Brandon Cedel in Verdi rarity Il corsaro in Franfurt

Brandon Cedel

Brandon Cedel will sing the bass role of Giovanni in Oper Frankfurt's concert performances of Verdi's Il corsaro. He'll be joined by an all-star cast that includes Dorothea Röschmann as Medora, Željko Lučić as Seid and Mario Chang as Corrado.

The performance is part of the company's series of early and middle period operas by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto is based on Lord Byron's 1814 poem The Corsair, which many believe was based on the life of the 19th century French pirate Jean Lafitte. The composer expressed interest in Byron's poem The Corsair as early as 1844 when he was planning an opera for Venice, but a suitable baritone was not available. Therefore, he completed I masnadieri for London before completing Il corsaro, which premiered in Trieste on October 25, 1848. With the exception of two other productions, the opera all but vanished from the repertory after just three performances in Trieste. It didn't appear in the U.K. until 1966 and in the U.S. until 1981. The San Diego Opera produced it in 1982 with a cast that included June Anderson, Rosalind Plowright, Alfonso Navarrete and J. Patrick Raftery.

Thomas Hampson sings "Alfin questo corsaro...Cento leggiadre vergini" from Il corsaro:

The opera is about a noble pirate who battles the Muslims, is loved by a harem maid but in turn loves another, and who finally kills himself after his true love poisons herself when she thinks he is dead.

Performances are on November 7th and 9th and tickets and additional information is available online. Cedel is currently performing Angelotti in Puccini Tosca and the Messenger in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex with Oper Frankfurt.

Evan Hughes to make San Diego Opera debut

Evan Hughes

American Bass-barihunk Evan Hughes whose photos as Somnus in the Komische Oper of Handel's Semele were quite popular with our readers, will be making his San Diego Opera debut on October 20. Hughes will be replacing Nicholas Brownlee as Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

The cast will include fellow barihunk John Moore as the Count, Caitlin Lynch as the Countess, Sarah Shafer as Susanna, Emily Fons as Cherubino and the legendary mezzo-soprano Sussanne Mentzer as Marcellina. Additional performances are on October 23, 26 and 28 and tickets are available online.

The Southern California native will also be making debuts this season with Opera Philadelphia as Theseus in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Bolshoi Theater as Astolfo in Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso and at the Aldeburgh Festival. 

Paul La Rosa in tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires

Paul La Rosa rehearsing Maria de Buenos Aires in San Diego (Photo: Angel Mannion)

Barihunk Paul La Rosa will taking on the role of El Payador (the gaucho minstrel) in Astor Piazzolla's tango infused opera Maria de Buenos Aires. The San Diego Opera is presenting four performances of the increasingly popular piece between January 26-28, with a 7 PM and 10 PM curtain on the 27th. Tickets are available online.

The opera will be directed by John de los Santos, who has directed the piece throughout the country, and will direct it again with barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco at the Fort Worth Opera Festival from April 27 and May 5. Paul La Rosa's tango partner will be soprano Aubrey Babcock.

The opera opens with Duende (the Narrator) who relates the story of Maria, a prostitute born in the slums “one day when God was drunk … with a curse in her voice.” Maria is seduced by the rhythms of the tango and soon becomes “the most sorcerous singer and lover” in Buenos Aires. However, her “fatal passion” arouses the wrath of robbers and brothel madams who shoot her to death, and bury her in an unmarked grave. In death, Maria is pulled into a dreamlike Hell where she encounters the choral circus of psychoanalysts who dissect her to the core. She makes a resurrection of sorts when the Duende summons her to return as a Shadow, give birth to a new Maria, and haunt the sordid streets of Buenos Aires which she once walked.

Director John de los Santos talks about Maria de Buenos Aires:

Unlike most who contributed to the origins and development of the tango, Piazzolla came from a different background. He was a classically trained, refined musician and composer. Piazzolla undoubtedly made tango available to a wider audience and helped extend its boundaries, both stylistically and geographically. For that, he was equally admired and criticized, but it is almost universally recognized that Piazzolla’s style lent tango worldwide cultural legitimacy, even in what is known as the realm of “classical” music.

Besides being an extraordinarily talented composer, he was also an exceptional bandoneon player. Piazzolla drew from classical and contemporary sources as well as from the deep roots of tango, creating a powerful synthesis that propelled it from being in some regards a thing of the past to a contemporary language, reinvigorating the style.

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco makes his Nashville debut

Luis Alejandro Orozco

Barihunk Luis Alejandro Orozco, who has made El Payador in Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires his signature role, will return to the role for what he estimates to be the fifteenth time. The Mexican-American barihunk will make his company debut with the role at the Nashville Opera from November 10-12.

Despite its reputation as the Capital of Country Music, it appears that this night of Argentinian opera and dance is the hottest ticket in town, as all three performances are sold out. However, there is a wait list that you can get on.

The production will be directed by John Hoomes and will feature Argentine dancers Mariela Barufaldi and Jeremías Massera (founders of Miami's Tango Axis Argentine Tango School) along with bandoneón player Rodolfo Zanetti and soprano Cassandra Zoe Velasco as Maria.

The opera has become popular in Germany, where is has been performed in apparently every city that starts with the letter "B": Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Biel and Bremen. The opera can next be seen at the San Diego Opera with barihunk Paul La Rosa as El Payador from January 26-28 and then at the Fort Worth Opera Festival on April 27 and May 5 (performers have not been announced, but we've learned that it will be Luis Alejandro Orozco). Both productions are directed by John de los Santos.

Malte Roesner, 2018 Barihunks Calendar/Photo Book

Our 2018 Barihunks Calendar, which includes 20 of opera's sexiest men is now available for purchase HERE. In response to reader demand, we've also added a Barihunks Photo Book this year, which includes additional photos that don't appear in the calendar. You can purchase that HERE. The New Year is approaching faster than you think!

Barihunk duo in mariachi opera

Ricardo Rivera as Acalán

The Lyric Opera of Chicago just wrapped up a run of Jose “Pepe” Martinez’s mariachi opera El Pasado Nunca Se Termina/The Past Is Never Finished, which included the barihunk duo of Paul La Rosa as Enrique and Ricardo Rivera as Acalán.

The opera will now travel to the revamped San Diego Opera on April 25 for a day/night doubleheader and then head to the Houston Grand Opera for performances on May 13, 16, and 17 at the Wortham Theater Center.  The duo will be joined by the internationally renowned ensemble Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, soprano Abigail Santos Villalobos and the gifted young tenor Daniel Montenegro.  

Paul La Rosa as Enrique

El Pasado is the second mariachi opera from the creative team of José "Pepe" Martínez and Leonard Foglia, who collaborated to create the international hit Cruzar la Cara de la Luna/To Cross the Face of the Moon.

The story takes place in Morelos, Mexico in 1910, where the son of a wealthy European landowner falls in love with a humble Mexican servant girl living on his family's hacienda. The story begins on the eve of the Mexican Revolution and blazes a riveting path through forbidden passion, the fight for freedom, and political destiny all the way to the modern-day United States.

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. 

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo performs Verdi's Requiem on PBS

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and the Hollywood Bowl

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s performance of Verdi's Requiem from last summer, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth will be broadcast on PBS's Great Performances, Friday, August 1 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

The performance features Italian barihunk Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, a favorite of Los Angeles audiences, where he has performed in Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Don Giovanni. He'll be joined by soprano Julianna Di Giacomo, mezzo Michelle DeYoung and hunkentenor Vittorio Grigolo, as well as the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the L.A. Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.

D'Arcangelo is currently at the Salzburg Festival performing the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni, which he will then perform in Oslo. He returns to the United States in the same role in February 2015 at the newly revived and reorganized San Diego Opera.

San Diego Opera Saved; Barihunks in all 3 Operas

Alex Esposito is bringing his definitive Leporello to San Diego

Never underestimate the power of social media or the devotion of hard core opera lovers. On March 19, the San Diego Opera stunned the world when it voted to close the company at the end of the 2014 season. Social media exploded with employees, performers and orchestra members leading the charge. Questions were raised about the management of the company and the motives for closing.

Yesterday, Board President Carol Lazier, surrounded by fellow board members, opera staff, choristers and union members announced that the 2015 season will proceed after they raised over $2 million in crowd-funding campaigns. Lazier donated an additional $1 million to attain a goad requested by the Board to proceed with the new season.

Morgan Smith and Franco Pomponi

That season will include barihunks in each of their productions, which had already been planned under the old regime.  One opera was dropped due to the cost to produce it, which was Wagner’s Tannhäuser. The singers who were scheduled to perform in the opera have been invited to sing in one of two gala concerts, a recital, or come back and sing for the opera in a future season.

The scheduled operas include Puccini's La bohème with Morgan Smith as Marcello,  Mozart's Don Giovanni with  Ildebrando D’Arcangelo in the title role and Alex Esposito as Leporello, and the San Diego premiere of John Adams’ Nixon in China with Franco Pomponi.

You can still donate to the San Diego Opera fundraising campaign online or purchase tickets for the new season.

Men in Tights: David Adam Moore & Co.

The San Diego Opera has been promoting their current production of Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet" by touting the real life married couple of Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez. They are both young, attractive and extremely talented, but we think the big draw is barihunk David Adam Moore and his fellow crew of men in tights. There is still a matinee performance this Sunday. For more information visit the San Diego Opera's website.

[David Adam Moore and tenor Stephen Costello]


Moore is one of our favorite barihunks in the world today and he often appears on stage shirtless in pieces like Billy Budd, Angels in America and Soldier Stories. We received two emails bemoaning the fact that Moore doesn't remove his shirt in R&J, but that he's still the hottest man on the stage. So in order not to disappoint, here is one of Moore's sexier shots, which also happens to be the homepage of his recently redesigned website.



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