Nate Mattingly in premiere of Yeltsin in Texas

Nate Mattingly

Bass-barihunk Nate Mattingly will perform the title role in the world premiere of Evan Mack's new opera Yeltsin in Texas as part of the New Works Festival at Opera in the Heights. Mack's highly original score includes a chorus of shoppers who sing advertising jingles from the period, as well as references to pop music of the era. 

The libretto is based on Russian president Boris Yeltsin's 1989 visit to a Clear Lake, Texas grocery store that some believe led to the downfall of communism. He had recently visited Johnson Space Center in Houston before touring the store where he was fascinated by the abundance of options for shoppers, while thinking about Russians who waited in long lines for basic commodities like bread. He told other Russians in his entourage that if people back home saw this, there would be a revolution. Yeltsin's biographer claimed that Yeltsin couldn't stop thinking about his visit to the grocery store long after returning to Russia.

Performance are on February 22 and 28, as well as March 1. Tickets are available online.

Mattingly earned his BA in Music and MM in Vocal Performance at the University of North Texas, before continuing his studies at the Boston Conservatory and at Texas Christian University. He currently studies with soprano Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet. He has performed with Opera on the James, Fort Worth Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and the Seagle Music Colony.

Reader submission: Bass-barihunk Christopher Besch

Christopher Besch

A reader alerted us to bass-barihunk Christopher Besch, who will be appearing as Nourabad in Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers) with Opera in the Heights from February 3-12 in Houston, Texas.

Besch perviously performed with the company in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Opera and he created the role of Peter Gray in John L. Cornelius II and Janine Joseph's Wings They Were: The Case of Emeline with Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco, which commissions new chamber operas and song projects about contemporary life. He also portrayed Theseus in Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Rice University.

Besch is in his second year of studies for the Doctorate of Musical Arts program at Rice University, where he is the Malcolm W. Perkins Teaching Fellow. He was a semi-finalist for the 2012 Eleanor McCollum Competition at the Houston Grand Opera, one of the Rocky Mountain and Gulf Coast Regional Finalists for the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, and placed in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition, and was awarded the Harold Norblum Award through Opera Colorado.

Besch has lots of Bach on his agenda this season, including motets with the Bach Society Houston in February, the St. John Passion with the Bach Society Houston in April, Herr Gott, dich loben wir (BWV 16) and Der Geist hilft (BWV 226) in June with the same ensemble and an appearance at the 2017 Leipzig Bach Festival in Germany in June.

Christopher Besch sings Hahn's A Chloris:

The Pearl Fishers will be directed by John De Los Santos, who staged the Fort Worth Opera's stunning production in 2014. The cast also features the real-life husband and wife team of Eric Bowden and Lindsay Russell as the romantic leads Nadir and Leïla, as well as Octavio Moreno as Zurga.

Tickets are on sale online. Opera in the Heights presents affordable, staged performances for emerging artists in the Greater Houston Area.

Justin Hopkins makes role debut as Leporello

Justin Hopkins in Leporello and Opera in the Height's Don Giovanni artwork

Barihunks calendar model and rising star in the bass-baritone repertory Justin Hopkins just made his role debut as Leporello with Houston's Opera in the Heights. Although the role was originally double-cast, Hopkins is slated to sing all seven performances. The production has been moved to the mid-20th century with artwork from surreal artist René Magritte covering the sets. 

This is certainly not Hopkins first foray into Mozart, as he's performed Bartolo and Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Verbier Festival, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with the Santa Fe Concert Association and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with Pensacola Opera.

Music critic D.L. Groover in the Houston Post called his Leporello the "standout performance."

Remaining performances are on February 7, 8 and 9 and tickets are available online.

Lee Poulis, John de los Santos and Sean Pannikar

Hopkins is returning to the Fort Worth Opera Festival to perform Nourabad in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers in a production directed by the amazing young director John de los Santos. Barihunk Lee Poulis will sing Zurga and hunkentenor Sean Panikkar takes on Nadir, so this production promises lots of eye candy. Performances are on April 19, 27 and May 2 and tickets are available online. 

If you haven't experienced the amazing opera that happening in Fort Worth, you should make travel plans now. They are also featuring Kevin Puts' Silent Night, Mozart's Così fan tutte and Daniel Crozier and Peter M. Krask's With Blood, With Ink.