Simon Keenlyside to "cross over" to sing Fagin

Simon Keenlyside as Fagin

The ageless barihunk Simon Keenlyside is crossing over from opera to musical theater this summer as he takes on the master thief Fagin in Lionel Bart's Oliver!.

Performances will run from June 2-July 2 at the Grange Park Festival. Other than his 2014 CD Something’s Gotta Give, Keenlyside has rarely waded into musical theater. The CD includes "Reviewing the Situation" from Oliver! The musical premiered in 1960 and became and instant hit, almost eclipsing Charles Dickens' original story of the workhouse orphan who falls into bad company.

The Festival will also present Verdi's Don Carlo with Clive Bayley, Stefano Secco, Virginia Tola, David Stout, Ruxandra Donose, Alastair Miles and Jihoon Kim; Puccini's La Fanciulla del West with Claire Rutter, Lorenzo Decaro, Stephen Gadd, Alberto Sousa and Michael de Souza; and, Wagner's Tristan & Isolde with Bryan Register, Anja Kampe, Clive Bayley, Sara Fulgoni and Stephen Gadd.

On June 10th, they'll present a recital with the amazing tenor Javier Camarena. Tickets and additional information is available online.

After his run in Oliver!, Keenlyside heads to the Munich Opera Festival to perform Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La traviata and Renato in the composer's Un Ballo in Maschera. 

You can also catch him in theaters in the MET Live in HD simulcasts on October 22nd when he sings the title role in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni. He'll be joined by Rolando Villazon as Don Ottavio, Adam Plachetka as Leporello, Malin Byström as Donna Elvira, Serena Malfi as Zerlina and Kwangchul Youn as The Commendatore.

Dmitry Hvorostovsky returns to stage on September 25

Dmitry Hvorostovsky in Il Trovatore and the Anvil Chorus

Dmitry Hvorostovsky makes his return to the stage on September 25th in the Met's Il Trovatore  after being treated for brain cancer in London. He'll be joined by Anna Netrebko as the heroine Leonora, Dolora Zajick as the gypsy Azucena, Yonghoon Lee as Manrico and Štefan Kocán as Ferrando. He'll perform through February 13th when he'll be replaced by Vitaliy Bilyy for the remaining performances. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Dmitry Hvorostovsky in Il Trovatore

The October 3 performance will launch the tenth season of the Met’s Live in HD series when it is transmitted to more than 2,000 movie theaters in 70 countries around the world.  Hvorostovsky has sung Count di Luna in two previous seasons at the Met, including the premiere of  David McVicar’s staging. He made his Met debut in 1995 as Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. Since then, he has sung over 170 performances with the company including Verdi roles such as Anckarström in Un Ballo in Maschera, Rodrigo in Don Carlo, the title role in Rigoletto, Germont in La Traviata, and Don Carlo in Ernani.

Later this season, he will sing a recital at Carnegie Hall and star as the title character in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Maltman to make Met role debut as in Barber of Seville

Christopher Maltman and Lawrence Brownlee in San Diego's Barber of Seville

A revival of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia will open at the Metropolitan Opera on November 18th featuring barihunk Christopher Maltman in his first Met performances of Figaro. He'll be joined in the all-star cast with Lawrence Brownlee as Count Almaviva, Isabel Leonard as Rosina, Maurizio Muraro as Dr. Bartolo and Paata Burchuladze as Don Basilio.

The November 22 matinee performance will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met’s Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 2,000 movie theaters in 69 countries around the world. The Barihunks team will be at the November 26th performance!

Tickets are available online. 

On January 10th, Maltman goes to the Bavarian State Opera to perform the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni alongside the Leporello of Alex Esposito. On February 7th, he returns to the opposite coast in the U.S. to sing Beaumarchais in Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles at the Los Angeles Opera. The cast includes Broadway icon Patti LuPone, Patricia Racette and fellow barihunk Lucas Meachem. 

Make sure to purchase your 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar by clicking the LULU button below. Also, vote in our sidebar for the sexiest photo.

Barihunks on-the-air from LA Opera & Metropolitan Opera

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo

Italian barihunk Ildebrando D'Arcangelo will portray Escamillo in the Los Angeles Opera's season-opening production of Carmen on September 21st. The performance will be broadcast as part of "LA Opera on Air" on Classical KUSC 91.5 FM. The performance also features hunkentenor Brandon Jovanovich as Don José, Patricia Bardon as Carmen and South African soprano Pretty Yende in her LA Opera debut as Micaëla. Placido Domingo will conduct.

If you want to see Ildebrando D'Arcangelo live, there are additional performances on September 26, September 29, October 1, October 4 and October 6. The performance of September 28 will feature Dwayne Croft as Escamillo. Tickets are available online.

Mariusz Kwiecien

"The Met: Live in HD" series opens with Polish barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, which also stars Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala. The October 5th transmission features a new production by Deborah Warner and will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Other Live in HD transmissions featuring barihunks are Shostakovich’s The Nose featuring Paulo Szot on October 26 and Ildar Abdrazakov in Borodin’s Prince Igor on March 1.

All 10 of the Met's high-definition productions will be shown live worldwide on Saturdays. Most operas begin at 12:55 p.m. EST/9:55 PST, but check the Met website to confirm starting times. 

Keenlyside's Sexy ads for Met's "The Tempest"

Simon Keenlyside

If there was ever any doubt that sedxy men in opera are finally being recognized for having the same marketing potential as their female counterparts, it was firmly dispelled with the arrival of the new Metropolitan Opera 2012-13. In the past, one could count on Anna Netrebko, Kiri Te Kanawa or Elīna Garanča gracing the cover. Barihunk Simon Keenlyside graces the cover with a full body tattoo and have exposed torso. The British singer, who turns 53 on August 3rd, looks as stunning as singers half his age.

Composer Thomas Adès will conduct and Robert Lepage will direct the Met premiere of this modern masterpiece. Keenlyside will sing the role of Prospero, the banished Duke of Milan who practices his otherworldly arts. The entire cast could be out of Hollywood central casting. It includes Isabel Leonard as Prospero’s daughter, Miranda, Toby Spence as his brother Antonio and Audrey Luna as the spirit Ariel.

The cast also has other barihunk connections, as Leonard is the wife of barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Luna is the wife of barihunk Jordan Shanahan.

If you can't make it to New York City, you can watch the performance in the Met's Live in HD broadcast of Saturday, November 10, 2012.

Kyle Ketelsen to star in Carmen

Other barihunks performing at the Met his Fall include Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Un Ballo in Maschera and Don Carlo, Mariusz Kwiecien in L'Elisir d'Amore, Peter Mattei in Parsifal, Guido Loconsolo in Giolio Cesare, Kyle Ketelsen and Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Carmen, Nathan Gunn in Le Comte Ory, Ildar Abdrazakov and Erwin Schrott in Don Giovanni and John Relyea in Faust.

Visit the Met's website for additional performance and cast information.