Wallis Giunta and Quirijn de Lang in Trouble in Tahiti
The U.K.'s Opera North is presenting a new series dubbed "Little Greats," which are six operas that run about an hour each and are presented as a double-bill. To entice new opera attendees, tickets start for as little as £10. The series will include Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, Janáček's Osud, Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti and Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury and will run from September 16 to October 21.
Dutch barihunk Quirijn de Lang will be featured in both L'enfant et les sortilèges as the Grandather Clock and Tom Cat and in Trouble in Tahiti as Sam, one half of a bickering married couple.
Quirijn de Lang
The operas will be performed in Leeds starting on September 16, Kingston starting on October 26, Nottingham starting on November 1, Newcastle starting on November 8 and Salford Quays starting on November 15. Ticket information is available online.
Quirijn de Lang can currently be seen as Selim in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia at the Garsington Opera through July 15. On July 29, he'll be featured in "A Night at the Opera," a concert with full orchestra with Opera North featuring soprano Jeni Bern.
Romanas Kudriašovas (on the right with Bryn Terfel)
A reader in the UK has introduced us to Lithuanian barihunk Romanas Kudriašovas, who is a Young Artist at the London National Opera Studio. On November 28th, he'll be performing scenes from the Mozart/Da Ponte operas as part of the National Opera Studio residency at Opera North. The concert will be at the Howard Assembly Room at 7:30 PM.
On December 10th, he joins the great British soprano Susan Bullock for a candle-lit celebration of English song in St. Giles Cripplegate Church in London. The program will feature music from Vaughn Williams, Gurney, Quilter and Britten. Tickets are available online.
Romanas Kudriašovas and Giedrė Muralytė-Eriksonė perform Donaudy's "O del mio amato ben"
Romanas began his music studies at age seven playing the violin and piano. After initially studying choral conducting, he went on to study voice at the Music and Theater Academy in Lithuania Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg and the Wales International Academy of Voice, where he received his Masters.
He has performed music ranging from the Baroque to the
20th century repertoire, including: Elviro in Handel's Serse, Antenor in Rameau's Dardanus, Valens in Handel's Theodora, Mr. X in Kalman's
Zirkusprinzessin, Bill in Kurt Weill's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt
Mahagonny, Lockit in Britten's The Beggar’s Opera and the Sacristan in Puccini's Tosca opposite Bryn Terfel’s
Scarpia.
Kudriašovas is fluent in English, German, Lithuanian and Russian.
Support the arts with one of these calendars. Our 2016 Barihunks calendar will fund a new non-profit to support young artists, commission new music and provide a vocal competition prize for baritone/bass voices. The Marco Vassalli calendar will help fund his US debut in San Francisco performing two songs to German texts from composer Clint Borzoni.
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Our latest reader submission is Massachusetts native Dean Murphy, who is performing Top in Aaron Copland's The Tender Land at Opera North in Lebanon, New Hampshire. There is one remaining performance on August 15th and ticket and cast information is available online.
Murphy graduated in 2014 from the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. At Hartt, he performed Tobias in Thomas Pasatieri's The Hotel Casablanca, Frank in Strauss' Die Fledermaus, and Frank Maurrant in Weill's Street Scene.
In May 2014, Dean made his Connecticut Lyric Opera debut as Prince Yamadori in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. In June 2013, he made his debut with Hartford Opera Theater as Gideon March/Mr. Dashwood in Mark Adamo's Little Women. In November 2013, he sang Brighella in Antonio Salieri's The Little Harlequinade with Connecticut Concert Opera, where he is a Resident Artist. Dean was a participant in Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance Young Artist Program, where he covered the role of Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore.
Irish barihunk Gavan Ring, who we introduced to readers back in October 2014, took 2nd Prize at the Concorso Lirico Internazionale Vocal Competition in Portofino, which concluded last night. Two Russian sopranos, Maria Nazarova and Karina Kheruntc, took 1st and 3rd Prize respectively. Ring was awarded €4000. The finalists were narrowed down from a field of 120 singers from 28 countries and had 10 minutes in the final round to sing the aria of their choice. The jury was headed by Dominique Meyer, the director of the Vienna State Opera. The top three winners will be invited to audition for the Vienna State Opera.
Gavan Ring at the 2013 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Competition:
Gavan Ring can next be seen as Bill Bobstay in Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore at the Edinburgh International Festival opening on August 23 and Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville at Opera North opening on October 7th. On November 8th, he'll perform a song recital with accompanist Simon Lepper as part of the Dublin Song Series at Hugh Lane Gallery.
Grange Park Opera will have a Bohemian barihunk duo in their production of Puccini's La Bohéme that opens June 6 and runs through July 17th. Dutch barihunk Quirijn de Lang will sing Schaunard opposite the Colline of British barihunk Nicholas Crawley.
Joining them in the cast are Susana Gaspar as Mimi, Gianluca Terranova as Rodolfo, Kelebogile Pearl Besong as Musetta, Brett Polegato as Marcello and Nicholas Folwell as Benoit/Alcindoro.
Grange Park is also presenting Fiddler on the Roof with Bryn Terfel in the role of Reb Tevye, Eugene Onegin with Brett Polegato and Samson et Delila. Tickets and additional production information are available online. Follow them on Twitter @grangeparkopera.
On October 18th, Nicholas Crawley makes his role debut as Bottom in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater. In February 2016, he sings Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Nederlandse Reisoper.
Quirijn de Lang then heads off to sing Fred Graham/Petruchio in Kiss Me Kate for Opera North from September 21-November 21. The production will be performed in Leeds, Newcastle, Salford Quays and Nottingham.
Quirijn de Lang as Demetrius and Andrew Glover as Lysander
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Benjamin Britten's birth, Opera North is presenting A Midsummer Night’s Dream in four cities. The sexy production stars Dutch barihunk Quirijn de Lang as Demetrius, who appears in various revealing outfits. The production is currently running at the Leeds Grand Theatre through October 24th. From November 6-8 is will be at The Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays, from November 12-15 it will be at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle and finally at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham from November 19-22. Tickets are available online. Britten's opera is set to a libretto adapted by the composer and his partner Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was premiered on 11 June 1960 at the Aldeburgh Festival.
Britten delineated the three tiers of characters, the rustics being given folk-like "simple" music, the lovers a more romantic sound-world and the fairies being represented in a very ethereal way. Almost all of the action now takes place in the woods around Athens, and the fairies inhabit a much more prominent place in the drama. The comic performance by the rustics of Pyramus and Thisbe at the final wedding takes on an added dimension as a parody of nineteenth century Italian opera. Thisbe's lament, accompanied by obbligato flute, is a parody of a Donizetti "mad scene".
Marc Callahan as Sid in Albert Herring(Photo: John Bishop)
The worldwide centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth continues at the beautiful monastery at the Brigitta Festival in Estonia. American barihunk Marc Callahan will be performing the role of Sid in Albert Herring with Opera North on August 10th at 7 PM.
The production also featured the legendary soprano Dame Josephine Barstow in the role of Lady Billows.
Sexy American barihunk Marc Callahan just opened a six week run as Belcore in an English language version of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love at the Kings Head Theatre in London. Director Valentina Ceschi set the opera at a glamorous 1950s garden party at the height of Hollywood’s Golden Age, with a new English libretto by Verity Bargate Award-winner Thomas Eccleshare.
The opera has two casts, so check online for cast information and tickets.
The former Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist continued his studies in France and has excelled in French repertoire ranging from the French baroque's André Cardinal Destouches to Jacques Offenbach's whimsical operettas. In recent years, his career has been centered in the U.K.
After the English language Elixir, he takes on some true English opera as Sid in Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring at Opera North. Performances will run from May 15-25.
Seven months ago we introduced readers to Minnesota native Nicholas Nelson and his sexy abs. He was performing at the Central City Opera at the time and we've been waiting for an excuse for a follow up post.
When we first saw these pictures, we thought they were from an Abercombie & Fitch catalogue. If there is any question left in anyone's mind that singers are taking better care of their bodies these days, these pictures should dispel those thoughts.
Fans of the young singer Nelson can see him at the Portland Opera in the double bill of Ravel's L'heure Espagnole and L'enfant et les sortilèges. He will be performing as the Armchair and the Tree. Performances will run from April 1-9. He also just finished singing the Mandarin in Turandot with the company.
From August 12-20 he will be performing Alidoro in Opera North'sCenerentola.
