Mirco Palazzi singing Assur in Marseilles and Bordeaux

Mirco Palazzi

Italian barihunk Mirco Palazzi is reprising the role of Assur in Rossini's Semiramide with Opéra de Marseille through October 27th with Jessica Pratt in the title role. He'll take up the role again in March 2016 with the thrilling soprano Leah Crocetto in the title role.

Semiramide was Rossini's final Italian opera before moving to Paris, where he went on to write Il viaggio a Reims, Le siège de Corinthe, Moïse et Pharaon, Le comte Ory and Guillaume Tell.

By the late 1800s, Semiramide had virtually disappeared from the repertoire. However, it was chosen in 1880 to inaugurate the Teatro Costanzi, new venue of the Rome Opera House, and appeared as part of the Cincinnati Opera Festival in 1882, which was attended by Oscar Wilde. The opera virtually disappeared after 1895, until a German language revival in Rostock in 1932 and a performance under the baton of Tullio Serafin at the Maggio Musicale in 1940. 

Perhaps the most famous exponent of Assur in the last half century has been Samuel Ramey. 

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Barihunks here, barihunks there, barihunks everywhere at Rossini Festival

Davide Luciano

For yet another season, it would be virtually impossible to avoid seeing a barihunk on stage at this year's Rossini Festival in Pesaro, which runs from August 10-22.

On opening day you can catch the world's greatest Leporello, Alex Esposito, in Rossini's La gazza ladra, which is best remembered for it's lively overture these days.  The next night, you can catch the charming young barihunk Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore in the rarely performed La gazzetta. The following night, Davide Luciano, who lit up our pages with some shirtless pictures, performs in another of Rossini's rarities, L’inganno felice.

Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore

 On August 14 and 17, the students from Alberto Zedda's Accademia Rossiniana will perform in Il viaggio a Reims, providing attendees to see the next great generation of Rossini singers. 

On August 15 and 18, Mirco Palazzi joins hunkentenor Juan Diego Florez in the composer's Messa di Gloria.

Alex Esposito show off why he's not just popular for his singing

The singers have become popular fan favorites over the last few seasons and all of the barihunks are returning from previous seasons, including Esposito, Luciano, Palazzi and Bonsignore. You can check out our feature from last season.  Bonsignore first appeared as a student from the Accademia Rossiniana program in 2011.

The festival also includes a number of concerts by various performers. Additional information and tickets are available online.

Davide Luciano is a regular at the Berlin Opera this season where he is performing Sid in La fanciulla del West, Marcello in La boheme, Ping in Turandot, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Sgt. Lescaut in Manon Lescaut. Alex Esposito is serving up another full plate of Mozart this year, singing Papageno in Venice and Munich and Leporello in Munich. Mirco Palazzi switches to Bellini, singing Giorgio in I puritani in Catania and Rodolfo in La sonnambula in Bilbao.

Mirco Palazzi back in Dallas; Live simulcast tonight

Mirco Palazzi

Italian bass-barihunk Mirco Palazzi, who made his U.S. debut at Leporello in 2010 with the Dallas Opera, returns to the company in the title role of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. The opera opens tonight and runs through November 9th.

Mirco Palazzi talks about his upcoming performances as Figaro:

Opening night is also an opportunity to share the opera with family and friends, as the performance will be simulcast live from the Winspear Opera House to Klyde Warren Park.The action begins at 6:30pm and will include a screening of the 1945 Three Stooges classic “Micro-Phonies”, the “Worst Bridesmaid’s Dress Ever” contest and a bouquet toss.

European fans of Palazzi can see him in the role at the Teatro Regio in Turin from February 12-25. The cast also includes fellow Italian barihunk Ildebrando D'Arcangelo. 

If you love everything and anything Italian, make sure to purchase our Viva, Italia! Barihunks Charity calendar featuring some of the hottest Italian and Italian-American singers in the world, as well as some Italian themed photos. Click on the LULU button below to buy yours today!

Dallas Opera's Upcoming Barihunky Season

Craig Verm

The Dallas Opera is under new leadership this season, but fortunately some of our favorite barihunks are still on the roster.

The season is kicking off with one of Italy's best exports, bass-barihunk Mirco Palazzi who debuted with the company in 2010 as Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni. That performance was also his U.S. debut and the cast for that John Pascoe production featured three barihunks, with Paulo Szot as the Don and Ben Wager as Masetto.

We're thrilled that Dallas is bring him back to sing Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in an all-star cast that features Joshua Hopkins, Nicole Car,  Emily Fons, Diana Montague and Kevin Langan. Performances will run from October 24 through November 9th.

On October 30th, bass-barihunk Greer Grimsley will make his company debut opposite the Salome of Deborah Voigt in Richard Strauss' masterpiece. The production in being directed by the queen mother of barihunks, Francesca Zambello.

That production will be followed by a double-bill of Catalani's rarely performed opera La Wally and the world premiere of Joby Talbot's Everest. We did an extensive feature on Everest, which featured barihunk calendar model Craig Verm.

Jonathan Beyer, Steven LaBrie and Alexander Vinogradov (L-R)

In March, the company brings another barihunk trio to the stage, when they present Puccini's La boheme with Alexander Vinogradov, Jonathan Beyer and Steven LaBrie.  We featured Alexander Vinogradov back in 2009 when we identified him as an emerging talent to watch.

The season wraps up with Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. Tickets and additional cast information is available on the Dallas Opera website. 

Rossini Festival a veritable Barihunk Festival

Alex Esposito

The internationally-acclaimed Rossini Opera Festival is kicking off on Sunday, August 10th with the vocally challenging Armida. The piece is best known in opera circles for requiring six tenors and two basses, with a trio for three tenors in Act 3. In between booking tenors, they managed to bring in a quartet of barihunks to perform in the Festival.

Alex Esposito sings Rossini's "Cade dal ciglio" from Mosè in Egitto:

On August 11, the Festival features Il barbiere di Siviglia with bass-barihunk Alex Esposito as Basilio, giving fans the chance to hear him showcase the aria La Calunnia about the spreading of vicious gossip. Although we think of Esposito for his definitive portrayals of Mozart's leading men, he has actually sung far more Rossini. He has 13 Rossini roles in 12 operas to his credit, including Alidoro in La cenerentola, Mustafà in L'italiana in Algeri, Selim in Il turco in Italia, Mahomet II in Le siège de Corinthe, Fernando Villabella in La gazza ladra, Moses and the Pharaoh in both versions of Mosè in Egitto, Assur in Semiramide, Orbazzano in Tancredi, Lord Sidney and Don Profondo in Il viaggio a Reims and Polidoro in Zelmira.

Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore

The opera also features Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore as Fiorello, who is new to this site. The 30-year-old singer studied at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan where he made his debut as Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in 2010. He was first invited to the Rossini Festival in 2011 when he sang in Il Viaggio a Reims under Alberto Zedda.

Performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia are on August 11, 14, 17 and 20.

Marko Mimica

On August 13 and 16 the Festival will present Il Viaggio a Reims, with Marko Mimica as Lord Sidney. Opera aficionados will recall that he made waves earlier this year as one of the top five finalists in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He is currently a principle artist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he is singing the High Priest of Baal in Verdi's Nabucco, Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff, and Mr. Bosun in David Alden's production of Britten's Billy Budd.

The Festival will also be performing Aureliano in Palmira on August 12, 15, 18 and 22. Tickets for all performances are available online. 

Mirco Palazzi

 Mirco Palazzi sings "All'invito generoso" from Rossini's Maometto II:

Another of our favorite singers will be featured in Petite Messe solennelle on August 21, when Mirco Palazzi sings the bass part of the vocal quartet under the baton of Alberto Zedda. He will continue singing Rossini after the Festival, as he heads to Edinburgh on August 26 to sing Gualtiero in William Tell. He'll be joined by soprano Angela Meade as Matilde and John Osborn as Arnold. Tickets are available online.

Marie Claire Italia features Sexiest Men in Opera

Clockwise from left: David Fray, Erwin Schrott, Mirco, Mirco Palazzi, Stephen Costello, Noah Stewart & Jonas Kaufmann

Marie Claire Italia has a feature out on the sexiest men in opera, which includes barihunks Erwin Schrott and Mirco Palazzi, as well as tenors Noah Stewart, Stephen Costello and Jonas Kaufmann. (Astute readers of the site might have noticed that those three tenors have snuck into some of our posts and video features.)

They even threw in David Fray, who they seemingly just couldn't resist. As an aside, we had a conversation with a world renowned conductor recently who said that he's noticed that violinists and pianists who he's working with look increasingly like models from European fashion magazines.

Marie Claire makes the case that we've been pleading for years, which is that opera has to compete with Hollywood for audiences. They also mention the increased popularity of high-definition broadcasts of opera where audiences want singers who are believable and nice to look at on the big screen. You can read the entire article online. The article manages to throw in a little humor, as well, saying Schrott's only shortcoming is that he's unavailable because he's married to the equally stunning soprano Anna Netrebko.

Mirco Palazzi and some hot pool boys in Rossini's "Il viaggio a Reims":

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Italian Barihunk Barber at La Fenice

Mirco Palazzi

Teatro La Fenice in Venice is performing Rossini's comic masterpiece "Il barbiere di Siviglia" with a cast full of Italian barihunks. La Fenice is rotating casts and almost all of the low voice roles are filled by barihunks, including those that we don't generally associate with sexy singers, like Don Basilio and Bartolo. Figaro is being sung by Giorgio Caoduro, who has appeared frequently on this site, and Christian Senn will perform in the alternate cast. Don Basilio will be shared by Mirco Palazzi and Luca Dall'Amico, while Omar Montanari will be one of the Bartolos.

Luca Dall'Amico and Giorgio Caoduro

Tickets can be purchased on the La Fenice website, where you can also find additional cast and performance information. We also recommend that you visit Giorgio Caoduro's website, where you can find some wonderful sound clips, including the Barber's famous "Largo al factotum." Here is Mirco Palazzi singing Don Basilio's aria "La calunnia":



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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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Don Giovanni Photos From Dallas Opera

Here are the latest production shots from the Dallas Opera's production of Don Giovanni. The cast has three barihunks, Paulo Szot, Mirco Palazzi and Ben Wager. It's also the wonderful John Pascoe production of the opera. There are performance left on October 27 and 30, and November 5 and 7. Visit the Dallas Opera website for tickets and cast information.

Paulo Szot

Paulo Szot

Paulo Szot & Mirco Palazzi

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Mirco Palazzi Sings Rossini

Mirco Palazzi

Enjoy the latest video of Mirco Palazzi singing Rossini's "Demetrio e Polibio" in Pesaro. This was recorded in August 2010 with Corrado Rovaris conducting.



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D MAGAZINE: Opera Baritone Paulo Szot is Smoking Hot

Paulo Szot; Photo courtesy Dallas Opera

D Magazine, the source of everything happening in Dallas, has a wonderful piece on Paulo Szot that mentions this site and celebrates his hunkiness and sex appeal. The article keenly observes how opera has celebrated its divas in the past, but perhaps it time for the guys. Here is the article:

Opera has always had its gentlemen matinee idols and glamour-puss divas (Geraldine Farrar, Maria Jeritza, and, most spectacularly, Maria Callas after her slimming makeover) who have set hearts aflutter. But now there’s even a blog called Barihunks that features buff young singers able and willing to take off their shirts—or more.

Stay tuned, Dallas. Paulo Szot, one of the steamiest barihunks working, is coming to you at the Winspear Opera House, straight from his Tony award-winning performance as Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific at Lincoln Center.[Continue reading HERE].

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Three Barihunks in Dallas Opera's First Simulcast

Mirco Palazzi and Ben Wager

The Dallas Opera will present its first live outdoor simulcast on October 22 at the new Annette Strauss Square. The simulcast will feature the opening-night performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, including Tony Award-winning barihunk Paulo Szot as the titular seducer. The performance will also feature barihunks Ben Wager and Mirco Palazzi as Masetto and Leporello respectively.

Admission is free and the opera performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.

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Dallas Opera's "Baritones & Beachballs"

We've raved about the marketing team at the Dallas Opera in the past and for good reason. They are not only brilliant at marketing their male singers, but their promotions are always some of the most creative in the opera world. Their efforts around marketing the world premiere of Jake Heggie's "Moby-Dick" should be a model for any opera company.

So it was no surprise that their latest effort "Baritones & Beachballs" caught our attention. The company has put together a series of events beginning on July 18th that includes beer and vodka tastings, happy hours, opera lectures and movie screenings. They're also promising a production of Don Giovanni with a triumvirate of barihunks: Paolo Szot as Don Giovanni, Mirco Palazzi as Leporello and Ben Wager as Masetto. Regular readers of this site certainly know that all three singers have appeared on Barihunks before.

Readers may also recall that Paolo Szot canceled his last scheduled performance of Don Giovanni in Detroit. Fortunately for fans of barihunks, Detroit replaced Szot with our "Sexiest Don Giovanni in the World" Randal Turner. If Szot cancels, we hope that Dallas follows the lead of the Michigan Opera Theater and plugs in our favorite Don.

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The Artistry of Mirco Palazzi

Mirco Palazzi in "Il Trovatore"



Giacomo Meyerbeer's "L'Esule di Granata" - Mirco Palazzi & Laura Claycomb


Quoniam from Rossini's "Petite Messe Solennelle"


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