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.

This site can be contacted at barihunks@gmail.com

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Red-Headed Ryan de Ryke

My apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days, but my internet service was down. After the Hottest Barihunk competition, I figured it's time to start looking at the barihunk bench. There are a number of major hunks emerging on the operatic scene and I want to shere them with you over the next week.

I recently received an email from someone who heard Ryan de Ryke in recital. They called him "tall, red-headed and someone you can't take your eyes off of." Well that got me googling pretty quick, so you be the judge.

De Ryke has appeared in a number of barihunks standards including Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream and our beloved Monteverdi and Mozart operas, which supply us with numerous barihunk images. He's rapidly establishing himself as an early music specialist and lieder recitalist of note, as witnessed from this beautiful clip of Schubert lieder.

De Ryke studied at the Britten-Pears Institute and his teachers have included Ian Partridge at the Royal Academy of Music and John Shirley-Quirk at the Peabody Conservatory.

This site can be contacted at barihunks@gmail.com

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