John Chest as Billy Budd at the Deutsche Oper Berlin(Photo: Marcus Lieberenz)
In celebration of Herman Melville's bicentennial and the 100th anniversary of the posthumous
discovery of the author's unfinished manuscript of Billy Budd, the San Francisco Opera will present Benjamin Britten's operatic version from September 7-22.
This will be only the fourth time that the opera has been performed in the company's history. It was last performed during the 2004-05 season with barihunks Nathan Gunn as Billy Budd, Philip Skinner as Mr. Ratcliff, Mel Ulrich as Donald, Daniel Okulitch as the Gunner's mate, Lucas Meachem as the Novice's Friend, Troy Cook as Mr. Flint and Joshua Bloom as the First Mate.
Nathan Gunn as Billy Budd at the SF Opera (Photo: Merkle)
The all-male cast of 75 principle artists and choristers, will be led by barihunk John Chest in the title role. Chest returns to San Francisco, where he was a member of the Merola Opera Program. Chest has performed the role twice with the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2014 and 2017.
The cast also include a veritable feast of barihunks and bass-barihunks, including Christian van Horn as the evil John Claggart, Hadleigh Adams as Arthur Jones, Christian Pursell as Lieutenant Ratcliffe, Wayne Tigges as Mr. Flint, John Brancy as Donald, Edward Nelson as Bosun, Sidney Outlaw as First Mate, Kenneth Overton as Second Mate, Eugene Villanueva as the Novice's Friend and Philip Skinner as Dansker. The critical role of Captain Vere will be sung by tenor William Burden.
The production will be by Tony Award-winning
director Michael Grandage, who unveiled this staging at the 2010 Glyndebourne Festival and revived it at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music in 2014.
Tickets and additional cast information is available online.
Nathan Gunn (left) and Aaron Blake/Joseph Lattanzi (right)
One of the board members of the PROTOTYPE Festival in New York put together this video of Nathan Gunn, who was singing Papageno at the Met. It shows what might of happened had he used the dating app Tinder to find his Papagena.
Nathan Gunn has a number of recitals on his 2018 calendar, including his cabaret show with his wife Julie Gunn. You can catch performances on January 18th in Thomasville, Georgia; at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA on January 22nd; and, at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills on March 15th. The concert includes works by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, Billy Joel and Leonard Bernstein.
On January 12, 13 and 14, PROTOTYPE will present Gregory Spear's opera Fellow Travelers at the Lynch Theater at John Jay College, with barihunk Joseph Lattanzi and hunkentenor Aaron Blake in the lead roles. Tickets are available online. Fellow Travelers, which was written in collaboration with librettist Greg Pierce and director Kevin Newbury, was developed in a 2013 Opera Fusion workshop. Lattanzi sang both the workshops for the opera, as well as the world premiere at the Cincinnati Opera and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Nathan Gunn in The Aspern Papers; Carolyn Sproule & Joseph Lattanzi in Postcard from Morocco
Dominick Argento was born on October 27, 1927 and has become one of the leading American composers of modern times.
His best known pieces are the operas Postcard from Morocco, Miss Havisham's Fire, The Masque of Angels, and The Aspern Papers. He also is known for the song cycles Six Elizabethan Songs and From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, the latter earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975. Many well known baritones have performed his operas, including Ryan MacPherson and Joseph Latanzi in Postcard from Morocco, and Nathan Gunn in The Aspern Papers. Two of his early operas, written while he was a student—Sicilian Limes
and Colonel Jonathan the Saint—have been withdrawn by the composer.
Argento moved to Minneapolis in 1958 with his new wife, soprano Carolyn Bailey, to begin teaching theory and composition at the University of Minnesota. Within a few years he received commissions from virtually every major performing group in the area. His wife died on February 2, 2006.
Christòpheren Nomura sings selections from The Andrée Expedition:
Argento became involved in writing music for productions at the then-new Guthrie Theater. In 1963, he co-founded the Center Opera Company, which later became the Minnesota Opera. He composed the short opera The Masque of Angels for the occasion as the first Performing Arts commission of the Walker Art Center. This work—with its complex harmonic language and an emphasis on expansive choral writing that prefigures his later role as a prominent choral composer—firmly established his local prominence, as well as providing a role for his wife.
In 1971 his surrealist opera, Postcard from Morocco, opened at Center Opera and received a glowing review in the New York Times. He eventually received commissions from New York City Opera, the newly formed Minnesota Opera, Washington Opera, and the Baltimore and St. Louis symphonies, among others. He also developed close professional relationships with several prominent singers, notably Frederica von Stade, Janet Baker, and baritone Håkan Hagegård, tailoring some of his best-known song cycles to their talents.
In 1984, the Minnesota Opera commissioned Casanova's Homecoming, with text by the composer, which went on to a well-received run at New York City Opera. At the insistence of Beverly Sills, then musical director of the company, the opera was the first in New York City to be performed in English and accompanied with English supertitles. The opera won the 1986 National Institute for Music Theatre Award.
In 1987, Argento composed The Aspern Papers as a vehicle for Frederica von Stade, with his own libretto adapted from the 1888 novella by Henry James. His next opera, and arguably largest work to date, The Dream of Valentino, premiered at the Kennedy Center in 1993.
Malte Roesner in Barihunks Calendar and Book
Our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for
purchase HERE.
In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book
this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the
calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!
Kyle Ketelsen performing The Hillary Speeches by Glen Roven
Barihunks steers clear of politics
and sticks to opera, but we had to share this amazing collection of barihunks performing composer Glen Roven's The HillarySpeeches.
Some of operas greatest deep-voiced men will be performing, including
David Adam Moore, Kyle Ketelsen, Nathan Gunn, Sidney Outlaw, Daniel
Sumegi, Lester Lynch, Andrew Garland and Michael Kelly. They will be
joined by Isabel Leonard, Patricia Racette, Lawrence Brownlee, Matthew
Polenzani, Carin Gilfy, Laquita Mitchell, Glenn Seven Allen, Dominic
Armstrong, Jonathan Blalock and others.
Trailer for "The Hillary Speeches":
The concert film will be streamed from National Sawdust today (January 20,
2017) in conjunction with the presidential inauguration ceremony. The
two speeches that have been set to music are Mrs. Clinton's first
announcement of her candidacy on January 7, 2007, and her presidential
concession speech on November 9, 2017.
Glen Roven has some history with the Clintons, having conducted the
concerts at the Lincoln Memorial at both of Bill Clinton's presidential
inauguration ceremonies. He was slated to conduct had Hillary Clinton
won.
You can watch the concert online at noon EST/9 AM PST by clicking HERE. The concert film is directed by James Gray, Warren Elgort, and Larry Robbins.
David Adam Moore, Kyle Ketelsen, Nathan Gunn, Sidney Outlaw, Andrew Garland & Michael Kelly (clockwise)
Those of you who follow Barihunks know that we steer clear of politics and stick to opera. However, when an amazing collection of barihunks is assembled to sing at a Counter-Inaugural concert, we have to post about it. Composer Glen Roven has set two of Hillary Clinton's speeches to music for the concert.
Some of operas greatest deep-voiced men will be performing, including David Adam Moore, Kyle Ketelsen, Nathan Gunn, Sidney Outlaw, Daniel Sumegi, Lester Lynch, Andrew Garland and Michael Kelly. They will be joined by Isabel Leonard, Patricia Racette, Lawrence Brownlee, Matthew Polenzani, Carin Gilfy, Laquita Mitchell, Glenn Seven Allen, Dominic Armstrong, Jonathan Blalock and others.
Hunkentenors Jonathan Blalock and Glenn Seven Allen
The concert film will be streamed from National Sawdust on January 20, 2017, in conjunction with the presidential inauguration ceremony. The two speeches that have been set to music are Mrs. Clinton's first announcement of her candidacy on January 7, 2007, and her presidential concession speech on November 9, 2017.
Glen Roven has some history with the Clintons, having conducted the concerts at the Lincoln Memorial at both of Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration ceremonies. He was slated to conduct had Hillary Clinton won.
You can watch the concert online on January 20th beginning at noon EST/9 AM PST by clicking HERE. The concert film is directed by James Gray, Warren Elgort, and Larry Robbins.
The odds are pretty good that a barihunk will be placing a Grammy award on his shelf, since every recording that was nominated features at least one. The Grammy® Awards will be held on February 12, 2017 at 8:00 PM PST.
The nominees are:
John Corigliano: The Ghosts Of Versaillesfrom the Los Angeles Opera conducted by James Conlon, featuring barihunks Christopher Maltman and Lucas Meachem along with Patricia Racette, Lucy Schaufer and Guanqun Yu.
George Freidrich Handel: Giulio Cesare with Il Giardino Armonico under the baton of Giovanni Antonini, featuring bass Ruben Drole, Cecilia Bartoli, Philippe Jaroussky, Andreas Scholl and Anne-Sofie von Otter.
Jennifer Higdon: Cold Mountain from the Santa Fe Opera under the baton of Miguel Harth-Bedoya with barihunks Nathan Gunn and Kevin Burdette, joined by Isabel Leonard, Jay Hunter Morris and the Santa Fe Opera apprentice artists.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro performed by the Chamber Orchestra Of Europe and conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, featuring barihunks Thomas Hampson and Luca Pisaroni, joined by Christiane Karg and Sonya Yoncheva.
Karol Szymanowski: Król Roger at the Royal Opera House conducted by Antonio Pappano, featuring barihunk Mariusz Kwiecień, Saimir Pirgu and Georgia Jarman.
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The New York Pops will kick off its 34th season at Carnegie Hall on October 14th with Nathan Gunn in a celebration of music by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. He will join Broadway stars Colin Donnell and Laura Osnes in selections from My Fair Lady, Camelot, Brigadoon, Gigi, and Paint Your Wagon. Tickets are available online.
Nathan Gunn sings C'est Moi from Camelot:
On October 20th, he'll join the Jupiter Quartet along with his wife, accompanist Julie Gunn, for a concert at the Foellinger Great Hall in Urbana, Illinois. The program includes Mark Adamo's Aristotle (set to text by US Poet Laureate Billy Collins), Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," Jennifer Higdon's "Dooryard Bloom," Joan Tower's "In Memory," as well as music by Roger Quilter, Samuel Barber and Douglas Moore. Tickets are available online.
From December 12-21, Gunn returns to the operatic stage to perform the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Theater an der Wien in Austria. His Masetto will be fellow barihunk Tareq Nazmi. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.
Metropolitan Opera diva and reigning empress of the singing world, Anna Netrebko, announced yesterday that she will debut as the iconic Valkyrie, Brünnhilde, closing the latter half of the Met’s 2018-19 season. Other cast members will include James Valenti as Siegfried and Kristine Opolais as Sieglinde. Nathan Gunn, will make his role debut as operas most famous patriarch, portraying a very chiseled Wotan.
While the general design for Die Walküre has not yet been released, sources
close to Peter Gelb have leaked that Nathan Gunn will be shirtless for
the majority of the production, regardless if his character is on stage.
Die Walküre will be directed by Rolando Villazon.
Her debut as Brünnhilde will come just three years after her maiden voyage into the Wagnerian repertoire, as Elsa in Lohengrin (coming this May in Dresden), Netrebko says that she will be ready to tackle this mogul of the rep. "Elsa is much lighter, but it is still Wagner. She and Brünnhilde are sisters in a way...you just have to know how to use your voice and feel comfortable with the production."
Anna Netrebko to debut as Brünnhilde
Walküre co-star Nathan Gunn has attested to Netrebko's Germanic prowess, having been viewing rehearsals over Skype. He reportedly wants to give himself enough time to become familiar with Netrebko's approach to Wagner so that he may scale down his execution to match. Dresden has teased that it will stage Lohengrin to the backdrop of Disney's Frozen in order to attract younger audiences. With role debuts of Norma and Aida on the way, sources close to the soprano say that after her acclaimed, if not successful Lady Macbeth, she feels confident that audiences will love her in almost anything. Of course, accompanying the buzz that followed yesterday’s announcement came speculation as to what could possibly follow such a mammoth undertaking in her catapulting career.
YouTube comments under various repostings of her Act I aria from Macbeth mused at everything from a return to ingénue roles, to rumors of her role debut as Isolde opening the 2019-20 season at the Royal Opera. Covent Garden has declined to comment, but friends of the soprano have, for now, attempted to dispel the rumor, hinting that after her 11 performance run as Brunnhilde, the soprano plans to step away from the Wagnerian rep for at least 7 months to preserve her voice.
[HAPPY APRIL FOOLS' DAY...and kudos to barihunk Zachary Luchetti for the text]
Opera Philadelphia has announced that Jarrett Ott will replace fellow barihunk Nathan Gunn as W.P. Inman for all five performances of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain. The opera is being performed from Februar 5-14 at the Academy of Music.
Nathan Gunn created the role in the August 2015 world premiere at The Santa Fe Opera, but had to pull out of the East Coast premiere due to a serious family illness.
Jarrett Ott, who is a popular singer on this site, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and a member of Opera Philadelphia’s Emerging Artists Program. He has been involved with the development of Cold Mountain and the character of Inman for more than three years. He performed the role in two workshops in 2012 and 2013, sang with the full cast in March 2015 as part of a Works & Process presentation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and covered the role in both Santa Fe and Philadelphia. He began the 2015-2016 Season with Opera Philadelphia as Marchese D'Obigny in Verdi's La traviata.
The opera is based on Charles Frazier’s National Book Award-winning novel, Cold Mountain, which follows the American odyssey of W.P. Inman, a wounded Civil War soldier who deserts the Confederate Army at great peril to reunite with his love, Ada Monroe (which will be sung by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard). Ada's once privileged life on Cold Mountain has become one of loneliness and deprivation. As Inman makes his way home, he wonders if the violence he has experienced has made him unworthy of love, and is forced to question just where his allegiance lies. Amidst the destruction of the American Civil War, a pivotal conflict in America’s history, the transformative journeys of Inman and Ada go to the very center of their souls.
Our beloved friends at CBC Classical just came out with a list of the 10 best dressed classical musicians, which you can view online.
Imagine our horror when we noticed that not a single stylishly attired barihunk made the list. We were told by the CBC that Ildar Abdrazakov ALMOST made the list. We certainly don't take issue with any of the ten who did make the final cut, but we thought we'd ask our readers to come up with ten of the best dressed barihunks and took less than an hour to compile this list from social media. We couldn't have compiled a better list than our readers, so here they are with a few thoughts (in no particular order).
In the photo from left to right, clockwise from the top left.
Ildar Abdrazakov - He's known to wear John Varvatos, Giorgio Armani and Diesel, and have his tuxedos made by Ermenegildo Zegna. That's style!
Nathan Gunn - The Toronto Star once wrote that he'd look as comfortable on a "fashion runway as on a musical stage." We agree.
Thomas Hampson - He's set the standard for elegance in the world of opera for years. He looks like the James Bond of opera when he steps onto a recital stage.
Alessio Arduini - He's super hot shirtless, but equally as hot in formal wear. Now that' sexy.
Cameron McPhail - This sexy Canadian showed up in tux in Fashion magazine. If you have to wear clothes in chilly Canada, you might as well as look this good!
Matthew Worth - We've seen him dressed as a soldier, a cowboy, a priest, in a tee shirt and in a tux and he's smoking hot in any outfit.
Leon Košavić first caught our eye when he walked onstage at an international singing competition. We love a guy who can sing in a white tie and tuxedo and no one pulls it off like him.
Peter Brathwaite - There is a reason that he was tapped as one of Dockers® Men of Style and appears on Men's Style Fashion. He look sexy dressed casually or formally (and everything in between).
Krešimir Stražanac - No one looks better with an open tux shirt and his gym-toned body teasing the buttons halfway down his shirt.
Jonathan Beyer - He's currently covering Thomas Hampson as Danilo in Chicago's Merry Widow. He's lost 50 pounds and looks Gold Coast, penthouse sexy in a tuxedo.
If you want to enjoy sexy men (slightly more undressed) for the entire year, then check out our 2016 Barihunks Charity Calendar! On sale for just 3 more weeks.
Two of the most famous children’s classics have been turned into a musical extravaganza by composer Rob Kapilow and recorded for posterity. Barihunk Nathan Gunn sings The Polar Express while Isabel Leonard sings Gertrude McFuzz. They are accompanied by the Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra and members of the Broadway Youth Ensemble.
With The Polar Express Kapilow took
fragments from traditional Christmas carols and weaved them into various
parts of the score. He also created musical scenes with the
book’s illustrations with the hope that you can follow along with book
in hand. Pre-orders of the CD are now available on Amazon and will be available on November 1st.
Barihunk Nathan Gunn has announced that he's beginning a four-year artist-in-residence series at the University of Notre Dame. Gunn will spend one week each semester for the next four years interacting with Notre Dame students and faculty and with residents in the community. He will teach vocal students, visit classes, coach
students as they prepare for OperaND’s annual performances and
participate in public events with faculty.
On September 10th, he will perform “The Art of Song and a Life in Music: A
Conversation and Performance with Nathan Gunn and Pianist John
Blacklow” at the DeBartolo Performing
Arts Center, inviting the audience on stage with him for a small,
interactive concert experience. Gunn will share reflections on his life in music and his
repertoire, which ranges from art song to opera, to the American
songbook, cabaret and works of contemporary composers.
Tickets
for the performance are $10 and may be purchased by calling
the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center ticket office at 574-631-2800 or
visiting performingarts.nd.edu.
Nathan Gunn with wife Julie(left)and Patricia Racette(right)
Barihunk Nathan Gunn can add "artistic director" to his list of credits, as he is scheduled to lead the new Lyric Theatre program at the University of Illinois. The program, which will focus on opera, operetta and musical theater, is replacing the former program run by artistic director Eduardo Diazmunoz, who is embarking on a new career in Australia.
Nathan Gunn, is a University of Illinois graduate who has maintained a longtime association with the school. Gunn joined the school's faculty as a voice professor
in 2007. His wife, Julie Jordan Gunn, who is a pianist and vocal coach, will be the director of Lyric Theatre
studies. He will be in charge of the artistic direction and fiscal
integrity of new program.
Gunn is not giving up his performing career. In fact, the will be touring Australia with Broadway legend Mandy Patinkin, as well as performing his signature role of Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute with
the Metropolitan Opera in December. In February, he will also return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. In the summer of 2014, he takes on the role of Gaylord Ravenal in Show Boat at the San Francisco Opera. He'll be directed by Francesca Zambello, who allegedly coined the term "barihunk" to describe Nathan Gunn.
We don't review recordings, DVDs or performances, as our goal is simply to promote the barihunks that we love. But there are two new recordings that might be of interest to readers and they both feature Thomas Hampson.
Back in April, we posted about Luca Pisaroni singing Paolo Albiani to Thomas Hampson's portryal of the Doge Simon Boccanegra in Vienna. Also in the cast is fellow barihunk Carlo Colombara as the Genoese nobleman Fiesco. The Decca recording was made from live concert performances in Vienna. If the twists and turns of this family plot aren't complicated
enough on stage for you, Pisaroni is Hampson's son-in-law in real life.
At the complete other end of the spectrum is a new crossover album called Great Voices Sing John Denver, featuring some of the biggest names in opera. The album is of interest to our readers that they've included some of the most popular barihunks in the business, including Rod Gilfry, René Pape, Thomas Hampson and Nathan Gunn.
The album also features Plácido Domingo, Daniel Montenegro, Denyce Graves, Patricia Racette, Shenyang, Danielle de Niese and Dolora Zajick, Matthew Polenzani and Placido Domingo, Jr. 89-year-old Milt Okun, who produced all of John Denver’s recordings and won 16 Grammy awards in his career, produced the CD. We particularly enjoyed Rod Gilfry singing This Old Guitar.
Nathan Gunn as Yeshua (Jesus) and Sasha Cooke as Mary Magdalene
The San Francisco Opera under the inspired leadership of David Gockley keeps adding exciting new operas to the repertory. The latest is the world premiere of Mark Adamo's TheGospel of Mary Magadalene. (Their fall season also includes the world premiere of Tobias Picker's Dolores Claiborne starring Dolora Zajic). Adamo is the composer of two other hit operas, the hysterical Lysistrata and the classic tale Little Women, the latter which has become the most performed opera in America.
Supported by six years of his own research into ancient texts and modern biblical scholarship, Adamo has written a libretto for TheGospel of Mary Magadalene that scrutinizes Christian scripture and transforms it into an alternate history of sorts. Played out through human characters struggling with the role of sexuality in a patriarchal world, the opera reimagines a neglected, yet pivotal, female character who was traditionally (and erroneously) labeled as a prostitute but who, amidst the contentious religious politics of the time, was able to show Jesus the moral dignity of women.
The YouTube channel for San Francisco Classical Voice has posted a series of interviews with barihunk Nathan Gunn talking about the world premiere of Mark Adamo's Gospel of Mary Magadalene at San Francisco Opera.
Performances are running form June 19 to July 7 and tickets are available online.
Nathan Gunn on playing Jesus:
Nathan Gunn on working with his colleagues:
Nathan Gunn on working with composer Mark Adamo:
You can also listen to Cy Musiker from public radio station KQED talk about the The Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
The term "barihunks" seems to have entered the mainstream vocabulary and our wish is that it finally makes it into the Oxford Old English Dictionary (OED) this year. That's when we'll know the term is here to stay. One thing we know for sure is that you can't walk into a theater without hearing the term thrown around. We recently received a call from a singer while he was getting his makeup done backstage and he had to let me know that the entire crew was talking about his recent appearance on the site.
Yesterday, the Toronto Star ran a piece about singers working out and how the introduction of HD videos and rising physical acting demands from director are forcing singers to work on both their voices and their bodies. A soprano whose boyfriend has appeared on this site regularly told me, "Having a great body may not provide an edge to someone singing Norma or Brunnhilde, but is sure does for roles like Juliette, Mimi or Leïla."
Tenor Adam Fisher and Barihunk Vasil Garvaliev
The Star article focused a lot on tenor Adam Fisher, who is opening in Operetta Theatre’s La Vie Parisienne on Tuesday, and barihunk Vasil Garvanliev, a regular on this site and at Opera Atelier. In fact, our favorite quote came from Marshall Pynkoski, co-artistic director of Opera Atelier, who observed, “It is muscular control, not weight, that supports strong singing...No one is at their best pulling 100 extra pounds."
We also got a kick out of the recent headline in the Terra Haute Tribune-Star announcing "Barihunk Gunn to close out Hasfield Hall's series on May 2." Gunn has been one of an increasing army of singers who has touted the benefits of working out for having not only a successful career, but a long-lived career. Readers may remember the features that the Wall Street Journal's Health Section did on Nathan Gunn and on New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes, another fitness buff and surfer.
He commented to the Terra Haute paper, "I think something like that is good for my business. It helps break down those old outmoded stereotypes about opera.”
Singers looking for a social network in their efforts to stay fit or get fit can join Operaticus on Facebook, which has the tagline, "Look as good as you sound." Singers share workout tips, post pictures and even encourage meetups to go work out. The group was founded by BariChunk turned BariHunk Michael Mayes whose transformation has launched his career and made him the definitive exponent of Joseph De Roucher in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, a role that requires the singer to do pushups while singing.
Fans of Michael Mayes can still catch his performances in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied at the Fort Worth Opera. Performances run through May 11th and it's one of the hottest tickets of the summer.
The PBS show "Live from Lincoln Center" will broadcast the New York
Philharmonic's performance of Rodgers and
Hammerstein's Carousel on April 26th. The performance features barihunk Nathan Gunn as the carnival barker Billy Bigelow and Kelli O'Hara as Julie Jordan. But keep your eyes peeled for Timothy McDevitt in the ensemble. He's clearly the next generation of barihunkitude and may well be a Billy Bigelow in a future broadcast.
McDevitt will be singing Le Mari in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tiresias at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence on June 14th and 15th. Nathan Gunn can currently be seen in Dominick Argento's The Aspern Papers at the Dallas Opera. There is one performance remaining on April 28th and tickets are available online.
Tony Award winner John Rando, who is best known for Urinetown and A Christmas Story, directed the performance. Check your local listings for broadcast times and stations in your area.
Fans of vocal music accompanied by string quartet are in luck on both coasts. At New York's Zankel Hall, on February 19th Nathan the indefatigable Nathan Gunn will perform the world-premiere of Jennifer Higdon's chamber version of "Barnyard Bloom."
Based on Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" the piece explores a wide range of grief and loss. Gunn will also perform Samuel Barber's famous “Dover
Beach" which is also accompanied by string quartet. Gunn will also be joined by his wife Julie Gunn for a selection of songs in English by Butterworth, Quilter, Ives, Bowles, and Ben Moore.
Nathan Gunn can next be seen in Rossini's Le Comte d'Ory at the Metropolitan Opera opening February 2nd.
Across the country on the same date, Jesse Blumberg will also explore the topic of grief and loss in Ricky Ian Gordon's masterful 80-minute mini-opera "Green Sneakers."The work was written as a way for Gordon to find
solace from the grief of losing his partner, Jeffrey Grossi, to
AIDS, and following their last few months together. Blumberg, who
created the piece, joins San Francisco's exciting Del Sol Quartet in this performance.
Jesse Blumberg performs the epilogue to Green Sneakers:
The work will be performed at the Southside Theater at Fort Mason in San Francisco on February 19th. Seating is limited, so purchase tickets today.The performance will be directed by the talented young director John De Los Santos.
Fans of Blumberg in New York are in luck, as Green Sneakers will be featured as part of Lincoln Center Presents on April 6th at the Kaplan Penthouse. Tickets are available online. , who we named the top opera director in 2010. If you can't wait that long, check him out at the New York Festival of Song, where he'll join soprano Stacey Tappan in music by Ricky Ian Gordon, Kevin Puts, Christopher Theofanidis and others.
Christopher Maltman (L) and Nathan Gunn (R) in Rape of Lucretia
Censorship in opera is not a 20th century phenomenon, as masters like Giuseppe Verdi saw some of their greatest operas altered by the moralists and political watchdogs of the day. Verdi ran afoul of both the religious and political entities of his time, perhaps most famously in Un Ballo in Maschera, with the offense being the assassination of a king.
Rigoletto would never have been produced had Verdi not changed the prostitute-loving King Francis I of Victor Hugo’s Le roi s’amuse to the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. Rather than the Duke being killed, Verdi ends up killing Gilda.
La Forza del Destino, Luisa Miller and La Traviata were all famously altered after the censors weighed in.
Michael Krzankowski in Seattle
It should come as no surprise that Benjamin Britten was also the victim of the censors. He not only dealt with issues like the injustices of war, but dealt with homosexuality and even pedophilia, topics that were taboo in England at the time. Don't forget that it wasn't much earlier that Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for "gross indecency" and for being a sodomite.
A new book on Benjamin Britten by Paul Kildea, a conductor
and expert on the composer, has now revealed that his opera "The Rape of Lucretia" was altered by the censors. The most notable line was the changing of the following lines:
Male Chorus: “He takes her
hand/And places it upon his unsheathed sword.”
Female Chorus: “Thus wounding her with an equal lust/A wound only his sword can
heal”.
These lines were changed to the far less poetic:
“Tarquinius – 'Poised
like a dart’/Lucretia – 'At the heart of woman’/Male Chorus – 'Man climbs
towards his God’/ Female Chorus: 'Then falls to his lonely hell’.”
Amazingly, Britten's "Peter Grimes," which deals with the mysterious disappearance of young boys at the hands of a sailor, made it past the censors. However, the censors did make this comment:
“It is all very
wafty and nebulous and I don’t pretend I can make sense of the plot from the
verses, but there is no offence in them or in the production. Perhaps
Benjamin Britten’s music will carry it through.”
You can read more at the the Telegraph. You can also check out our photo tribute to Rape of Lucretia, which has provided us with some of our favorite pictures over the years.
Don't forget that there are only eight days left to purchase your 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar:
There are two big announcements out San Francisco, one dealing with a small production and one with the City's international opera company.
Tickets have gone on sale for the West Coast premiere of American Composer Ricky Ian Gordon's highly personal masterpiece "Green Sneakers."The work was written as a way for Gordon to find
solace from the grief of losing his partner, Jeffrey Grossi, to
AIDS, and following their last few months together. Hailed as “a
triumph”, ”superb mini-opera”, “a masterpiece” by Opera Today. Every
live performance of the piece has become a cathartic experience and left
the audience transformed and uplifted. Barihunk Jesse Blumberg, who
created the piece, joins San Francisco's exciting Del Sol Quartet in this performance. We've referred to this piece as a modern day "Winterreise" and it is not to be missed!
Director John De Los Santos
The work will be performed at the Southside Theater at Fort Mason in San Francisco on February 19th. Seating is limited, so purchase tickets today. Fans of Blumberg in New York are in luck, as Green Sneakers will be featured as part of Lincoln Center Presents on April 6th at the Kaplan Penthouse. Tickets are available online. The San Francisco performance will be directed by John De Los Santos, who we named the top opera director in 2010.
Greer Grimsley returns to San Francisco
The San Francisco Opera has also announced its 2013-14 season, which features some of the most famous and popular barihunks in the business. Ildar Abdrazakov will take on the title role in Boito's Mefistofele opposite soprano Patricia Racette and tenor Ramón Vargas. The opera company is reviving the 1989 Robert Carsen production that famously made Samuel Ramey a certifiable bare-chested barihunk. In an unapologetic nod to ticket sales being a priority, General Director David Gockley announced that uber-barihunk Nathan Gunn will reprise the role of Gaylord Ravenal in Jerome Kern's Show Boat that won him rave reviews at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Fans of Greer Grimsley will be thrilled to learn that he's coming to the fair city by the Bay with a Wagner score in his hand. The booming bass will be taking on the title role in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. Two barihunks who have appeared on this site will alternate the title role in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Lucas Meachem will sing opposite the Rosina of Isabel Leonard and Audun Iversen will sing opposite Daniela Mack. The adorable tenor Alek Shrader will also be singing in performances that feature Daniela Mack, his real-life wife. For the complete season, check out the San Francisco Opera's official season announcement. Don't forget to purchase your 2013 Barihunks Charity Calendar:
