Peter Mattei is at The Met tonight in Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades" surrounded by an all-star cast that includes Karita Mattila, Dolora Zajick and Vladimir Galouzine. This has clearly been one of the major successes for the company this year. In addition to tonight's performance, it will be performed on March 21 and 26. Click HERE for tickets and additional information.
Mike Silverman, writing for the Associated Press, said of Mattei's performance:
As Prince Yeletsky, Lisa's jilted fiance, Peter Mattei sang his gorgeous Act 2 aria with the silky tone we are accustomed to hearing from this artist.
This is not the usual post for Barihunks, but we want our readers to know about the "Solidarity Concert" for Japan. Kent Nagano will join baritone Christian Gerhaher and soprano Soile Isokoski in this special performance of Brahms' "Ein Deutsches Requiem" on April 3rd.
The performance will be held at the Frauenkirche and will be free to the public.
For ticket information, contact the box office at tickets@st-oper.bayern.de.
Don't miss Daniel Okulitch's upcoming recital at Carnegie Hall on Monday, March 28, where he will be performing music from his new CD of American Art Song. Composers on the program include Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Lowell Liebermann, and Glen Roven. We've heard the CD and can promise and amazing night of music making. Click HERE to buy tickets while good seats still remain.
Okulitch in the Ft. Worth Opera performance of Heggie's "Dead Man Walking"
Seven months ago we introduced readers to Minnesota native Nicholas Nelson and his sexy abs. He was performing at the Central City Opera at the time and we've been waiting for an excuse for a follow up post.
When we first saw these pictures, we thought they were from an Abercombie & Fitch catalogue. If there is any question left in anyone's mind that singers are taking better care of their bodies these days, these pictures should dispel those thoughts.
Fans of the young singer Nelson can see him at the Portland Opera in the double bill of Ravel's L'heure Espagnole and L'enfant et les sortilèges. He will be performing as the Armchair and the Tree. Performances will run from April 1-9. He also just finished singing the Mandarin in Turandot with the company.
From August 12-20 he will be performing Alidoro in Opera North'sCenerentola.
Clockwise bottom left: Joseph Barron, Ryan Green, Joseph Lim and Phillipe Sly
As if we needed further evidence that the "Golden Age of Baritones" is officially upon us, four of the five winners of the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions were baritones. We've been featuring Phillipe Sly since we first heard him sing and believe that he's destined for a major career. Sly was joined by baritones Ryan Speedo Green, Joseph Lim, Joseph Barron and soprano Michelle Johnson as winners of the competition. We offer our hearty and well-deserved congratulations to each of the singers. You can read their bios HERE.
Mariusz Kwiecien in Met Brochure
A quick look at who the real superstars are on stage and in marketing campaigns reveals that baritones are dominating the opera stage like at no other time in history. Rene Pape, Bryn Terfel, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Paulo Szot, Christopher Maltman, Simon Keenlyside, Nathan Gunn, Erwin Schrott, Peter Mattei and Mariusz Kwiecien are some of the dominating figures in opera. A decade ago almost every marketing piece for an opera company featured female singers, with Renee Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Natalie Dessay and Cecilia Bartoli leading the way. Even the major "crossover" stars are now baritones, particularly Nathan Gunn, Rod Gilfry and Paulo Szot, who have all made their mark singing the music of Broadway.
Even the media savvy tenor Placido Domingo is getting in on the action, singing the baritone roles Simon Boccanegra, Rigoletto and Iphigenie en Tauride.
Jacques Imbrailo, who recently starred in a somewhat controversial production of Billy Budd at Glyndebourne, is tackling the title role in a different production. Imbrailo will perform in the heralded Richard Jones production that we previously saw Peter Mattei perform at Frankfurt.
Imbrailo created a bit of a tempest before the Glyndebourne run with some comments he made in the Sunday Times that suggested to some that he was trying to take the gay element out of the opera. Here is an excerpt;
Imbrailo features on a website called barihunks.blogspot.com, whose breathless preview of Billy Budd is: “Let’s hope the production is shirtless.”
“They’re going to be disappointed,” says Imbrailo. “That’s a lazy way to characterise; Billy swinging round pipes. He doesn’t have to be a gym bunny.” Never mind Billy’s biceps, Imbrailo would rather emphasise his goodness.
Barihunks was besieged with emails and comments not just from readers, but from people involved with the production who felt that "stuffy" Glyndebourne was trying to rewrite the story to make Claggart troubled with Billy's "goodness" and removing the gay attraction. Of course, the current production is in the Netherlands where they celebrate rather than run from gay themes in opera. This production's Claggart, Clive Bayley, makes it clear in the preview video that Claggart is clearly gay and attracted to Billy, but decides to destroy what he loves.
Jacques Imbrailo: Not afraid to disappoint Barihunks readers?
Assuming he needed to redeem himself, Imbrailo has clearly done it in this production. One Dutch reviewer described Imbrailo and "vigorous" and "charismatic" with just the right baritone sound. He clearly didn't shy away from portraying a sexy Billy Budd and he appears to have redeemed himself with those "disappointed" Barihunks readers he previously referenced.
The Netherlands Opera has added a Gay Date Night on March 25th for the current of the opera. Details can and ticket information are available on their website. We hope that Glyndebourne does the smae thing when they mount Billy Budd again.
We received two emails about our Russian opera poll commenting that few people have heard some of these operas. Fortunately, companies around the world are continuing to add Russian operas to their repertory, as witnessed by The Met belatedly adding Shostokovich's "The Nose." Many companies don't venture far from Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," which is too bad, as some of the most amazing music can be found in Russian opera. There is a plethora of music for low voices in this repertory and it's also an opportunity for us to show of the "Siberian Hunky" - Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Here he is in some of the less familiar repertory.
One of our favorite pieces for baritone is the underperformed aria from by the character Shaklovity in Khovanshchina:
Prince Igor's aria from the eponymously named opera:
Boris' Monologue from Boris Godunov:
Hvorostovsky is in the Ukraine right now where he is performing a series of recitals. On March 30th he will be in London to perform at a gala concert celebrating Mikhail Gorbachev's 80th birthday. Click HERE for additional information.
