Tobias Greenhalgh performing staged of Schubert's Winterreise

American barihunk Tobias Greenhalgh, who joined the ensemble the Young Ensemble of the Theater an der Wien last year, will be performing in the premiere of a newly staged version of Schubert's Winterreise.

Czech choreographer Martin Dvorak has conceived the 2-part song cycle for baritone, a dancer/actor and pianist, who will be Marcin Kabaghe. The initial performance will be on Saturday, October 17th, with three additional shows in the Czech Republic in December. On December 17 and 18, it will be performed at the Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, with an additional performance scheduled in Prague on October 19.

The songs represent the voice of the poet as the lover, and form a distinct narrative and dramatic sequence. In the course of the cycle the poet, whose beloved now fancies someone else, leaves his beloved's house secretly at night, quits the town and follows the river and the steep ways to a village. Having longed for death, he is at last reconciled to his loneliness. The cold, darkness, and barren winter landscape mirror the feelings in his heart, and he encounters various people and things along the way which form the subject of the successive songs during his lonely journey. It is in fact an allegorical journey of the heart.

Tickets, which are only 10,00 EUR, are available online.

Greenhalgh is currently appearing as Littore in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea at Theater an der Wien with Jennifer Larmore as Ottavia, Christophe Dumaux as Ottone and the Valer Sabadus as Nerone.

He'll be back in the U.S. in January to sing Moralès in Bizet's Carmen with the Palm Beach Opera. Also in the cast are Rinat Shaham as Carmen, Zachary Nelson as Escamillo and Riccardo Massi as Don Josè. The production will be directed by the sensational young director John De Los Santos. Tickets are available online.

ORDER YOUR 2016 BARIHUNKS CALENDAR TODAY!!!

Barihunks star in Hippie-inspired Carmen at Opera Zuid

Martijn Sanders (right two photos as Escamillo in Carmen)

Our site is disproportionately popular in the Netherlands and we have a loyal and devoted following there. A reader in Maastricht recently introduced us to the innovative Dutch company, Opera Zuid. The touring opera company has developed a reputation for its technical and theatrical innovation. 

They recently brought in the acclaimed Dutch theater performers Leopold Witte and Geert Lageveen to re-imagine Bizet's Carmen in a more modern setting.  The duo updated the story about love and jealousy to the 1960s counterculture,  where the Gypsies are hippies, the tobacco factory girls are smoking cannabis and there are clashes with the police. The Sixties theme of "Make Love Not War!" permeates the production.  

Rubèn Plantinga

The production also features two barihunks, one who is new to the site and one who we haven't featured in way too long. We first introduced Dutch barihunk Martijn Sanders to readers in 2007, which was back in the nascent days of our site. We went on to feature him as Don Giovanni later that year and again as Escamillo in 2011. He takes on the role of Escamillo in this production. Morales will be performed by Rubèn Plantinga, who we are introducing to readers for the first time.

Sanders studied at the Utrecht conservatory, before continuing his studies in Vienna.  He went on to join the young artist program at the  Amsterdam Operastudio. After winning the first prize at the Nico Dostal singing competition, he made his debut as Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute during the Vienna Mozart week in the Theater Schönbrunn and as Dandini in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Rheinsberg festival. In November 2010, Sanders performed the baritone solo in Rachmaninov's The Bells at the ‘Prince Claus” concert in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

Rubèn Plantinga singing Schumann's "Ich will meine Seele tauchen" at a masterclass:

23-year-old Rubèn Plantinga, who is new to this site, sings the role of Morales.  He first hit the stage at the age of 12 in Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical “The Sound of Music” produced by Dutch media tycoon Joop van den Ende. In 2010 and 2011, he sang with the "Bach Choir of the Netherlands,” where he made his debut as a soloist in 2012 in a Dutch translation of Bach’s St. Matthew's Passion. His work brought him to the attention of Opera Zuid, where he has sung the role of Sciarrone in Puccini’s Tosca.

Plantinga is continuing his studies at the Classical Musictheater at Fontys Hogeschool in Tilburg and is part of the young artist program at the Dutch National Opera. 

Performances of Carmen will be on tour in Venlo, Den Haag, Eindhoven, Hasselt and Sittard through December 14th 

There are only three weeks left to purchase your 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar. We are 40 calendars short of our goal to fully fund two projects featuring young artists, so order yours today...and spread the word.

Raymond Ayers in sexy Carmen and opera based on Bjork movie

Dagmar Hesse as Selma Ježková and Raymond Ayers as Bill Houston

Remarkably, we haven't featured American barihunk Raymond Ayers on our site. The singer studied at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He's currently a member of the ensemble at the Theater Hagen in North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, not far Dortmund, Dusselfdorf and Essen.

Perhaps we overlooked Raymond Ayers because our German sources for Barihunks are located in Berlin and Munich. It looks like we need to find some sources in the Western regions of Deutschland.  Over the last four years Ayers has sung a variety of roles with the company, including Germont in La traviata, Jupiter in Orpheus in der Unterwelt, Ottokar in Der Freischutz, Silvio in Pagliacci, La Dandini in La Cenerentola, Chucho in the European premier of Salsi Puedes,  Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte. 

Jaclyn Bermudez as Micaëla and Raymond Ayers as Moralès

He's currently playing a very sexy Moralès in Bizet's Carmen, with performances remaining on June 28, July 3 and July 10. In the photos, he almost looks like Joseph De Rocher from Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking.

He's also performing  in Paol Ruder's one-act opera, “Selma Jezkova,” based on the 2000 Lars von Trier film musical “Dancer in the Dark,” starring Bjork. The opera premiered in September 2010 at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, directed by Kaspar Holten and had its U.S. premiere in July 2011 at the Rose Theater in New York City.

Tickets for both shows are available online. You can listen to sound clips of Raymond Ayers at his website.

Attitude magazine: "Get Your Rock Off"

Duncan Rock featured in Attitude

Aussie barihunk Duncan Rock generated international buzz when he recently appeared in "Don Giovanni: The Opera" at London's Heaven. The updated, gender bending version of the Mozart-Da Ponte classic rubbed some of the old-timers the wrong way, but young audiences ate it up.

Attitude, which bills itself as the U.K.'s largest LGBT magazine, recently did a feature on the ripped redhead with the great headline "Get Your Rock Off." We couldn't possibly improve on that! We also love that gave a nice shout out to Barihunks, writing:

Rock has featured heavily on the inspired website Barihunks (baritone hunks, obvs), which shows male opera singers in a state of undress. So what happened to opera's rep for the larger gentlemen? "A lot of the roles, particularly the ones for a young baritone voice, now require certain physical characteristics," Rock explains. "For certain roles, for dramatic credibility, people expect a certain look, but opera is an art form that is all about beautiful singing and that will never change."

Fortunately for Rock, his voice is as beautiful as his physique.

Check out a preview of the ENO's Billy Budd featuring Duncan Rock:

We first discovered Duncan Rock when he was in Britten's Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and he's back in the same opera at the English National Opera. Rock will be performing the role of Donald. Performance are running from June 12-July 12. He remains on the ENO roster for a run of Bizet's Carmen beginning in November where he takes on the role of Moralès. Visit the ENO website for tickets and additional information.

Duncan Rock: Master-OF-Arms

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Reader Submission: John Brandon

Two shots from John Brandon's website

Barihunk John Brandon is our latest reader submission. He opened in Carmen on Sunday at Opera Birmingham, where he is singing Morales. The 6' 3" singer has recently performed Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Vivente and Antonio in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with both Nashville Opera and Opera Columbus.

The 26-year-old has toured and recorded with Kammerchor Stuttgart, English Voices and the Westminster Choir. He can next be seen in the St. John Passion as Jesus with the Chattanooga Bach Choir in his home state of Tennessee.

You can listen to audio clips of John Brandon on his website.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Wes Mason at Glimmerglass

Wes Mason: Morales at Glimmerglass

We recently ran a feature on former football player Keith Miller who is the Escamillo in the Glimmerglass production of Bizet's "Carmen." Fans of this site will be thrilled to know that Wes Mason, who was named one or our "Hottest Future Superstars of 2010" (along with Matt Worth), is portraying Morales. There are fifteen performances between tonight's opening and August 23. Click HERE for additional cast and performance information.


Mason is also performing Mac and is the cover for fellow barihunk Rod Gilfry in "Annie Get Your Gun," who is portraying Frank Butler opposite the Annie of Deborah Voight. Click HERE for additional cast and performance information.

Wes Mason in Before Night Falls (L) and hanging out (R)

Regular readers will remember that Mason became an overnight sensation at the Ft. Worth Opera Festival in 2010 when he took on the lead role in "Before Night Falls."

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com