Justin Hopkins making Opera Vlaanderen debut as Lord Krishna

Justin Hopkins (Photo @Ellen Appel) and Satygraha (photo @Koen Broos)

American bass-barihunk Justin Hopkins is at Opera Vlaanderen this month, where he'll make his company debut singing Lord Krishna and Parsi Rustomji in Philip Glass' Satygraha in an all-star cast headed by the fearless tenor Peter Tantsits, the lush voiced mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, Rihab Chaieb, Denzil Delaere, Tineke Van Ingelgem and barihunk Robin Adams as Mr. Kellenbach. 

Satyagraha (Sanskrit for “truth force”) is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s early years in South Africa, where he developed his groundbreaking ideas about nonviolent political resistance. Loosely based on the life of Gandhi, it forms the second part of Glass's "Portrait Trilogy" of operas about men who changed the world, which includes Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten. 

The text is taken from the Bhagavad Gita and is sung in the original Sanskrit

Performances run from November 18-December 2. Tickets and additional information is available online.

Sexy photos of Davide Luciano's wildly popular Barber; Reprising role throughout Europe

Davide Luciano as Figaro (Photo: ©Studio Amati Bacciardi)

Davide Luciano's shirtless Figaro in The Rossini Opera Festival's "The Barber of Seville" pretty much stole the show for every reason imaginable. During his crowd-pleasing "Largo al factotum" he not only hit all the right comic and musical notes, but strutted around wearing only a pair of tight black pants. The crowd at the August 22nd closing performance at Pesaro's Adriatic Arena showered their approval with a nine minute round of wild applause at the curtain call. Later in the show he accompanied the Count Almaviva's "Se il mio nome" on guitar.

Davide Luciano as Figaro (Image: Pesaro Rossini Festival)

Since word spread pretty quickly in operatic circles about Davide Luciano's performance, we figured that we'd share a few images from the production.

Davide Luciano as Figaro (Image: Pesaro Rossini Festival)

Davide Luciano as Figaro (Image: Pesaro Rossini Festival)

If you missed Luciano's performance of the Barber, you'll have a number of chances to catch him in the next year. He'll sing it at the at the Dutch National Opera opening on November 10, then at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on December 30 and January 2,  and finally at the Semperoper Dresden opening March 9, 2019. 

Zachary Altman shirtless again in Basel

Zachary Altman in The Rape of Lucretia in Basel

We're beginning to wonder whether the costume department should only be paid half of the wages when working with Zachary Altman, as no one seems to have make him a shirt or jacket (which we're certainly OK with!). We've recently posted about him shirtless as Don Giovanni in San Jose and shirtless in Daphne in Basel.

Director Ulrike Jühe decided to keep the trend going in Basel, as she has Altman shirtless as Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. Of course, considering the subject matter, having a shirtless Tarquinius makes directorial sense. We've featured countless shirtless barihunks as Tarquinius, including Duncan Rock, David Krohn, Christopher Maltman, Matthew Worth, David Krohn, Grzegorz Pazik, Nathan Gunn, Scott Beasley, Philip Cutlip, Michael Krzankowski  and Phillip Addis.

Zachary Altman shirtless in Don Giovanni and Daphne

The opera opened last night with Basel's studio artists and runs through April 25th. The cast also includes Jose Coca Loza as Collatinus, Jason Cox as Junius, Aidan Ferguson as Lucretia, Maria Carla Pino Cury as Lucia, Kang Wang as the Male Chorus and Meike Hartman as the Female Chorus. Tickets and additional information is available online.

Introducing Canadian Barihunk Bevan Bühler

Bevan Bühler onstage and off

Who says that we don't make dreams come true at Barihunks? Canadian barihunk Bevan Bühler posted the following on Twitter: "My life goal is to be listed on barihunks." We get a lot of requests for singers to appear on the site, but this one seemed like a no-brainer. In 2012, he one of eight finalists in the Discovered international model search, which raised funds for the Children's Wish Foundation.

After completing his Associate Degree in piano performance, Bühler began his journey as a singer when he was given the opportunity to play Rolf in Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in his hometown of Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Since then, Bühler has performed various solo and chamber recitals and has been featured at the Edmonton Vocal Arts Festival and the Saskatoon Music Festival.  Bühler has also joined the casts of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Handel's Alcina with Opera Nuova and has performedin Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Purcell's King Arthur with Saskatoon Opera.

Bühler began his 2014-15 season by singing Ramiro in Maurice Ravel's comedic opera, L'heure Espagnole, presented by University of Western Ontario Opera (UWOpera). Under the direction of Michael Cavanagh, Bühler's character effortlessly was required to lift and carry large clocks on and off stage. To no one's surprise, he got the girl in the end.

Future engagements include the role of the villain, Caiaphas, in Jesus Christ Superstar with Musical Theatre Productions London, as well as performing as a featured soloist with the University of Western Ontario Opera's cast at the University's Opera Gala this spring.

Off stage, Bühler spends his free time outdoors - including replanting forests in British Columbia during the summer - or in the weight room where he is a certified personal trainer.

Singer! Model! Personal Trainer! Socially conscious good-guy! Welcome to the barihunks family!

Craig Verm: Mr March

If you want to enjoy 19 more of the sexiest men in opera, make sure to order your 2015 Barihunks Charity Calendar today by clicking below. 

John Chest to debut as Billy Budd in Berlin

John Chest as Billy Budd

Anyone who has ever seen or heard barihunk John Chest, with his golden locks and golden voice, immediately thinks of him as the perfect Billy Budd. Fortunately, conductor Donald Runnicles had a chance to hear and see Chest while they were both in San Francisco. The two are being reunited at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for five performances of Benjamin Britten's masterpiece running from May 22th-June 6th. Tickets are available online.

John Chest is a recent graduate of the Opera Studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper, where he sang over eighty performances including Fiorello in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Schaunard in Puccini's La Bohème with Anja Harteros, Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Lovec in Dvorak's Rusalka, Petrucci in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia with Edita Gruberova, Bizet's Carmen with Jonas Kaufmann.

Chest is now part of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he has sung Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Il Conte Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Albert in Massenet's Werther.  In November, he'll return to the U.S. to perform Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème at the Washington National Opera with fellow barihunks Joshua Bloom as Colline and Steven LaBrie as Schaunard. 

Reader Submission: Leonard Bernad

Leonard Bernad in Mirandolina and at the Neue Stimme competition

A reader sported Romanian bass-barihunk Leonard Bernad in his scivvies in the cast of Bohuslav Martinů's Mirandolina with the Bavarian Opera Studio. Bernad joined the Opera Studio last year after a stint with the Cologne Opera Studio where he performed Chirurgo in Verdi's La Forza del Destino, Second Prisoner in Beethoven's Fidelio, Wilhelm Grimm in Wolf-Ferarri’s Aschenputtel, and the Second Senator in Franz Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten.

During his time in Munich, he'll be performing the Usher in Verdi's Rigoletto, Guardian of the City in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, the Customs Officer in Puccini's La bohème, Floras assistant in Verdi's La traviata, Hauptmann in Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin, Yakusidé in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Cappadocier in Strauss' Salome and Ambrogio in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.


Bernad studied at the National University of Music in Bucharest with the great Romanian soprano Maria Slatinaru. After graduating, Bernad made his debut at the National Opera of Bucharest playing Canciano in Wolf-Ferrari’s I quattro rusteghi.

Leonard Bernad in 2010 singing Fiesco's aria:

In 2011, he competed in the prestigious Neue Stimme competition, sang in the tribute honoring the 100th birthday of Gian Carlo Menotti and performed at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia under the musical direction of Plácido Domingo.

In 2012, he appeared alongside Edita Gruberova in Bellini’s La straniera at the Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich and at the Vienna Musikverein in celebration of her 45th anniversary on the opera stage. He also also performed the role of Bartolo in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro in Valencia, under the stage direction of the great bass Ruggero Raimondi.

There are two performances of Martinů's Mirandolina remaining on April 30th and May 11. He also will be  appearing in La bohème from May 4-10.

Shirtless video of Dominik Köninger singing and dancing in Orpheus

Dominik Köninger

We've been huge fans of German barihunk Dominik Köninger ever since he wowed the judges at the 2011 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. We always knew that he could sing, but now with this new video of him as Orpheus in Komische Oper's controversial Monterverdi Trilogy, we've learned he can dance, too! Check him out singing and dancing in Act 2 and then giving a tour de force shirtless performance in Act 5.

Dominik Köninger

The production is by Barrie Kosky, who took the world by storm with his innovative production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Komische Oper, which was recently performed at the Los Angeles Opera and is now headed to the Minnesota Opera. There has seldom been a production where a singer was asked to sing, dance and perform this much and Köninger pulls it off brilliantly. It's evident from these videos why in the last few years he's become one of the most talked about and heralded young singers in the business.

Köninger starred in the marathon musical interpretation of Monteverdi's trilogy by the Uzbek composer Elena Kats-Chernin which was performed in a single day, running from 11a.m. until 11p.m. The trilogy included Orpheus, Odysseus and Poppea and feautured 200 artists on stage. The production definitely wasn't for purists as Kat-Chermin integrated jazz, klezmer, tango, and ragtime into the score.

Dominik Köninger sings a riveting rendition of "Machtvolle Gottheit" from Orpheus:

Köninger can currently be seen at the Komische Opera as Pantalone in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, which runs through February 19th. He then returns to his popular potrayal of Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, which he's alternating with Tom Erik Lie through May 4.