BariChunk to BariHunk Kasey Yeargain to make professional debut

Kasey Yeargain "Before & After"

We have had few posts that have generated as much interest as Kasey Yeargain's transformation from an overweight, unhealthy, depressed singer into a healthy, physically fit, confident barihunk who cuts a mean figure in a uniform. His story shot into our ten most viewed posts within a month and remains in our Top 5 to this day.

At his heaviest, he weighed between 270-300 pounds (122-136 kilos) and he now weighs around 199 pounds  (90 kilos). He has created his own blog called The Opera Bro where he shares his story and talks about his weight loss and fitness routine.

Kasey Yeargain as Zuniga

His incredible story culminates on May 2 at the Tulsa Opera where he is making his professional stage debut as Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen. We often joke about Carmen running off with Escamillo when there's a barihunk in the role, but in this production she may run off with the officer Zuniga. If you can't make opening night, there will be an additional performance on May 4. Tickets are available online.

This summer, he'll be able to strut his stuff opposite one of the great bodies in opera, as he takes on the Prison Guard in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking opposite über-barihunk David Adam Moore at the Des Moines Metro Opera. This will be Yeargain coming full circle, as his dedication to fitness began while he was a studio artist with the same company last year. Performances will run from June 28-July 19 and tickets are available online.

Christopher Temporelli

The adorable barihunk Christopher Temporelli is ringing in the New Year with some YouTube videos and some new publicity shots [see above photo]. Fans of Temporelli can see him at the Lake George Opera this year, where he will perform in Donizetti's "Viva La Mamma (Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze Teatrali) and portray Zuniga in Carmen.



Here he is performing Handel's famous Largo. You can also hear him on YouTube singing "Aprite un po quegli occhi" from Mozart's Figaro, Tu lo sai by Giuseppe Torelli and the old standard "Danny Boy."



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Emerging Barihunk: Nicolas Courjal

Here's a shot of Nicolas Courjal as Masetto looking at fellow barihunk Franco Pomponi in a production of Don Giovanni in Montpellier, where he is currently singing The Speaker in Die Zauberflote opposite Detlef Roth, the brilliant Sandrine Piau and the Queen of the Night as sung by Uran Urtnasan-Cozzoli.

The French-born bass studied at the Conservatory in Renne and established himself at the famed Opera Comique in Paris. Like many basses, he's not given many barihunk roles, getting stuck singing Zuniga instead of Escamillo, and Basilio rather than the Barber. That's why we decided to feature a picture of him offstage, so that Barihunk fans can see him in his full glory and not dressed up looking like Moses.

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