Barihunk duo in DNO's "bare" Tannhäuser

Tannhauser at the Dutch National Opera

The barihunk duo of  Björn Bürger as Wolfram and Kay Stieferman as Biterolf are part of director Christof Loy’s first Wagner opera presentation for the Dutch National Opera, an updated Tannhäuser.

The production features some male nudity, but since this is Amsterdam, there weren't the howls of protest that might have greeted the opera in other cities. Since story is about the knight Tannhäuser, who is torn between carnal thoughts of Venus and the socially acceptable love for Elisabeth, Loy added scenes in a men's club and included orgies.

The remaining cast includes Ekaterina Gubanova as the alluring Venus, Stephen Milling  as Landgrave Hermann, Svetlana Aksenova as Elisabeth and Daniel Kirch in the title role.

 Björn Bürger as Wolfram w/ Daniel Kirch as Tannhäuser and Svetlana Aksenova as Elisabeth (Photo © Monika Rittershaus) & Kay Stieferman (Photo © Jörn Kipping)

Performance continue on April 14, 18, 21, 24 & 28, and May 1st. Tickets are available online.

British audiences can enjoy Björn Bürger this summer when he takes on Papageno at the Glyndebourne Festival. Kay Stieferman has a full calendar of Wagner ahead of him, including Ein Steuerman in Tristan und Isolde at the Bayreuther Festspiele, Alberich in Oper Leipzig's Ring Cycle and Klingsor in the company's Parsifal.

Christian Pursell wins Partners for the Arts Vocal Competition

Christian Pursell at the Partners for the Vocal Arts Vocal Competition

American barihunk Christian Pursell won the 6th Annual Partners for the Arts Vocal Competition today in Alexandria, Virginia. Second Place went to tenor Brandon Scott Russell and Third Place to soprano Robin Steitz.

The 2016 Metropolitan Opera semi-finalist performed "Aprite un po queli' occhi" from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and "O du mein holder abendstern" from Wagner's Tannhauser. 

Pursell is a first year Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera. This season he'll be performing a number of roles with the company, including Walter Raleigh in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, the Jailer in Puccini's Tosca, Count Lamoral in Richard Strauss' Arabella, and a fourth of the Angel Quartet in Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life.

Mathias Hausmann in controversial Tannhäuser in Leipzig

Mathias Hausmann in Tannhäuser

Mathias Hausmann will be featured as Wolfram in Oper Leipzig's Tannhäuser, which opens on March 17 and runs through May 27.  The remainder of the cast includes Elisabet Strid as Elisabeth, Kathrin Göring as Venus, Burkhard Fritz as Tannhäuser and Patrick Vogel as Walther.

A scene from Calixto Bieito's Tannhäuser in Ghent

The production has been mired in a bit of controversy and confusion, as it was originally scheduled to be directed by Katharina Wagner, a descendant of the composer. The opera company announced that due to  “logistical challenges,” it will now be directed by the provocative Spaniard Calixto Bieito. Bieito's interpretation of Wagner's Tannhäuser premiered at the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent in 2015.

Katharina Wagner will return to Leipzig for Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin in November 2020.

Lauri Vasar strips down for Il Prigoniero

Lauri Vasar in Il Prigoniero

One of our alert readers pointed out the barihunk Lauri Vasar is reprising the role of the Prisoner in Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero at Opéra de Lyon. The 7-part, 50-minute opera is being presented with Schoenberg's one-act opera Erwartung. This is the fourth time that we've featured the Estonian barihunk and his outfit of choice always seems to be his underwear, which is fine with us.

Il Prigioniero was first broadcast by the Italian radio station RAI on December 1, 1949. The work is based on the short story La torture par l'espérance ("Torture by Hope") from the collection Nouveaux contes cruels by the French writer Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and from La Légende d'Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak by Charles de Coster. Some of the musical material is based on Dallapiccola's 1938 choral work Canti di prigionia.

Perfomances will run through April 13th. Visit the Opéra de Lyon website for additional information.

Lauri Vasar in Il Prigoniero

Vasar will now switch to the German repertory as Olivier in Richard Strauss' Capriccio. He then switches to Wagner, taking on Wolfram in Tannhäuser at the Staatsoper Hamburg in May and Amfortas in Parsifal at the Palace of Arts in Budapest. Somehow we think that he'll be more fully clothed for this series of performances.

You can listen to his Wolfram on his website, as well as view additional pictures from other productions of Il Prigoniero.

Jochen Kupfer Sings Tannhäuser

We don't get much Wagner on this site, so here is Jochen Kupfer singing "Wie Todesahnung Dammerung deckt die Lande - O du, mein holder Abendstern" from Wagner's "Tannhäuser." If you have nominees for barihunks who sing Wagner, please send them to barihunks@gmail.com.



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Celebrating Wagner's Birthday With His Sexiest Barihunk: Gunther Groissboeck

Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813, so we're celebrating with the only now that we know how at Barihunks: Posting pictures of the hottest Wagnerian barihunk in the world today. That selection was pretty easy, as Gunther Groissboeck brings his teutonic good looks to thirteen Wagner roles in ten different operas.

The photo above is Groissboeck performing Landgraf Hermann in "Tannhäuser“ at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 2008. His next Wagner roles are König Marke in Tristan at the Bregenzer Festspiele in August and then beginning in October he performs König Heinrich in Lohengrin at the Houston Grand Opera. In one of opera's most idiotic marketing oversights, HGO doesn't even feature Groissboeck on their website (http://www.houstongrandopera.org/lohengrin).

If you can think of a hotter and hunkier Wagnerian barihunk than Groissboeck, we'd like to hear from you.

This site can be contacted at barihunks@gmail.com

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