Tareq Nazmi to make Carnegie Hall debut

Tareq Nazmi

Kuwaiti born barihunk Tareq Nazmi will make his Carnegie Hall debut on October 24th performing in Mozart's Requiem in D Minor,” K. 626 and Bach’s Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243 in a 1733 revision of the original, in E-flat Major, BWV 243a, which was written ten years earlier. He'll be backed by the KlangVerwaltung Orchestra and Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern Chorus and soloists soprano Susanne Bernhard, mezzo-soprano Anke Vondung and tenor Daniel Johannsen. Tickets are available online.

He also had two role debuts this year, Zaccaria in Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco in St. Gallen in April 2017 and Basilio in Gioachino Rossini’s Barber of Seville at Berlin’s Komische Oper in July 2017.

You can hear samples of his singing on his website, including Tuba mirum from Mozart's Requiem. Click HERE.

Tareq Nazmi has been a permanent member of the Bavarian State Opera since the 2012-13 season where he's performed the Minister in Beethoven's Fidelio, Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni, the Speaker in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Colline in Puccini's La bohème, Silvano in Cavalli's La Calisto, Mitjucha in Mussogsky's Boris Godunov, First Nazarene in Richard Strauss' Salome, Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen, Truffaldin in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Obrist in Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten, and Astolfo in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia.

Don't forget to order you 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar, which is now on sale by clicking HERE. 

Malte Roesner

Gianluca Margheri to make role debut as Mozart's Figaro

Gianluca Margheri

Über-barihunk Gianluca Margheri will be making his role debut as the title character in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in St. Gallen. He opens on September 17, with additional performances on October 2, 5, 29 and November 1, 6, 8 and 25. Regular readers may recall that he created an internet sensation with his shirtless portrayal as Mozart's Don Giovanni, which we've covered extensively at Barihunks. You can listen to Margheri sing "Deh vieni alla finestra" here.

Director Nicole Claudia Weber has set the action in the mid-19th century with a society that still wears corsest, and where the erotic remains a means to an end. The opening night cast will include Nikolay Borchev as Count Almaviva, Cristina Pasaroiu as the Countess, Christina Landshamer as Susanna, Theresa Holzhauser as Cherubino and Kismara Pessatti as Marcellina. The alternate cast will feature Tomislav Lucic as Figaro. Tickets are available online. 

Hunkentenor Enea Scala (we couldn't resist!)

In between his October performances, Margheri will head to the Teatro Lirico from October 14-23 to perform Count Asdrubale in Rossini's La Pietra del Paragone. He'll be joined in the cast by hunkentenor Enea Scala as the cavalier Giocondo. You can hear Enea Scala singing Rossini here.

Opening Night at Dallas Opera (and Houston, Syracuse and in one week, Knoxville)

Luca Grassi & Elena Mosuc

The Dallas Opera is kicking of its 2011-2012 “Tragic Obsessions” season tonight with Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." The evening will include red carpet arrivals and a sumptuous post-opera black tie reception.

The big news for us is the long-awaited American operatic debut of Italian barihunk Luca Grassi. We've been pleading for someone to hire this amazing performer for years, so kudos to the Dallas Opera. He's a major talent and sure to be a hit with U.S. audiences with his raw sexual appeal and rich, lusterous baritone.

Grassi won the City of Rome competition and made his debut there as Germont in La traviata. He appeared at the reopening of the Gran teatro La Fenice in Venice as Germont in "La traviata." He has been a regular guest at the Festival della Valle d’Itria where he has sung the title roles in Massenet’s "Werther" (Baritone version) and Piccini’s "Roland" as well as Saint-Bris in "Les Huguenots." Upcoming engagements include Renato in "Un ballo in maschera"; Ezio in "Attila" in St. Gallen, "La traviata" in Leipzig, Florence and Montreal; and "Carmen" in Las Palmas.



Ticket for the remaining performances are available at the Dallas Opera website. For those who can't get tickets, the Dallas Opera in partnership with AT&T Performing Arts Center will present a free, live simulcast of the evening’s performance in Sammons Park. The simulcast will include English language subtitles.

You can read an interview with Luca Grassi at the Theater Jones website.  

Opening Night Hunks: Nathan Gunn, Mark Womack & Jonathan Boehr

It's also opening night at the Houston Grand Opera and the Syracuse Opera. Houston is performing Rossini's "Barber of Seville" with fan favorite Nathan Gunn as the Barber and Kyle Ketelsen as Don Basilio. We should also mention that the Houston Culture Map wrote a nice piece on Nathan Gunn that included a lovely mention of Barihunks (although we don't think of ourselves as a bit"hilarious")

We've already reported on Jonathan Boehr being part of the Syracuse Opera's performance of Verdi's "La traviata," but it's certainly worth a reminder.

We should also mention the Knoxville Opera opening night festivities begin in one week with a "La traviata" that included Mark Womack.

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