Watch Matt Worth sing Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe

Matt Worth

First of all, we want to congratulate Matt Worth on his recent wedding and wish him and his bride a lifetime of happiness. 

We also wanted to share with our readers this video of him singing Robert Schumann's most famous song cycle, Dichterliebe, Op. 48, at this year's Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He is joined by accompanist Shai Wosner.

The whole closely integrated song cycle traces an inner narrative, from the initial awakening of love, through rapture, disillusion and despair to tender regret and a final bittersweet, ironic acceptance. Heinrich Heine’s verses are a distillation of the poet’s ultimately doomed love for two of his cousins in Hamburg. For Schumann real life was to provide a happier outcome. Dichterliebe can be heard as his most piercing recreation of the fluctuating, often anguished, emotions he had experienced during his long courtship of Clara Wieck (Schumann).

If you want to see Matt Worth live, make sure to make travel plans to Washington D.C. Worth will star as Starbuck in the highly anticipated East Coast premiere of Jake Heggie's epic Moby-Dick at the Kennedy Center with the Washington National Opera from February 22 - March 8, 2014. Queequeg by fellow barihunk Eric Greene. Tickets go on sale December 4, 2013 to the public and on November 25, 2013 to Kennedy Center members.

  

Who gets the money for the 2014 Charity Calendar?    

This year we're looking for originality on Facebook and Twitter. We'll consider any idea that involves young artists, not just young artist programs...video projects...recital ideas...you name it. 

Most LIKES on Facebook and most retweets on Twitter will increase your odds of winning.  (Use #Barihunks2014). Post your comments to our Facebook feed with who you should think is deserving of the a charitable contribution and why.

Dreamy Casting: Barihunks on the air

Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Don Giovanni

Thanks to a heads up from an alert reader, we've learned that Edwin Crossley-Mercer just performed his first Don Giovanni in Dijon, France. He was joined by fellow barihunk Damien Pass as Masetto. If you missed the performance, you're in luck, as it's temporarily available on Medici.tv. Click HERE to watch the entire performance.

Medici.tv has a number of current releases featuring barihunks, including Purcell's Dido and Æneas with Lucas Meachem, Gounod's Romeo and Juliet with François Le Roux, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande with Stéphane Degout and Messiaen's Saint-François d'Assise featuring both Henk Neven and Rod Gilfry.

Guido Loconsolo

On April 4th, Italian barihunk Guido Loconsolo makes his Met debut as the scheming Egyptian general Achilla in Handel's Giulio Cesare. He'll be part of a dream cast that includes David Daniels, Natalie Dessay, Alice Coote and the amazing Christophe Dumaux as Tolomeo.

You can watch the April 27th matinee as part of the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series which will be transmitted live around the world.

Guido Loconsolo previously sang the role of Achilla at Glyndebourne. Earlier this season, he sang the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne, Publio in a new production of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Plutone in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in Freiburg and Essen, Germany.

Simon Keenlyside

Fans of Simon Keenlyside will get plenty of chances to hear the ageless barihunk online. On April 6th, Radio France will broadcast his performance of Berg's Wozzeck from the Vienna, Staatsoper under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. On April 25, BBC 3 will rebroadcast his Macbeth opposite the riveting Lady Macbeth of Liudmyla Monastyrska from the Royal Opera House. This is a performance that is not to be missed! BBC 3 has also announced that they will be broadcasting Keenlyside's Eugene Onegin from the Royal Opera House. The date and time has not been announced, but we believe that it will be June 1st.

Morgan Smith

On Sunday, April 7th at 8:00 PM/PST San Francisco's KDFC will broadcast Jake Heggie's latest masterpiece Moby-Dick. The opera stars barihunk Morgan Smith along with Jay Hunter Morris, Stephen Costello, Jonathan Lemalu, Talise Trevigne, Matthew O'Neill and Robert Orth. The performance is a rebroadcast from last season.

Grant Doyle Nominated for Helpmann Award

Grant Doyle as Starbuck (left)

Australian barihunk Grant Doyle has been nominated for a Helpmann Award in the category "Best Male Performer in a Supporting Role in an Opera." Doyle's nomination is for his portrayal of Starbuck in Jake Heggie's "Moby-Dick" at the State Opera of South Australia.

The Helpmann awards are Australia's equivalent of the Tony Awards, with awards given out for musicals, theater, opera, classical music, cabaret, dance and comedy. 

Other nominees in the category include baritone James Clayton for The Tales of Hoffmann at West Australian Opera, bass Conal Coad for The Marriage of Figaro at Opera Australia and baritone Douglas McNicol in La Fanciulla del West at Opera Queensland. We should also mention that Matthias Goerne was nominated for "Best Individual Classical Performance" for his performance of Die Winterreise at the Melbourne Recital Centre. The "Honorable Godmother of Barihunks" Francesca Zambello was also nominated for "Best Direction of an Opera" for her La Traviata at Sydney Harbor with Opera Australia. You can get a complete list of nominees at the Helpmann Awards website.

Doyle sings "O Nadir, tendre ami de mon jeune âge" from Bizet's Les pêcheurs de Perles:

The 2012 Helpmann Awards Ceremony will be held on Monday, September 24th at 8pm at the Opera Theatre in the Sydney Opera House. The Helpmann Awards will be broadcast exclusively the following night on Australia’s arts and entertainment channel STUDIO – channel 132 on Foxtel.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, August 7th and can be purchased from the Sydney Opera House Box Office at 02 9250 7777 or online.

Jonathan Beyer Wins McCammon Voice Competition

Jonathan Beyer is becoming to opera what Meryl Streep is to the Oscars, racking up awards and leaving the competition in the dust. This talented young singer first appeared on our site a month ago after winning the Classical Idol Competition. Yesterday he walked away with the top prize in the prestigious McCammon Voice Competition after performing "News Has a Kind of Mystery" from John Adams' Nixon in China.

The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram wrote:

Beyer, a baritone from Philadelphia, won $10,000 and a role in a future Fort Worth Opera production. His characterization of President Richard Nixon in the aria "News Has a Kind of Mystery" from John Adams' Nixon in China was the afternoon's finest dramatic singing. Beyer plied the song's repeated words with forward-flowing momentum and captured the opera's momentous grandeur.

You can read the entire article HERE.

According to his website, he will be performing L'Heure Eapagnole with Opera Frankfurt, Jonathan Dove's Flight with Austin Lyric Opera, Schaunard in La Boheme with Hong Kong Opera, Morales in Carmen with Opera Company of Philadelphia, Marcello in La Boheme with Central City Opera, Ping in Turandot with the Dallas Opera, as well as a number of concerts and recitals.

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Morgan Smith Triumphs In "Moby Dick"

By all accounts Jake Heggie's new opera "Moby Dick" is a critical success. The opera is having its world premiere in Dallas right now and will come to the San Francisco Opera in 2012. Tenor Ben Heppner has been getting rave reviews as Captain Ahab, but critics have also been singling out barihunk Morgan Smith for his portrayal as Starbuck. The Wall Street Journal wrote, "Baritone Morgan Smith brought mellifluous lyricism and anguish to Starbuck's tuneful arias..."

The highly respected Washington Post music critic Ann Midgette wrote:

"Ahab’s other foil is Starbuck, the first mate who keeps trying to reason with him, to no avail (each nearly murders the other). This was sung by Morgan Smith, a baritone with a strong mid-weight voice and acting ability whom I will be looking out for in future."

Although we don't have a clip of Morgan Smith from the opera, here he is singing Jake Heggie's "Golden Years":



Moby Dick runs through May 16 and you can visit the Dallas Opera website for more information.

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