David Adam Moore to make Salzburg debut in new Adès opera

David Adam Moore

On July 28th, barihunk David Adam Moore will be making his Salzburger Festpiele debut in the world premiere of Adès’ The Exterminating Angel.  He will be creating the role of Colonel Alvaro and will be joined by fellow barihunk Rafael Fingerlos as Enrique and hunkentenor Ed Lyon as Eduardo. The remainder of the all-star cast includes Alice Coote, Frederic Antoun, Amanda Echalaz and Audrey Luna, Charles Workman, Frédéric Antoun, Sir Thomas Allen, John Tomlinson and Anne Sofie von Otter.  

The opera, which is a co-commission between the Met, the Salzburg Festival and the Royal Opera,  features a libretto by Tom Cairns who based the work on the 1962 Luis Buñuel film of the same name. The co-commission was originally announced in 2011, but was delayed for unspecified reasons. After Salzburg, it will be performed at London's Royal Opera from April 24-May 8, 2017, New York's Metropolitan Opera in the Fall of 2017 and eventually at the Den Kongelige Opera in Copenhagen.

Rafael Fingerlos

Adès was inspired by Luis Buñuel’s surrealist film El ángel exterminador, which deals with the social rituals of an elite upper class, stating, “It’s territory that I like very much because it looks as though the people are in a room, but it’s not really about the room, they’re actually trapped in their own heads.“  

Performances will run from July 28 through August 8th and tickets are available online.

Reader Submission: Austrian Barihunk Rafael Fingerlos

Rafael Fingerlos

An eagle-eyed reader introduced us to barihunk Rafael Fingerlos, who he noticed was singing the world premiere of Thomas Adès' The Exterminating Angel at the Salzburg Festival this summer with fellow barihunk David Adam Moore, hunkentenor deluxe Ed Lyon and  the legendary baritone Sir Thomas Allen. The all-star cast also includes Anne Sofie von Otter, Sally Matthews, Charles Workman, Iestyn Davies, Eric Halvarson and Audrey Luna with performances running from July 28-August 8.  

The Exterminating Angel is inspired by the 1962 film El ángel exterminador by the famed surrealist Luis Buñuel. The Salzburg performances will be followed by productions at The Royal Opera in London and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 2017. Buñuel’s film, a parable on the ‘bourgeois condition’, sees a collection of society’s grandees trapped in a room; in no time at all their veneer of sophistication cracks.

Barihunk David Adam Moore and Hunkentenor Ed Lyon are both appearing in Salzburg

Fingerlos hails from Mariapfarr in the Salzburg region of Austria, so music is in his blood. In 2013, he graduated with honors from his master’s program in solo vocal performance at the private Conservatory of Vienna and won the “Musica Juventutis” auditions at the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna.

He also won the  Brahms singing competition and received first prize as well as the public’s choice prize at the International Franz Schubert Lied Competition held in Steyr. As a participant in the Young Singers Project at the 2015 Salzburg Festival, Rafael sang the part of Figaro in Der Barbier von Sevilla für Kinder. 

 Rafael Fingerlos sings Brahms' "Wie rafft' ich mich auf":  

This Fall, he will alternate the title role in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Vienna State Opera with fellow barihunk Alessio Arduini. His Rosina will be Isabel Leonard and Almaviva will be sung by hunkentenor Pavel Kolgatin. 

He has released a solo CD of romantic German Lieder and one of Bach’s cantatas.

David Adam Moore to make Salzburg Festival debut

David Adam Moore (far left in Dead Man Walking at DMMO) and Barihunk Calendar photos (center, right)

Barihunk David Adam Moore will be making his Salzburger Festpiele debut in the 2015-16 season. He will be creating the role of Colonel Alvaro in the world premiere of Adès’ The Exterminating Angel in a production by Tom Cairns.

The opera, which is a co-commission between the Met, the Salzburg Festival and the Royal Opera,  features a libretto by Tom Cairns who based the work on the 1962 Luis Bunuel film of the same name. The co-commission was originally announced in 2011, but was delayed for unspecified reasons. After Salzburg, it will be performed at London's Royal Opera in the Spring of 2017 and at New York's Metropolitan Opera in the Fall of 2017.

Hunkentenor Ed Lyon

Word has it that Moore will alternate the role with fellow barihunk Simon Keenlyside, who has been sidelined with an illness since withdrawing from Rigoletto in Vienna in December 2014. The remainder of the cast is rumored to include hunkentenor Ed Lyon, Alice Coote, Frederic Antoun, Amanda Echalaz and Audrey Luna. 

 Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel will be premiered in Salzburg next year, ahead of performances at the Royal Opera House, London and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.  

Bo Skovhus in sexy livestream of Berg's Lulu

Bo Skovus and Marlis Petersen

The ageless barihunk Bo Skovhus takes on Jack the Ripper opposite the sexy Lulu of Marlis Petersen in Alban Berg's provocative opera at the Bavarian State Opera. The production by Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov features lots of beautiful bodies in various states of undress throughout the production.

Fortunately, the opera will be available in the company's third season of performances available on their free live streams at STAATSOPER.TV. The live stream can be watched on June 6th at 6.00 PM CET/1 PM EST/10 AM PST. The cast also includes Daniela Sindram as Countess Geschwitz, Matthias Klink as Alwa and Rainer Trost as the painter.

Rainer Trost and the Lulu ensemble

The Bavarian State Opera's live streams will continue on July 4th at 7 PM CET with barihunk Elliot Madore as Pelleas and soprano Elena Tsallagova as Melisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.

Bo Skovhus next heads to the Salzburg Festival where he will sing Cortez in Wolfgang Rihm's Die Eroberung von Mexico (The Conquest of Mexico) opposite Angela Denoke. The production runs from July 26-August 10.

Christopher Maltman's shows some skin in Salzburg

Christopher Maltman in Iphigénie en Tauride

We recently posted about the two runs of the Whitsun Festival at Salzburg's highly successful production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride.  The opening night performance on May 22 already has opera aficionados across the globe talking about the production, which included an all-star cast led by Christopher Maltman as Oreste,  Cecilia Bartoli as Iphigénie, Michael Kraus as Thoas andTopi Lehtipu sings Pylade.

Iphigénie en Tauride

Beyond the great singing, much of the buzz has centered around an extremely fit Christopher Maltman's nude scene, which proves that a man can be as sexy at 45 than at 25. Maltman is no stranger to nudity, having bared all in the movie Juan, as well in the 2010 Salzburg production on Don Giovanni.

The  Festival has already announced additional performances from August 19-28 to supplement the one remaining show on May 25. Fair warning if you plan on attending, order your seats now because tickets are scarce.

Visit the Salzburg Festival website for additional information.

Christopher Maltman in Iphigénie en Tauride

With Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck took the final step in his mission of operatic reform, radically distancing himself from both the formulaic opera seria, with its rigid sequence of numbers, and traditional French opera, creating a psychologically sound musical drama with self-contained scenes and integrated arias.

Christopher Maltman and Topi Lehtipu in Iphigénie en Tauride

Gluck had long since given the chorus an active role, and in this work, the ballet scenes that were obligatory in Paris are no longer harmless, non-committal amusements, but organically integrated in the action. Gluck stated that opera “...should speak the language of the heart, credibly portray great human passions, and serve poetry.”

Christopher Maltman in the movie Juan and Don Giovanni in Salzburg

You can next catch Maltman at the Royal Opera in London as the title character in Don Giovanni with fellow barihunks Alex Esposito as Leporello and Nahuel Di Pierro as Masetto. He'll also be reunited with his fellow cast member from Iphigénie, Rolando Villazón, who is singing Don Ottavio.

Photos from the osterfestspiele, Monika Rittershaus and Salzburg

Artur Ruciński replaces Domingo again

Artur Ruciński backstage as di Luna in Venice and at the Rosenblatt Recitals

Artur Ruciński may want to just follow tenor turned "baritone" Placido Domingo around, as he's slated to replace him for the second time in less than a year. After replacing him this summer at the Salzburg Festival, he's now jumping in for him as the Count di Luna in Berlin. 

Domingo's foray into the baritone range has been met with a mixed critical reaction and has caused many in the music industry to question whether this change of fach should continue.

Artur Ruciński sings of Mieczysław Karłowicz songs:

Ruciński is a formidable baritone talent in his own right. He made his debut at the National Opera in Warsaw in 2002 and was launched to stardom in 2010 when he sang Eugene Onegin in Berlin with  Daniel Barenboim.

In 2013, he made his Covent Garden debut as Germont in Verdi’s La traviata, a role he's currently performing in Berlin. Upcoming roles include Ashton in Lucia in Hamburg and Zurich, Don Giovanni in Paris and his Metropolitan Opera debut as Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 2016.

The singer with the most roles in the history of opera has dropped one from his baritone register. Placido Domingo has pulled out of Il Trovatore in Berlin, La Scala and this summer’s Salzburg Festival, saying he can’t manage Count Luna again.
Salzburg has replaced him with Artur Ruciński, who stood in for Domingo last summer.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2015/03/domingo-drops-a-role/#sthash.Q4pJ0SZk.dpuf

The singer with the most roles in the history of opera has dropped one from his baritone register. Placido Domingo has pulled out of Il Trovatore in Berlin, La Scala and this summer’s Salzburg Festival, saying he can’t manage Count Luna again.
Salzburg has replaced him with Artur Ruciński, who stood in for Domingo last summer.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2015/03/domingo-drops-a-role/#sthash.Q4pJ0SZk.dpuf

The singer with the most roles in the history of opera has dropped one from his baritone register. Placido Domingo has pulled out of Il Trovatore in Berlin, La Scala and this summer’s Salzburg Festival, saying he can’t manage Count Luna again.
Salzburg has replaced him with Artur Ruciński, who stood in for Domingo last summer.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2015/03/domingo-drops-a-role/#sthash.Q4pJ0SZk.dpuf

Günther Groissböck virile and youthful Ochs in Salzburg Rosenkavalier

Günther Groissböck and Sophie Koch
(© Salzburger Festspiele / Monika Rittershaus)

The Salzburg Festival just opened Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier with an all-star cast that includes barihunk Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau. A trio of superstar women join him in the opulent production, as Krassimira Stoyanova sings the Feldmarschallin, Sophie Koch plays Octavian and Mojca Erdmann sings Sophie. For the first time in the history of the Salzburg Festival, Der Rosenkavalier will be performed without any cuts with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst.

The production, which is set in pre-1914 Vienna, was staged by the formidable team of director Harry Kupfer and his designers, Hans Schavernoch and Yan Tax.

Groissböck was singled out in early reviews for portraying a virile and more energetic Ochs than is traditionally seen. The character is often portrayed as a happy and somewhat buffoonish oaf. He's certainly the sexiest Baron Ochs that we've ever seen.

Günther Groissböck, Sophie Koch & Krassimira Stoyanova
(© Salzburger Festspiele / Monika Rittershaus)

Performances of Der Rosenkavalier continue from August 5th through the 23rd.

If you can't make it to Salzburg, the opera will be recorded by ORF in cooperation with UNITEL, NHK and Bayerischen Rundfunk and broadcast on August 18th at 10:20 PM on ORF2 and on Bayerischen Rundfunk on August 21st at 10:45 PM.

Barihunk Trio in Salzburg Don Giovanni

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and Luca Pisaroni

The Salzburg Festival has assembled three of the most popular barihunks for their production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo is singing the title role, Luca Pisaroni is his sidekick Leporello and Alessio Arduini is Masetto. Fans of a pulchritudinous men will be pleased to know that Don Giovanni and Masetto both show off their upper torsos liberally in Sven-Eric Bechtolf's production. 

There are six performances remaining between July 30 and August 18, but two of the shows are already completely sold out. If you plan on attending, go to the Festival website and order your tickets today.

If you can't make a live performance, the production is being recorded by ServusTV in cooperation with UNITEL CLASSICA and will be broadcast as live on Sunday, August 3 at 7:30 PM. If you live in Europe, you can download the ServusTV app to your iPad.

If you're in the United States, you can catch Alessio Arduini at the Metropolitan Opera in Puccini's La bohème as Schaunard this November with Kristine Opolais as Mimi. Luca Pisaroni's next U.S. performance in a complete opera is also at the Met in their Don Giovanni, which runs in February and March 2015. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's next U.S. stage appearance is also in Don Giovanni, but on the other coast, when he sings the title role at the revived San Diego Opera. 

Barihunk Festival at Salzburg Festival

Add Günther Groissböck and Alessio Arduini

The 2014 Salzburg Festival will run from July 18-August and will feature barihunks in almost all of their productions, including many of the biggest names in opera.

The Festival will be paying tribute to Richard Strauss' 150th  birthday by performing Der Rosenkavalier. The opera will feature barihunk Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs in his role debut (which he will reprise at the Met). The cast also includes Krassimira Stoyanova as the Marschallin and Sophie Koch as Octavian.

The Festival will continue their Mozart/da Ponte cycle introduced in 2013 with a new production of Don Giovanni directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf. The cast includes a trio of barihunks led by Ildebrando d'Arcangelo in the title role, Luca Pisaroni as his sidekick Leporello and the dashing Italian baritone Alessio Arduini as Masetto.

René Pape will be featured in a concert performance of music from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde featuring the prelude, Act 2 and Isolde’s transfiguration featuring Waltraud Meier.

Austrian barihunk Markus Werba will sing Roland opposite the Florinda of Dorothea Röschmann in Schubert's rarely performed Fierabras. The libretto combines two episodes from the cycle of legends associated with the Frankish leader Charlemagne and is set against the background of the skirmishes between Christians and Muslims.

Jean-Sébastien Bou and Markus Werba

Baroque specialist Jean-Sébastien Bou will star in the premiere of librettist Barbara Honigmann and composer Marc-André Dalbavie's Charlotte Salomon, which is dedicated to Gerard Mortier. Directed by Luc Bondy, Charlotte Salomon is based on the work of a Jewish artist who died at age 26 in the gas chamber at Auschwitz. Saloman fled to southern France following the Kristallnacht pogrom in Berlin where she joined her grandparents. Her grandmother threw herself to her death from an upstairs window, which was the same way that her mother had died when the girl was nine.

Other productions include Anna Netrebko as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore, which includes Plácido Domingo in the baritone role of the Count di Luna, Rossini's La Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli and a children's performance of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail featuring Salzburg young artists.

All in all, the Festival will feature over 250 performances including opera, theater and concerts. Tickets and additional performance information is available online.

Barihunks in free broadcast of William Tell

Goran Jurić (left) and Günther Groissböck (right)

The Bavarian State Opera continues its popular free live streaming of opera this Saturday, June 28th at 6 PM CET/Noon EST/9 AM PST with their new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell (William Tell). The broadcast will be available at STAATSOPER.TV.

The broadcast features two barihunks,  Günther Groissböck as the villain Gesler and Goran Jurić as Walter Furst. Groissböck has been extremely popular on our site, especially the pictures of him in the "Brokeback Onegin," as it's been dubbed by opera bloggers. He can next be seen at the Salzburg Festival as Baron Ochs in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier under the baton of Zubin Mehta.

31-year-old Croatian bass-barihunk Goran Jurić has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera ensemble since the 2011-12 season. At the Bavarian State Opera he has performed Colline in Puccini's La bohème, Don Fernando in Beethoven's Fidelio, Biterolf in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Il Re in Verdi's Aida, Capellio in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Banco in Verdi's Macbeth, Il Frate in Verdi's Don Carlos and Timur in Puccini's Turandot. He also performs regularly with the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

Werba makes Florence recital debut; Takes on Wagner in Salzburg

Markus Werba

If you're anywhere near Florence, Italy you may want to check out Markus Werba's recital debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on May 30th, accompanied on piano by Claudio Marino Moretti. He'll be performing lieder by Robert Schumann, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Tickets are only € 15 and are available online. 

Markus Werba sings Mahler's "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht":

We've primarily featured Werba in his acclaimed Mozart roles, but he'll be moving into the music of Richard Wagner this summer. He'll be singing Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Salzburg Festival opening on August 2nd with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Ildar Abdrazakov LIVE from the Salzburg Festival

Ildar Abdrazakov

We just watched the Met's HD broadcast of Donizetti's "Anna Bolena" for the third time, and with all due respect to the all-star cast that includes Anna Netrebko and Stephen Costello, we think Ildar Abdrazakov is the vocal star of the show. He's also increasingly showing up as one of most searched for singers, which is always a sign of a growing legion of fans.

You can hear him live on Wednesday, August 15th at 11 AM (5 AM EST/2 AM PST) in a broadcast of Hector Berlioz's Grande Messe solennelle from the Salzburg Festival in Austria. The performance is with the Vienna Philharmonic under Riccardo Muti with tenor Saimir Pirgu and soprano Julia Kleiter. The broadcast will be in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound on Austria's public radio station Radio Österreich 1.

The program also includes Liszt's Les Préludes and Von der Wiege bis zu Grabe.

You can next see Ildar Abdrazakov on stage at the Washington National Opera from September 20-October 13 in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Visit their website for additional cast and performance information.