Another barihunk "exposed" at Nationale Reisopera's "Barber of Seville"; Meet British baritone Nick Crawley

We love when a post about a barihunk begets more barihunks, which is what happened when we ran a feature on Peter Bording's run as the title character in Rossini's Barber of Seville at the Nationale Reisopera. Not only that, but we learned about the sexy set and costume designer Gary McCann, who will drive our ginger lovers into fits of frenzy.

It's not often that the role of Basilio makes it onto Barihunks, but former tenor and director Laurence Dale has made him the sexiest character in the opera. We were sent these tantalizing pictures of British barihunk Nick Crawley with the "3 Bertas," a novel concept that looks like loads of fun.

Crawley, who is new to this site, is a member of the ensemble at the Nationale Reisopera where he's also singing Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, three roles in Purcells The Fairy Queen and the bass part of Bach's St. John Passion. Crawley was born in Buckinghamshire and started his musical career at St. Albans Cathedral Choir where he was head chorister. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and completed the Royal Academy Opera Advanced Diploma course.  Nicholas won a place on the Concordia ensemble 2010 and was awarded The Independent Opera Vocal Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music 2012.

Gary McCann & the 3 Bertas

And for you lovers of great beards and all things ginger, we present costume and set designer Gary McCann and his red-headed Bertas - Zinzi Frohwein, Sonja Volten and Ruth Willemse.

Redhead Jonathan Estabrooks as he appears in the 2014 Barihunks Calendar

Have you purchased your Barihunks Charity Calendar? The holiday shopping season is kicking into full gear next week, so order NOW by clicking the Lulu button below.

Two Red-Headed Barihunks: Ágúst Ólafsson and Gregory Gerbrandt

[Top photo of Ágúst Ólafsson; Bottom photo of Gregory Gerbrandt]

Perhaps the memory of opera’s most famous redhead, Beverly Sills, is going to live on in the world of barihunks. Gregory Gerbrandt and Ágúst Ólafsson are two thrilling young redheads who Ms. Sills would have loved.

Gerbrandt voice is probably too low to land a bunch of traditional barihunks roles, but he’s been acclaimed as a Marcello (see video), Silvio, Almaviva in Nozze and as a concert artist. He also is a volunteer firefighter, which makes it all the more likely that Bubbles would have loved him. Sills released an album called “Up in Central Park” with a Sigmund Romberg song entitled “The Fireman’s Bride.” The song was full of sexual innuendo: she “clings to the hose” and “lies flat on her hide,” because she is the “naughty Fireman’s bride.”

Our other carrot top is Ágúst Ólafsson, who is a regular with the Icelandic Opera. He studied with the great Jorma Hynninen and Sauli Tiilikainen at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. He went on to win second prize in the international Hugo Wolf Academy Lied competition. Ólafsson, like Gerbrandt has also scored a huge success in the crossover title role of Sweeney Todd (Does anyone else think these two look like brothers?). On the opera stage Ólafsson is becoming a bit of a Mozart specialist, so we expect to see more of him on this site.

For some reason, we've had a run on redheads lately. If you're a fan, you might want to check out our recent post of Ryan de Ryke, as well, at: http://barihunks.blogspot.com/2009/02/red-headed-ryan-de-ryke.html.

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