Barihunks have good night at Lotte Lenya competition

Bradley Smoak, Michael Hewitt, Tony Potts & Philip Kalmanovitch

Bass-barihunk Bradley Smoak walked away with the $20,000 Grand Prize at this year's Lotte Lenya Competition. Smoak's winning set included Kurt Weill's  “This is the Life” from Love Life, “Vi ravviso, o luoghi ameni” from Bellini's La sonnambula, “Higher Than a Hawk” from Calamity Jane, and “Me” from Beauty and the Beast.

It was a good year all around for barihunks, as Tony Potts and former barihunks calendar models Philip Kalmanovitch and Michael Hewitt also were awarded $3000 Special Prizes.

Bradley Smoak's winning set:

Contestants were required to prepare four selections: an aria from the opera or operetta repertoire; two songs from the American musical theater repertoire (one from the pre-1968 "Golden Age" and one from 1968 or later); and a theatrical selection by Kurt Weill.

Philip Kalmanovitch at the Lotte Lenya competition:

Michael Hewitt at the Lotte Lenya competition:

Tony Potts  at the Lotte Lenya competition:

Held annually by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, the Lotte Lenya Competition is an international theater singing contest that recognizes talented young singer-actors, ages 19-32, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire, and emphasizes the acting of songs and arias within a dramatic context.

Previous winners of the Lotte Lenya competition will be familiar to our readers, including barihunks Lucas Meachem, Liam Bonner and Jonathan Michie, Doug Carpenter, as well as tenor Noah Stewart.

FIVE barihunks at the "Jeunes ambassadeurs lyriques"

Jonathan Estabrooks, Philip Kalmanovitch, Cairan Ryan, Andrey Andreychik, & Pierre Rancourt

There were five -- yes, count 'em -- five barihunks at tonight's Benefit Gala Concert of the "Jeunes ambassadeurs lyriques" in Montreal. Thanks to Jonathan Estabrooks, we got a picture of all five together backstage. This could keep anyone warm during a cold Canadian winter.

The concert celebrates the next generation of young vocal talent between the ages of 18-35. It's now in its twentieth year and part of the proceeds goes towards funding the audition expenses of the young stars for major artistic productions worldwide. A number of prizes are awarded to the singers, including the Canadian Lyric Prize, German Lyric Prize, Francis Poulenc Prize and more.

Jonathan Estabrooks and Philip Kalmanovitch have both appeared on Barihunks in the past. In fact, both have appeared in our Charity Calendar. Andrey Andreychik, Cairan Ryan and Pierre Rancourt are all new to our site.

33-year-old Andrey Andreychik is a Russian/Canadian singer who graduated from Krasnoyarsk State University with a degree in International Economics. The former chorister studied music at the University of British Columbia where he performed with their opera ensemble.

Cairan Ryan sings "When The Air Sings of Summer" from The Old Maid and the Thief:

Belgian born Cairan Ryan is from Calgary, Alberta. He is currently in his first year as a young artist at the Atelier Lyrique de L'Opéra de Montréal. He won the Prix du Jeunes Ambassadeurs prize at last year's gala. Tonight he won the Prix Lyrique Français Bourse, a $1000 bursary for a German audition tour, and an engagement to be announced in the 2014-15 season in Moscow on behalf of the Russian Consulate. He is the past winner of the McGill Noël E. Spinelli Music Award, was awarded an Alberta Foundation for the Arts Individual Music Project Grant, a McGill University Schulich Scholarship, and a bursary from the Johann Strauss Foundation.

French Canadian baritone Pierre Rancourt is a member of the Montreal Opera’s young artist program "L’Atelier lyrique." He has appeared with the company as Schaunard in Puccini's La bohème, Marullo in Verdi's Rigoletto, as well as a variety of comprimario roles. He holds a Master’s in performance from Quebec City’s Université Laval and has taken part in numerous young artist programs.

Barihunks regulars Jonathan Estabrooks & Philip Kalmanovitch

Philip Kalmanovitch is a recent alumnus of the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal, where he performed Antonio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, the Secret Police Agent in Menotti's The Consul and Wagner in Gounod's Faust. He received his Diploma in Operatic Performance with Honours at the University of Toronto and holds a B.A.H. in Drama and a B.A.Minor in Music from Queen’s University. Tonight he received the $2,500 Prix Banque TD Jeune Espoir Lyrique Canadien to support a professional training program and a future Russian engagement courtesy of the Russian Consulate, as well as future engagements with the Vancouver Opera and the Festival Opéra St. Eustache in Quebec.

Julliard graduate Jonathan Estabrooks is a familiar site to users of social media and to readers of Barihunks, as we've closely followed his burgeoning career. He is currently recording his debut album, which will include crossover music. He raised over $25,000 to fund the project on Kickstarter.  He will also star as Schaunard in the film ‘The Bohemians’ by director Jose Cuartes and Bravo Lozano Productions. Estabrooks the won the $1000 Poulenc Award tonight.

Photos from Dead Man Walking: Michael Mayes in Glory Denied

Philip Kalmanovitch and Etienne Dupuis are all smiles as opening night arrives

On February 24h, we mentioned the upcoming performance of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking in Montreal, Boston and Eugene, Oregon. We have rehearsal photos from two of those productions, as the much-anticipated opening night in Montreal is upon us.

Etienne Dupuis

Etienne Dupuis is a great example of how much opera is catching up to TV and movies with realistic casting. He hired two personal trainers to get in shape for the role of Joseph De Rocher, which has become a dream role for barihunks. Some of the hottest barihunks in the world have taken on the role of Joseph de Rocher including Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Mel Ulrich, Daniel Okulitch, Jordan Shanahan, Marcus DeLoach and Philip Cutlip. The performance in Montreal also includes Philip Kalmanovitch as a police officer. Many of you will remember him from last year's calendar and probably wouldn't mind being frisked by him.

Performances at Opera de Montreal run from tonight through March16th and tickets are available online.

Etienne Dupuis as Joseph De Rocher in Montreal

Dead Man Walking will open on opposite coasts on March 15th at the Eugene Opera and the Boston Opera Collaborative. If you ever get the chance to see the stage animal Michael Mayes perform this role, don't miss it. His workout photo from Tulsa, as he was preparing for the role a year ago, have rocketed into our ten most visited posts of all-time.

The opera will be performed at the Eugene Opera on March 15 and 17 and tickets are available online.

If you don't have time to schedule a trip to Oregon, there are still six weeks left to get to the Fort Worth Opera Festival where Mayes will portray Colonel Floyd James (Jim) Thompson, America’s longest-held prisoner of war. The opera by Tom Cipullo looks back on Thompson's years as a captive in Vietnam and features Mayes in the title role. If you've not been to this festival, we highly recommend adding it to your agenda, as it's one of the most innovative and entertaining festivals in America. Other operas this year include Puccini's La boheme, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment. Wes Mason, another of our favorite young barihunks, will be appearing as Marcello in La boheme.

Tickets and additional information about the Fort Worth Opera Festival are available on their website.

Michael Mayes getting in character in Eugene

Performances of Dead Man Walking with the Boston Opera Collaborative will run daily from March 15-18 with tickets available online.

Opera news from around the world

Tom Corbeil in opera and as Lurch

Today is one of those days when we have a bunch of miscellaneous items to posts. First up is the Michigan Opera Theater, which we have a special affection for since they managed to survive an economic calamity in Detroit to open their forty-second season. During a time when many opera companies were shutting their doors, MOT managed to raise money and trim some costs to keep opera alive in the Motor City.

They also manage to put out casts which are always of interest to us at Barihunks. They are kicking off this season with Rossini's Barber of Seville. In the small, but important role of Basilio, is Tom Corbeil who returns to opera after a successful run as Lurch in the Addams Family Musical (he's been replaced by Zachary James). Roddion Pogossov and Eugene Chan will share the role of the Barber. There are two other singers that we should highlight, who you want to miss: Elizabeth DeShong as Rosina and Eleazor Rodriguez as Almaviva.

Tickets are available by calling 313-237-SING or online at the MOT website. The opening night performance will be broadcast on WRCJ 90.9 FM on October 13 beginning at 7 PM CST.

"Teddy Bare" and his co-star are in the tabloids again

We're really not an opera gossip site, there are too many great ones out there for us to compete with and we like staying focused on promoting barihunks. However, we can't stop following the Teddy Tahu Rhodes/Lisa McCune romance that's playing out in the Australian tabloids during their tour of South Pacific. It almost seems like the couple is seeking out the publicity, as they keep engaging in very public displays of affection.

You can read the latest story in the Herald-Sun.

Philip Kalmanovitch shirtless as the Don and with Hunkentenor Jonathan Blalock

We keep trying to wrap up the 2013 Barihunks Calendar, but seem to get distracted by pictures of the 2012 models. Here is Philip Kalmanovitch from a 2011 IVAI production of Mozart's Don Giovanni with hunkentenor Jonathan Blalock, another one of our favorite people in opera.

Perhaps this is a good time to clear up any misunderstanding about Hunkentenors. We get a lot of mail asking us why we don't post more on Hunkentenors. The simple answer is it's not our site. We focus on baritones, although we do give the occasional shout out to a few irresistible tenors like Blalock, Noah Stewart, Jonas Kaufmann and Juan Diego Flores.

Sébastien Lemoine

We post about a lot of singers and many are top of mind because the singers, their agents, their publicists or opera marketing departments make sure that we know about their every move. Other singers we chose to follow because you've shown an interest in their careers or they are particular favorites of ours. Every so often, we see someone appear in our analytics under "searches" that reminds us about our reader's interest in a singer. Recently, Sébastien Lemoine appeared near the top of our searches after a long absence from the site.

The former aviator and all-around jock, wrapped up performances in April of Bernstein's Wonderful Town and now is scheduled to perform  scenes from Don Giovanni in Macon, France on November 18th. The performance is part of the Les Symphonies d’Automne Festival and tickets are available online.

For those of you who were searching for Lemoine, thanks for keeping him on our radar!

CBC's "The Sexiest Barihunks in Canada"

Mike Nyby (L) and Philip Kalmanovitch (R)

We've been featured and even interviewed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and they've mentioned us a number of times. But they've stepped it up a notch with their "The Sexiest Barihunks in Canada" feature.

The post features four barihunks hot enough to melt the ice caps north of the Yukon: Etienne Dupuis, Phillipe Sly, Phillip Addis and Brett Polegato. The singers are asked about their sexiest features, sexiest roles, workout routine and what they'd sing to woo a lover. It is definitely worth checking out and we appreciate the ongoing love from the CBC, who we adore more than a Molson at a hockey game.

We're pretty sure that limiting it to four singers was more about who they could successfully contact than creating a comprehensive list. We're pretty certain that Canada has the highest per capita ratio of barihunks in the world. We've featured close to two dozen Canadians on this site, including three in last year's calendar: Philip Kalmanovitch, Jonathan Estabrooks and Aaron Agulay. Estabrooks will be reappearing in the 2013 calendar.

Daniel Okulitch in The Last Savage

Two Canadians barihunks are having huge international careers, Daniel Okulitch and John Relyea. Relyea is a regular at the Met and other major opera houses, while Okulitch is a fan favorite in opera houses across the globe. His performance in a loin cloth in  Menotti's "The Last Savage" at the Sante Fe Opera still has opera cognoscenti buzzing with delight.

Elliot Madore is on the verge of breaking into the upper tier of singers. He has a redesigned website and has caught the attention of opera general managers everywhere. We recently received emails from opera executives in three countries praising this gifted young artist.

Other Canadians who we've featured include Mike Nyby, Stephen Hegedus, Olivier Laquerre, Tyler Duncan, Riley McMitchell, Peter Barrett, Gordon Bintner, Philip Kalmanovitch, Benjamin Covey and Michael Adair (who co-opted "Barihunk" for his Twitter name).

 John Relyea sings "Scintille, diamant" from The Tales of Hoffmann":

Pierrot's Tanzlied "Mein sehnen, mein wähnen"

Kalmanovitch, Melrose & Hampson

One of the most beautiful arias ever written for lyric baritone is undoubtedly "Mein sehnen, mein wähnen" or Pierrot's Tanzlied for Erich Korngold's "Die Tote Stadt."
After the young, beautiful dancer Marietta has made a toast with the rest of her troupe, she asks Fritz to sing a song. He sings a yearning dance song that looks into his past.

Here are three singers at various phases of their careers singing the Tanzlied. The young Philip Kalmanovitch who is just beginning his career, Leigh Melrose who has begun singing on major stages in the last few years and the legendary Thomas Hampson.

Philip Kalmanovitch:



Leigh Melrose:



Thomas Hampson:

Also, don't forget that for the next two weeks we'll be taking submissions for our first-ever charity Barihunks calendar. Send High Res photos and bio to Barihunks@gmail.com.

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Jonathan Estabrooks' "A Singer's Life 201: Barihunks in Blacksburg"

Philip Kalmanovitch & Jonathan Estabrooks

Barihunk Jonathan Estabrooks is back with his second season of his vlog "A Singer's Life." We love the new season already since the first episode is called "Barihunks in Blacksburg." We love how fellow barihunk Philip Kalmanovitch corrects the vlogger when he gives the wrong url for Barihunks. Make sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube so you never miss an episode.

Estabrooks can next be seen as Silvio in Pagliacci with Opera Lyra in Ottawa opposite tenor Richard Leech and soprano Yannick-Muriel Noah. Performances run from September 10th through the 17th. Click HERE for tickets.

Kalmanovitch can next be seen as Antonio in Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro" at the Opéra de Montréal from September 17-24 with fellow barihunk Phillip Addis as Count Almaviva. Click HERE for additional performance information and tickets.



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Another Hot Canadian: Philip Kalmanovitch

Philip Kalmanovitch

We get a lot of emails suggesting new barihunks, but this might have been the most concise and to the point yet:

"How have you missed Philip Kalmanovitch?"

It's a good question and he adds to our ever-growing roster of Canadian barihunks. With all of these hot singers coming out of Canada, we're amazed that the tundra hasn't melted.

The young Canadian baritone is still in the early phase of his career. He's an apprentice artist with the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. He has appeared in several operas, including Puccini’s "La Bohème as Marcello, Donizetti’s "L’elisir d’amore" as Belcore, "La fille du regiment" as the Corporal, and in one of our our most popular operas for discovering new barihunks, Britten’s "The Rape of Lucretia," where he performed Junius.

Kalmanovitch is a founding member of Open Corps Theatre, a Toronto-based collaborative theatre company. With Open Corps he sang and played guitar and bass in sold-out productions of "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris."

Upcoming roles include Conte Ceprano in Verdi’s "Rigoletto," Servant in Donizetti’s "Roberto Devereux," Secret Police Officer in Menotti’s "The Consul," and Sergente in "La Bohème," all with Opéra de Montréal.

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