Taddy Bare's Triumph as Cleo's Lover

[Top photo courtesy of Carnegie Hall; Bottom photo by Rachel Papo for The New York Times]

New York has been a crazy place of late: planes landing in rivers, fights over who will replace Hillary Clinton, Wall Street shenanigans, Bernie Madoff, Broadway shows shutting down and tax payers tossing out subsidies to the New York Yankees.

Amazingly, the most stable news this week came from the New York City Opera, which has been plagued with problems ever since construction began at Lincoln Center. If you want to read about it, visit La Cieca at www.parterre.com. So it was fascinating that the best news out of New York this week emanated from the "people's opera." They hired Dallas Opera's highly talented George Steel after only three months on the job. Then they scored a major success with only the third major revival of Samuel Barber's luscious Antony and Cleopatra.

Carnegie Hall was full of Barihunks fans to see Teddy Tahu Rhodes melt hearts as Cleopatra's lover. My favorite email this morning was from DCHU, who wrote:

"When Teddy walked out on stage - all 6' 5" of kiwi pulchritude - my heart stopped. A man hasn't looked this hot in a tux since James Bond. I kept thinking, 'Why do they keep singing about Romans, when all I'm thinking about are Trojans.'"

Teddy Bare fans will be thrilled to learn that he's scheduled to sing two certifiable barihunk roles in 2009: Escamillo in Bilbao next month and his signature hunk role Stanley in Streetcar Named Desire in Sydney this December.

By the way, for all of you who keep writing to me complaining that we never mention voices, this site really isn't about singing as much as it is about hunkiness. However, both the AP and the NY Times reported that Teddy Tahu Rhodes sang well. There are some amazing singers who are also barihunks and Teddy Bare is one (check out Vagabond and the DVD of Peter Grimes). If you're looking for great singing from a barihunk, I would recommend Christopher Maltman's recital disc from Wigmore Hall and Hanno Muller-Brachmann's new Schubert disc. I have been listening to both of these non-stop for the last few weeks. (There is a convenient Christopher Maltman Amazon widget to the right).

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Teddy Bare Days Away From "Barber" Debut

[Photo from NY City Opera]

Rehearsals are underway for Teddy Tahu Rhode's debut in Samuel Barber's glorious Antony and Cleopatra. Here is a photo Teddy Bare hot as ever in a tee shirt during rehearsals.

Playbill describes him as the "...strapping 6-foot-5 baritone from New Zealand," while the City Opera website describes him as, "...a striking baritone from New Zealand." Clearly, we're not the only ones who find it tough to write about Teddy Bare without talking about his stunning good looks. Of course, this is a concert performance, so Barihunks fans will have to focus on the music. If you haven't heard this opera before, it is absolutely ravishing. Here are the words to the duet between Cleopatra and Antony. Cleopatra will be portrayed by the dramatically intense Lauren Flanigan. This should be a highlight of the night.

Antony and Cleopatra

Oh take, oh take, those lips away
That so sweetly were forsworn

Cleopatra

And those eyes, like break of day.
Oh lights that do mislead the morn.
But my kisses bring again.
Seals of love, though seal'd in vain.

Antony

Hide, oh hide, those hills of snow,
Which they frozen blossom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are those that April wears.
But first set my poor heart free.
Bound in those ivy chains be thee.

For ticket information, click here: http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_12457.html?selecteddate=01162009

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QUIZ answer

The answer to our first ever "Guess the Barihunk" quiz is Erwin Shrott. I have added a more flattering picture of our beloved Hot Shrott, so nobody thinks that he came down with a bad case of the uglies.

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Washington D.C. Abuzz; L.A. Disappointed

[Photos from top to bottom: Markus Werba, Nathan Gunn and Teddy Tahu Rhodes]

Washington D.C. is absolutely abuzz and the excitement is palpable. No, I'm not talking about the January 20th Presidential Inauguration. Washington D.C. was a bit gloomy when they learned that budget realities were forcing the cancellation of the planned Ring Cycle. But opera fanatics cheered up when it was announced that barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes would be singing Le Nozze di Figaro as the Count. Even the heralded Washington Post led with the tidbit in their article about the 2009-2010 season.

On the other coast, our Barihunks readers are not too thrilled about the LA Opera's revival of Zauberflote. Barihunks was playing up the fact that this opera was loaded with hunk talent, even on the tenor side. Here is a report from one of readers:

"Nathan Gunn looked like Cyndi Lauper gone mad, with a big blonde wig and a pair of tights that wouldn't have looked good on a ballet dancer. Gunther Groissboeck came out completely unrecognizable in a giant triangle (or whatever). He looked like a reject from the movie "Death to Smoochy." Matthew Polenzani looked like Heath Ledger as the Joker. What a disaster and the second act plodded along FOREVER!"

Then I got this delivered late last night from another reader:

"Is the Los Angeles Opera trying to go out of business? First Rasputin, which was the worst opera I ever saw until LA Opera's The Fly. Now they destroy the standard repertoire with a ridiculous and sometimes ghoulish Magic Flute. If Markus Werba is a barihunk the folks in LA sure didn't want you to know it. I can't wait for the Kenneth Branagh film of the opera so I can see what [tenor] Joe Kaiser really looks like. He was washed in kabuki makeup! DISASTER!"

Ouch!

I was planning to make the quick trek to La La Land for this production, but was sidelined with the flu. Sounds like the flu was more bearable than the opera.

I try to keep this site positive, so if anyone saw this production who liked it, I'd love to hear from you.

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The Only Onegin as Hot as Hvorostovsky

[Top photo of Onegin at Lyric Opera of Chicago by Dan Rest; bottom photo from Paris Opera from French TV]

I don't know about you, but whenever I see a production of Eugene Onegin with a baritone as hot as Mariusz Kwiecien or Dmitri Hvorostovsky I can't understand at the end why Tatiana doesn't take him back. Take a look at those photos of Mariusz "Hot Pole" Kwiecien and tell me that you wouldn't run out of the palace with him!

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VOTE for Christopher Herbert and Win Opera Tickets

OK, the Presidential election is over and the good guy won. We all learned about the importance of voting since the Bush-Gore debacle in 2000. We're probably all a little sick of politics after two years of non-stop campaigning, so why not turn to opera.

Now we can vote online for one of our most popular barihunks, Christopher Herbert, who is competing in the "Grand Concours de Chant 2009." The competition is to determine the next great singer of the French baritone repertoire. The competition is a tribute to the magnificent French baritone Gerard Souzay.

If you sign up and vote online you have the chance to win two tickets to the opera house of your choice. You must vote by February 28, 2009 at http://favacontest.com/vote.php. You also have to vote for three contestants and they've added wonderful sound clips. An international panel of judges will determine the winner, but the tie-breaker will be the public vote.

If Christopher Herbert wins, Barihunks will have to post more pictures. How's that for an incentive?

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David Adam Moore's Bare-Chested Pearl

[Photos by Rozarii Lynch]

This is the long-awaited week that David Adam Moore begins his run in the Pearl Fishers as Zurga opposite hunkentenor Brian Stucki's Nadir at the Seattle Opera. The two hunks will be performing on January 11, 18 and 23. Tickets are available at http://www.seattleopera.org/tickets/production.aspx?productionID=61

From the looks of the rehearsal pictures, this is worth a trip to Seattle.

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