Movie deals with man's obsession with Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and beautiful men (kind of like us!)

We always thought that no one could possibly like Mozart's Don Giovanni more than those of us involved with Barihunks. After all, the opera has given us more sexy photos than humanly imaginable, with Leporello, Masetto and the Don often cast with stunningly handsome men in various states of undress.

Then along cam the documentary movie “Naked Opera,” which tells the story of Marc Rollinger, an obsessed opera fan who travels around the world to see productions of Don Giovanni. His goal is to find the perfect production of the Mozart classic. His travels take him to Venice, Vienna, and Berlin and the movie features clips from Joseph Losey's classic film starring Ruggero Raimondi, José van Dam, Edda Moser and Kiri Te Kanawa.

Rollinger's travels are a way to escape his mundane existence and he enhances the experience by surrounding himself with gorgeous young men. He lavishes them with great food, expensive champagne and luxury hotel suites.

You'll have a tough time finding a viewing of the movie, as it has seen very limited release. It did manage to win the Heiner-Carow-Award during this years Berlinale. The DVD is available for purchase in Europe, but not in the US. You can order a copy HERE.

If you're like Rollinger and pining for the next great production of Don Giovanni, you may want to head to St. Gallen, Switzerland where a trio of barihunks who have appeared on this site are performing; Palle Knudsen as Don Giovanni, Jordan Shanahan as Masetto and Matt Boehler as Leporello. Performances run through December 30th.

Featured Barihunks dominate St. Gallen's Don Giovanni

Thomas Oliemans

A loyal reader who is catching some opera in Switzerland next week alerted us to the Don Giovanni in St. Gallen, which features four singers who have appeared on this site. Of course, there are two casts, so one won't find them all on stage at once. Performances will be running throughout the remainder of the calendar year, so there is plenty of time to make your travel plans and catch both casts.

Rotating as the title character are Danish barihunk Palle Knudsen and Dutch barihunk Thomas Oliemans, who was first brought to our attention by the very same reader. Oliemans released a recording of Schubert's Schwanengesang in 2011 with Malcolm Martineau that is not to be missed.

Matt Boehler sings Leporello's Catalog aria:

Alternating as Leporello are Swedish baritone Gabriel Suovanen, who is new to this site, and American Matt Boehler, who we featured when he made his New York City Opera debut as the Hotel Manager in Thomas Ades’ Powder Her Face. Boehler is now part of the regular ensemble at St. Gallen. Upcoming performances include Daland in Wagner's Der fliegende Hollander, Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto and Der Pfarrer in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen.

Jordan Shanahan, as seen in the Barihunks charity calendar

Alternating as Masetto are American baritones Jordan Shanahan and David Maze. Shanahan, you may recall was featured in our Barihunks calendar in photos taken from Jake Heggies' Dead Man Walking. Shanahan is also part of the ensemble at St. Gallen where he will be featured as Harlekin in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Marullo in Verdi's Rigoletto, Harasta in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen and Fritz in Korngold's Die tote Stadt.

Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani

For those of you who like a little tenor eye candy, as well, check out the Don Ottavio of Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani. If the owners of the Hunkentenors site ever decide to resurrect their site, Giustiniani should be their next post. The guy can sing, too.

This and That

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DAVID ADAM MOORE

David Adam Moore will perform in an opera workshop of Conrad Cumming's new American opera "The Golden Gate" this weekend in New York City. Click HERE for more information.
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DOUG CARPENTER


Doug Carpenter is beginning his run in Camelot at the Pasadena Playhouse, which has the following disclaimer: "Camelot is recommended for mature audiences due to adult content and themes." We heard that there is "tasteful nudity." Click HERE for ticket and performance information.
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LEE POULIS

Lee Poulis was named Bester Nachwuchsänger (Best Young Singer) by Die Welt's annual survey of German music critics.
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PALLE KNUDSEN

LAURENCE MEIKLE

Lastly, we think Laurence Meikle and Palle Knudsen, neither of whom have appeared on this site before, are both really sexy and deserve a posting.
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Bald is Beautiful

For a guy with such gorgeous hair, Palle Knudsen sure looks hot with a bald dome. Here he is singing "Dal fulgor" from Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Knudsen graduated from the Royal Opera Academy in 1998 and in 1999 he became a company principal at the Royal Opera, Copenhagen. He has sung the barihunk roles of Papageno and Don Giovanni, looking quite cute in both of them. As soon as their are higher resolution photos available, they will be posted on this site.

You can contact this site at barihunks@gmail.com