QUIZ: Name the Barihunk

I have to admit that I didn't recognize this barihunk when I first saw this picture of him portraying Escamillo? I guess all of the clothes confused me. Can you name him?

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Martin Achrainer Looks Good In Anything

[La Calisto photo by Norbert Artner]

If you can wear a gold lamme jacket and a frilly shirt and still look good, then you know that you're a certifiable barihunk. Martin Achrainer seems to be checking out his threads, but this is actually from a December 2008 production of La Calisto in Linz.

The Tyrolian barihunk's career continues to receive great acclaim and he's next scheduled to sing Mozart's Count Almaviva in Linz next month.

Although, we preferred him stripped to his birthday suit in Don Giovanni last year, we think he looks hot in anything.

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Gunther Groissboeck as Il Commendatore

I've received a few emails asking me what role Gunther Groissboeck is portraying in the photo from the previous post. He's playing Il Commendatore from the Liceu's production of Don Giovanni with fellow barihunks Simon Keenlyside and Kyle Ketelsen (which previously appeared on this site).

Here is the video of the final scene with the first bare chested Commendatore I've ever seen.

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LA Times: Beefcake goes baritone and tenor too

[Photo of Gunn and Kaiser from LA Times; photo of Gunther Groissboeck from http://www.guenther-groissboeck.com]

The LA Times has run a piece on the pretty boys performing in the Magic Flute at the LA Opera. Although they focus on Nathan Gunn and Joseph Kaiser, Barihunks readers will be thrilled to know that Gunther Groissboeck plays Sarastro and barihunk Markus Werba takes over for Gunn in four performances. Amazingly, the LA Times fails to mention both Werba and Groissboeck (who arguably is the hottest guy in the cast - see photo!).

It's nice to see how unapologetically Gunn relishes being a barihunk. Here's part of what he says:

Gunn has become an expert when it comes to visual distractions: “Every opera where there’s a love scene or where I am semi-dressed, like the bathing scene in ‘Billy Budd,’ there’s this attention about ‘Is Nathan Gunn getting naked again?’”

It all started with a 1997 production of Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride” at Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New York. Gunn and tenor William Burden were told to hit the gym for the production envisioned by director Francesca Zambello. “It worked,” he says with a laugh. “The theater was selling out opera glasses.”

More important, as the New York Times noted of Gunn and Burden: “When they are thrown into the temple, bruised, stripped down to loincloths and chained together, they create a kind of intensity rare in the opera house. Their physicality might have been distracting had their singing not been so ardent and intelligent.”

If buzz about his shirtless scenes attracts newcomers, that’s fine, says Gunn, as long as they — as well as worried purists — realize that opera’s traditional reverence for the voice isn’t diminished just because “you make it believable for an audience by having characters who can sing and act and look the way they should.”

To read the entire article, click here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/nathan-gunn-jos.html

To buy tickets or to get more information, click here: www.laopera.com.

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Teddy Bare's Wedding Picture

[Photo by Jared Slater of J & J Photography]

This is going to break some hearts, but here is the wedding photo of mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and Barihunks favorite, Teddy Tahu Rhodes.

Barihunks would like to congratulate the couple and wish them the best. You both look great!

On January 15 and 16, Teddy Bare will be performing Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra" at Carnegie Hall. For more information, please click here:
http://www.carnegiehall.org/SiteCode/Search/BasicSearch.aspx?searchTerms=cleopatra

Also, the New York City Opera has offered Barihunks readers a group discount if a bunch of you want to go see what promises to be a great performance, especially with the amazing Lauren Flanigan portraying Cleopatra. For more information concerning group packages, please contact Michelle Levengood by phone (212) 870-4259 or e-mail mlevengood@nycopera.com.

No word if Antony sings without his shirt.

Hopefully, the Leonard/Rhodes marriage ends better than the Cleopatra/Antony affair.

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Giorgio Caoduro Shakes His Booty to Rossini

Italian barihunk Giorgio Caoduro sings Gaudenzio's aria "Nel teatro del gran mondo" from Il Signor Bruschino by Rossini. Make sure to watch him shake, shake, shake his booty around the 5:00 mark of the video.

He is next scheduled to shake his booty in Athens as Riccardo in I Puritani followed by his Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro in Bologna.

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Barihunk-Hunkentenor CD Coming Soon

Hunkentenor David Hobson and barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes have just recorded an album of duets, which is due out shortly. They are taking their show on the road throughout Australia. Unfortuantely, there are no plans for a U.S. or European tour.

Shouldn't this be out on DVD, not CD?

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