Sexy Barihunk Trio in Met's "Don Giovanni"; Don't Miss It!

Mariusz Kwiecien: Met promo photo (L); In Krakow Giovanni (Top); From NY Times society pages (Bottom)

New York opera fans have been consumed with Anna Netrebko's portrayal of Anna Bolena and it has often overshadowed some other good offerings at the Met. Mainly, the barihunk-laden performance of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" that is running through November 11th.

Luca Pisaroni is Leporello & Joshua Bloom is Masetto

Polish barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien, one of the world's greatest and most dramatically interesting Don Giovanni's is leading the cast. If you haven't seen "The Hot Pole" perform this role, then you haven't seen the opera. He brings an intensity and sexual energy to the role that few others have ever mustered. His sidekick is another regular from this site, Italian barihunk Luca Pisaroni. The bumpkin Masetto is performed by Australian barihunk Joshua Bloom, who would make one wonder why Zerlina would even think about being unfaithful. Visit the Metropolitan Opera website for additional dates and performance information.

Here is a Met Opera preview from WQXR's great program Operavore. It starts with Anna Netrebko and includes her singing Anna Bolena's "Mad Scene," but later in the video you'll be treated to Luca Pisaroni singing Leporello's Catalogue Aria [At 43:30 minute mark].



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Firey Hot Opera Coming to Oakland with Eugene Branconveanu

Eugene Brancoveanu

This January, The Crucible in Oakland, California, will celebrate its 13th anniversary with a World Premiere Fire Opera, "MACHINE." 

The production was conceived and directed by the brilliant and innovate director Mark Streshinsky and features music by Clark Suprynowicz. The performance will be conducted by Barnaby Palmer and sung by barihunk regular Eugene Brancoveanu.

The Romanian baritone will be shirtless and from the looks of things, giving Nathan Gunn, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Erwin Schrott, Christoper Maltmann and other bare-chested barihunks a run for their money.

Eugene Brancoveanu

Based on a short story by science fiction author Derek J. Goodman, MACHINE is set in a fiery industrial universe in which workers have sold themselves into a lifetime of servitude. When one worker regains his power of self-determination, the story ignites into an explosive brew of escape plots, alliances, and unlikely love interests. This spectacular performance features two opera singers, a rock singer and percussionists that “play” the scaffolding-like set. Visual effects including a molten metal pour, fire performers and industrial artists such as glass blowers and blacksmiths. MACHINE will deliver the kind of awe-inspiring performance that Crucible audiences have come to expect.

MACHINE runs January 11-14 and 18-21, 2012 with tickets ranging $45-$65 and $150 for the Closing Night Gala on January 21. You can find more information and purchase tickets online at www.thecrucible.org.

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Christopher Johnstone's Sexy New Website: Five Boroughs Music Festival Reminder

Christopher Johnstone: Singer, Actor, Model (and hot!)

We get a lot of messages asking us to look at someone's new website, but we've seldom encountered one as sexy as barihunk Christopher Johnstone's new site.

The graduate of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music defines himself as a "Singer, Actor, Model" on his website and he's certainly hard to peg. The lyric baritone has sung with the Glimmerglass Opera, Lyric Opera San Diego, Opera Pacific, Cincinnati Pops, Boston Pops and performing Poulenc’s Le bal masqué for Baritone and Chamber Orchestra with Maestro James Levine of the Metropolitan Opera.

As you can see from the video he's also crossed over into musicals. But like many singers who we've featured on this site, including Hadleigh Adams and Matt Morris, their careers have also reached into television and even modeling. Johnstone has been seen on TLC’s “Personal Justice” and he has a recurring roles on “All My Children.”  If you visit his website, you can also see more examples of his modeling for David Barton Gym and DETAILS magazine.



We also want to remind readers that the Five Boroughs Music Festival is kicking off its season on Thursday, October 6th with barihunk David Adam Moore, so make sure to order your tickets. Barihunk and artistic director Jesse Blumberg has commissioned twenty songs with themes related to Gotham  from twenty of the world's leading contemporary composers. The festival première is at the Galapagos Art Space and tickets can be purchased on their website. 

Five Boroughs Music Festival kicks off in Brooklyn with David Adam Moore

We're particularly excited about Glen Roven's "F from DUMBO," since many attendees may be taking the F TO DUMBO to the recital. The clever new song will be sung by David Adam Moore, making it all the more irresistible. You can sample Roven's music in the sidebar to the right with barihunk Randal Turner singing "When you are old."

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John Boehr Flexes His Muscle as the Marquis

John Boehr's Barihunk Biceps

John Boehr will be performing the Marquis D'Obigny in Verdi's "La Traviata" with the Syracuse Opera on October 21 and 23. Boehr returns to the company after performing in their "9 Operas in 90 Minutes" tour which visited five cities in upstate New York this summer. Boehr has previously performed with the Austin Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Tanglewood Music Festival, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Fairbanks, and Minnesota Opera. Tickets and additional performance information are available at the Syracuse Opera website.

Craig Verm

On February 10 and 12, the company will perform Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" featuring  barihunk Craig Verm.

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Desert Heat in Arizona: Kaduce & Gregory; Jonathan Beyer Broadcast Tonight

Lee Gregory & Kelly Kaduce Gregory

The "opera couple" phenomenon is getting increasingly popular, especially in Europe where photographers follow around Erwin Schrott and Anna Netrebko like the U.S. press follows around Paris Hilton. One of our favorite opera couples is barihunk Lee Gregory and his equally beautiful and glamorous wife Kelly Kaduce Gregory. Fans in the Great Southwest are in luck, as they are appearing together at the Arizona Opera on October 7 & 9 in Phoenix. Tickets and additional cast information can be found on the company's website.

Jonathan Beyer (photo by David Bachman)

If you're craving some great baritone singing today, check out Jonathan Beyer's recital Sibelius, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dvorak, and American songs, which we be broadcast live at WUOT radio in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you're a connoisseur of great singing  make sure to catch this broadcast tonight.

Beyer has taken the opera world by storm by winning opera competitions and delivering excellent recital programs. Check out his record of winning competitions.

• National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition
• 1st Place Winner at the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists
• Won the George London Foundation Competition
• Won the McCammon Competition
• Won the Sullivan Foundation Grant
• Won the Irma M. Cooper Competition
• Wont the Violetta DuPont Competition
• Won the Rochester's Classical Idol
• Won the New Jersey Verismo Competition
• Won the Philadelphia Orchestra's Greenfield Competition
• Won the Astral Artist Auditions
• Won the Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions
• Won the SAI Competition
• Won the American Opera Society Competition
• Won the San Antonio Opera Competition
• Won the American Prize in Art Song and Opera
• Won the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Competition
• Won the Bel Canto Foundation
• And he's received these additional awards: Gerda Lissner Foundation, Jensen Foundation, Solti Foundation, Charles Lynam Competition, Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, National Opera Association, Anna Sosenko Foundation, George Solti Foundation, Mario Lanza Foundation, Dresden Opera Competition, NATS, Giulio Gari Foundation, Palm Beach Opera, Jose Iturbi Foundation, Shreveport Singer of the Year, Liederkranz, Orpheus Competition, the Loren L. Zachary, Irene Dalis, Connecticut Opera Guild, and Neue Stimmen competitions.

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Video: Daniel Okulitch's Nude Scene from "The Fly"

Daniel Okulitch goes "The Full Okulitch" (Screenshot from Arte)

According to our Google Analytics, two of our most popular posts of all-time continue to be those of Gabriel Bermudez appearing nude in Poulenc's  "Les mamelles de Tirésias" and Daniel Okultich appearing nude in Howard Shore's "The Fly." Until now, we've only had pictures and no video. But thanks to a European broadcast of the opera, we now have some video to share of the scene that prompted fellow barihunks Michael Mayes and Michael Todd Simpson on the Texapolitan Opera podcast to coin the phrase "The Full Okulitch" to describe a full-frontal nude scene in opera.



The Canadian barihunk can next be heard in recital at the Glenn Gould Studio on December 4th in Toronto. You can check out his profile on the CBC website where you can also listen to him discuss his status as a barihunk.

We also highly recommend that you add Okulitch's wonderful recital "The New American Art Song" to your CD collection. You can purchase it at the GPR Records website. 

For the record, the only other barihunk to appear on this site other than Bermudez and Okulitch performing "The Full Okulitch" is Troy Cook. We should use this opportunity to point out that we only publish nudity if it was performed on stage. We have pictures of Leigh Melrose from "Riders to the Sea" and Laurent Alvaro from the French production of "The Fly," but felt the quality wasn't good enough to post. We also hear that there are photos of Eugene Brancoveanu from "Little Caesar," but we've never found them. 

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LA Times: "Ildebrando D'Arcangelo wants to be more than a pretty face"

From his Deutsche Grammophon website:

“Ildebrando D'Arcangelo is a complete knock-out as Leporello – charming, funny, sexy, but pointedly in touch with his emotions in ways that his master can never be. What a difference a native Italian speaker makes in the role.”

The Independent

The Los Angeles Times is featuring an article on Ildebrando D'Arcangelo that thoroughly covers his status as a reigning barihunk. Although the Italian singer denies that he's thought much about it, we think his recording company, agent and publicist have given it plenty of thought. On his IMG Artists website the three pull quotes have him variously described as a "hunk," having "presence" and "looks," and, finally, being "an unusually sexy Enrico."

Check out his publicity photos and website that we've included in this post.

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo: Trying hard to NOT look sexy

Here is the article from the L.A. Times written by David Ng:

When Ildebrando D'Arcangelo storms the stage in Mozart's "Così fan Tutte" at Los Angeles Opera, the bass-baritone singer projects a swaggering confidence and dangerous sex appeal that act like a powerful audience magnet. But please don't call him a bari-hunk.

The 41-year-old D'Arcangelo, who is one of six members of the "Così" ensemble cast, has garnered fans around the world as much for his voice as for his model looks — tall, dark and handsome in an earthy way.

Yet the singer appears uneasy with references to his status as a bari-hunk — the group of opera stars known for their pecs and neck size, as well as their deep, sonorous voices.

"To be honest, I'm uncomfortable," said D'Arcangelo when the subject came up during a recent interview. "I appreciate it if people say something about looking good. In opera, if you see a beautiful person, it helps. But for me, honestly, I never thought about it." [Read entire article HERE]

Fans in California can catch him in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" at the Los Angeles Opera through October 8th. He then switches Mozart roles, tackling Don Giovanni at La Scala from December 16-28 before heading off to Weisbaden, Germany for a New Year's Day concert.

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