Hat from Milan's La scala with Juan Diego Florez:

The opera premièred at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on April 21, 1955 and had its first US performance at the Santa Fe Opera in 1977.

Di Pietro wraps up today as Vincenzo Biscroma in Donizetti's Viva la Mamma! in Geneva. This season he will also appear as Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff at The Grange Festival and in Cesti's La Dori in Innsbruck.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Barihunks Calendar Model Profile: Malte Roesner

Malte Roesner
Barihunk Malte Roesner only came to our attention about 10 months ago, but we instantly realized that he was a pretty special artist and human being. That belief was confirmed when he showed up this summer in the Loire Valley for our Barihunks Calendar photo shoot.

Not only is he an absolute natural in front of the camera, but he is as intelligent as he is charming and attractive. He is an avid reader who reads science and medical periodicals in his spare time, can discuss almost any topic with great insight, and translates librettos on the side. He recently starred in Jake Heggie's Holocaust themed opera For a Look or a Touch in Braunschweig, for which he also did the translation.

He also balances his mind and his body, practicing martial arts and yoga, as well as staying in shape with kettle bell training. 

Malte Roesner
Roesner began his musical education when he was five years old and took violin lessons. He performed with the Hanover Boy’s Choir in Germany, before continuing his studies at the University of Hamburg and at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, where he majored in both musicology and in opera performance. He was awarded scholarships from both the German National Academic Foundation and the Richard-Wagner-Foundation.

Roesner, who is German but born in America, has recently decided to move to Vienna and pursue and independent career after being a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheatre Braunschweig since 2006. He'll be returning to Braunschweig next season to sing in the revival of Werner Egk's Peer Gynt and in the new production of Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park. In the latter, he will be singing the male lead Edmund in his own translation.

During his time at the Staatstheatre Braunschweig he performed more than fifty roles. In addition to most of the major baritone Mozart roles, his operatic repertoire includes Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Pasquale in Haydn’s Orlando Paladino, Ping in Puccini's Turandot, Schaunard in Puccini's La Bohème and Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Dr. Falke in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, Paolo in Simone Boccanegra, Heerrufer in Lohengrin, Masaniello in the German premiere of Carlos Gomes’ Salvator Rosa and in the world premiere of the operatic version of Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle.

Malte Roesner is featured on the cover, as well as in January, June & December
Roesner is the most featured calendar model this year, appearing on our cover, as well as in January, June and December. This year's calendar will fund the creation of the Foundation for the Advancement of Baritones (F.A.B.), which will fund programs to benefit baritones and basses. FAB will commission new music, provide prize money for vocal competitions and financially support other endeavors promoting the baritone and bass voice. Composer Clint Borzoni is working on the first commission, which are two songs for baritone and string quartet based on poems by Hermann Hesse and Hilde Domin.

"I'm pleased to be part of a project that will fund the creation of FAB, which will actively support select young singers beyond the significant promotional value of Barihunks," stated Malte Roesner.

ORDER YOUR BARIHUNKS CHARITY CALENDAR NOW!!!
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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Edwin Crossley-Mercer poses for Karl Lagerfeld

Edwin Crossley-Mercer in a Dior trenchcoat (Photo: Karl Lagerfeld)
We posted about barihunk Edwin Crossley-Mercer in Robert Carsen's production of Rameau’s Platée set at 31 Rue Cambon, birthplace of the Chanel fashion empire. Crossley-Mercer's Jupiter was styled as a Karl Lagerfeld lookalike with white ponytail and dark glasses. Juno, the queen of the gods, was decked out as Coco Chanel.

Karl Lagerfeld and Edwin Crossley-Mercer
Lagerfeld, an opera fan in his own right, attended a performance at the Opéra Comique and even greeted the singer backstage. The production also played at the Theater an der Wien and at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Lagerfeld must have been quite impressed with what he saw, because he followed up with a photo shoot of the popular baritone shooting him in a variety of couture.

Beginning on April 17, 2015, Crossley-Mercer will appear in another Robert Carsen production when he sings Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Paris Opera.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Reader Submission: Model turned Barihunk Oleg Loza

Oleg Loza
Our latest Reader Submission is the Moscow bass-barihunk Oleg Loza. We hear numerous barihunks described as having "model looks," but Loza actually was a model at the Slava Zaitsev Model Agency. He modeled while completing his Master's Degree in Voice at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

Loza reminds many of his fellow compatriot Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who shares his flowing long hair that gives them both a pop star vibe. Like Hvorostovsky, he is a serious classical singer, who originally studied voice and choral conducting before pursuing a career as a singer. In 2009, he won the prestigious Feodor Chaliapin Singing Competition in Yalta.

Oleg Loza sings Valentin's aria from Gounod's Faust:

After graduating from the Conservatory in 2012, he made his professional debut as Norton in Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio at the Wiener Kammeroper in Austria. He followed that up with a run as Schaunard in Puccini's La boheme at both the Wiener Kammeroper and Amsterdam's Het Companientheater.

Since that time, he's been a young artist with the Zürich Opera, where he has performed Usciere in Verdi's Rigoletto and Deputato in Verdi's Don Carlo. He is currently singing Happy in Puccini's La fanciulla del West, which runs through July 13th and will run again September 24-October 10.

Our best material comes from our readers, so send your submissions to Barihunks@gmail.com