Hottest cast in opera assembled in Omaha for Handel's Agrippina

Doug Williams (photo:Kevin McDermott)

Perhaps the best looking cast currently assembled for any opera performance worldwide is in Omaha. The Nebraska company is located about seven hours from the nearest major opera company in Chicago, but that hasn't stopped them from creating some major buzz in the opera world. The cast of their upcoming performances of Handel's Agrippina includes not only some of the best young baroque singers in the world today, but some of the best looking singers across the entire range of voices.

Agrippina, written in 1710,  is considered Handel's first operatic masterpiece and a surprising comic gem.  The Opera Omaha production premieres an original edition of the opera prepared by conductor and early music specialist Stephen Stubbs.

Agrippina cast: Hadleigh Adams, Peabody Southwell, Nathan Medley, Jamie-Rose Guarrine, Jennifer Rivera, Zachary Wilder and Douglas Williams (left to right)

There are two bass-baritone roles in the opera, the larger role of Claudio the emperor and Pallante, one of two men that Agrippina pledges to marry. Both roles are being sung by two of the sexiest men in opera.

Claudio is sung by former model and rising superstar Hadleigh Adams. He established himself as a Handel singer to be reckoned with at the 2012 Merola Grand Finale when he performed “Somnus awake! ... Leave me loathsome light … More sweet is that name”  from Handel's Semele with Suzanne Rigden and Erin Johnson. Later that year, Adams wowed critics and audiences in another early music piece when he portrayed Pollux in Rameu's Castor & Pollux with Pinchgut Opera in Australia. He also showed off some seriously gym-toned arms [see below].

The role of Claudio includes the great bass aria "Vieni, oh cara."  

Hadleigh Adams in Castor & Pollux

Since his debut with the Boston Early Music Festival in 2003, Doug Williams has gone on to  establish himself as one of the most compelling low voices in early music. The Omaha production reunites him with conductor Stephen Stubbs, who led him in performances of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria in Seattle with the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa.

His list of successful early music performances includes Purcell’s King Arthur with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato with Tafelmusik, Aeneas in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Polyphemus in Handel's Acis and Galatea and Jesus in the recoring of Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the Yale Schola Cantorum.  He can also be heard on the recording of Lully’s Psyché with the Boston Early Music Festival, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording of 2008.   

 

The remainder of the cast includes the brilliant and gorgeous young mezzo Jennifer Rivera as Nerone, who is married to the prematurely retired barihunk Michael Rice. She'll be joined by Nathan Medley as Ottone,  Zachary Wilder as Narciso, Jamie-Rose Guarrine as Poppea and Peabody Southwell in the title role of Agrippina.

Performances are February 14 and 16 and tickets are available online.

Doug Williams & Jesse Blumberg in Early Music Gala

Doug Williams

Two of the most talented and arguably sexiest barihunks performing today will appear together at the Boston Early Music Festival's gala performance on Sunday, December 1st. Jesse Blumberg and Douglas Williams will be joined by members of the company's ensemble in selections from seven operas that have been featured in their Chamber Opera Series since 2008.

Led by three-time Grammy-nominated Artistic Co-Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, the singers will perform excerpts from Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Monterverdi’s Orfeo, Blow's Venus and Adonis, and Charpentier's Actéon, La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, and La Couronne de Fleurs.

Jesse Blumberg as Ulysses with Opera Omnia

The Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Opera Series has become a favorite of early music devotees with its fully staged operas focused on rarely heard masterpieces at Boston’s Jordan Hall. Other performers includee soprano Amanda Forsythe, tenor Aaron Sheehan, mezzo Thea Lobo, tenor Jason McStoots, mezzo Danielle Reutter-Harrah, tenor Zachary Wilder and soprano Teresa Wakim. 

Performances are at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall and tickets are available at 617-661-1812,  online. or at the box office located at 30 Gainsborough Street in Boston.

Douglas Williams can next be heard with the Houston Symphony in Handel's Messiah under the baton of Nicolas McGegan. Performances run from December 19-22 and tickets are available online. 

Upcoming performances for Jesse Blumberg include a December 3rd recital at Cary Hall in New York City celebrating the release of the AMR album Winter Songs, featuring vocal music of Robert Paterson. On December 8th, he'll be perfroming Finzi's In terra pax and selections from Handel's Messiah at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. On December 13 and 14, he returns to Bean Town for Handel's Messiah with the Boston Baroque at Jordan Hall.

Keith Miller: Mr. November

Time is running out to purchase your 2014 Barihunks Charity Calendar, so order it today by clicking the Lulu button below. All proceeds go to benefit young artists. There isn't a better way to get into the spirit of holiday giving than to help out the next generation of opera singers.