Jeff Williams to sing Pirate King in Baltimore

Jeff Williams (right & left center) and Spencer Adamson (far left & far right)

We finally got Jeff Williams to model his Barihunk t-shirt in anticipation of his upcoming performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance at the Young Victorian Theatre Company in Baltimore.  Williams, who is singing the Pirate King grabbed some photos with castmate Spencer Adamson, who is singing Samuel.  The show opens Saturday July 11th and if you use the promo code July11 for opening night, you'll receive 30% off of your tickets.

You can watch Jeff Williams singing the Pirate King Song ("I am a pirate king") on Baltimore's CBS affiliate WJZ.

The Young Victorian Theatre Company has been producing shows in Baltimore for 45years and it's the city's longest-running summer musical theater. They are dedicated to performing the works of Gilbert & Sullivan and they attract some of best in young musical talent from across the country.

Jeff Williams is a former Nashville Opera Mary Ragland Young Artist and a Seagle Music Colony Young Artist. He has also been associated with the John Duffy Composers Institute and Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, Virginia for many years premiering operatic works of living operatic composers. Williams appears on Albany Records in Thomas Sleeper's series of operas, Einstein's Inconsistency, and Michael Dellaira's The Death of Webern to be released later this year. Upcoming engagements include the premiere of George Mabry's Voices, the Mandarin in Turandot with Nashville Opera, performances of Evan Mack's Angel of the Amazon and Roscoe, the premiere of Jeffrey Wood's Different Bodies with the Gateway Chamber Orchestra, and Brahms: Biography in Music with LyricFest.

Jeff Williams as the Pirate King (left) and in recital

Spencer Adamson hold a Bachelor's degree in Voice Performance from Westminster Choir College, with graduate work at Indiana University, Bloomington. He has performed the roles of Tonio in Pagliacci and Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana with HUB Opera Ensemble in Hagerstown, Maryland. performs in outreach programs with Baltimore Lyric Opera bringing opera to Baltimore's elementary schools.

Additional performances are on July 12, 16, 18 and 19. Tickets and additional cast information is available online.

Reader Submission: Alexander Elliott

Alexander Elliott preparing for Pirates of Penzance

The Portland Opera Resident Young Artist Program was one of the first recipients of a Barihunks Grant from our annual calendar proceeds. So we were particularly delighted when our latest reader submission was one of the young artists performing Samuel in Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance with the company.

Alexander Elliott is a second year young artist who has performed in recital with the company, as well sung the Shoe Salesman in Dominick Argento's Postcard from Morocco. He was also their cover for Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.  Our reader also shared this great photo of Alexander Elliott get used to his sword for the show, which opens on May 9 and runs through May 17. Tickets are available online. The Pirate King is being sung by one of the most famous barihunks in the world, Daniel Okulitch.

Elliott was previously an apprentice artist with the Central City Opera, where he sang the role of Frank in Ned Rorem’s Our Town. This summer, he joins the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. They are performing Mozart's Don Giovanni and a reduced orchestral version of André Previn's Streetcar Named Desire.

Other career highlights have includes the Captain in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Périchaud in La Rondine with Des Moines Metro Opera as well as Count Almaviva in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with the Tulsa Opera opposite fellow barihunk Seth Carico.

You can hear audio of him at his website.

A revealing introduction of Erik E. Larsen

Erik E. Larsen "hulked out of his pants"

We try to keep it (relatively) tasteful on Barihunks, but what do we do when someone tweets this photo with the caption "Hulked out of my pants" and hashtags it #Barihunks?

That's what Erik E. Larson (@unamplified) recently did on Twitter, so why not share it with our readers. You should see the stuff that gets mailed to us that never sees the light of day!

Larson isn't just some random tweeter on Twitter, he's a serious student of voice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is just finishing his second year of study and has sung multiple times with the University Opera, including the role of Masetto in University Opera’s recent production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Earlier this year, he sang Samuel in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance with the Madison Savoyards.

Larson is also a member of the Madison Opera chorus, where he as sung in Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Verdi's La Traviata, and Rossini's La Cenerentola.

We hope to see (ahem) lots more of Erik Larson (ahem, ahem). However, if he keeps tweeting about his love of "fried cream cheese" he may end up on BariChunks.

Matt Trevino Coast-to-Coast

Barihunk Matt Trevino

Barihunk Matthew Trevino singing "Ich Grolle Nicht" in Michael Nyman's opera "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat."

Matt Trevino

Trevino will next appear in "The Pirates of Penzance" with the Fresno Grand Opera on January 28 & 30. In what has become our pet peeve, the opera company does not list the cast on their website. We find this incredibly disrespectful to artists, as well as poor marketing and customer service.

He next appears on the opposite coast with the Pensacola Opera where he will portray Timur in Puccini's "Turandot" on March 11 & 13. He then heads north to the Syracuse Opera where he will perform Nourabad in the Pearl Fishers. Both opera companies list complete cast and production information.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com