READER SUBMISSION: Evan Hughes

Evan Hughes (Photo: Matthu Placek)

This is our third straight post of our beloved "Reader Submissions." The latest is California native Evan Hughes, who is currently a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development program. The UCLA graduate attended the Curtis Institute of Music and was a regional winner and a national Semi-Finalist in the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was the grand prize in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition.

Hughes recently performed Aronte in Gluck’s Armide presented by the Met in collaboration with the Juilliard School; he also performed Don Basilio in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy with Lorin Maazel and reprised the role in the summer at the Castleton Festival, where he also sang the bass solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, both projects being conducted by Mr. Maazel.

Evan Hughes (Photo: Matthu Placek)

Hughes started the season as Don Alfonso in a production of Mozart's Così Fan Tutte directed by Stephen Wadsworth and conducted by Alan Gilbert at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Lincoln Center. Later this season he will make his Metropolitan Opera debut as Crebillon in Puccini's La Rondine.

A champion of contemporary music, Hughes appeared in Elliott Carter’s Syringa with the Met Chamber Ensemble at Zankel Hall (Carnegie) and the Tanglewood Music Festival, conducted both times by James Levine, and more recently he premiered Carter’s Three Explorations at Alice Tully Hall with the Axiom Ensemble and Jeffrey Milarsky. Another milestone in the bass-baritone’s exploration of Elliott Carter’s music was On Conversing with Paradise as part of a festival of cultural exchange entitled Ascending Dragon in Los Angeles, Hanoi and in other parts of Vietnam.

Reader Submission: Benjamin Werth

Benjamin Werth

Ohio native Benjamin Werth is our latest reader submission and it comes from Germany. Werth who honed his skills in regional companies throughout the United States, has been based at the Landestheatre Coburg about an hour from Bayreuth, Germany for the last three years. His recent roles there include the title character in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Argante in Handel's Rinaldo and Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Previous roles included Orestes in Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris, Zurga in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers and Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. 

Werth studied at Ohio State University, the Manhattan School of Music in New York and the Opera Institute at Boston University. He participated in the Young Artists Program at the Chautauqua Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and Central City Opera. He was a finalist in the 2008 New England Regionals of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions.

Benjamin Werth

In 2008 he made ​​his debut as Escamillo ("Carmen") at the Ash Lawn Opera. In Boston he appeared as Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville,  Laurent  in Pickers Therese Raquin, Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute and Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.  In Des Moines he sang Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

His performances of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly in Coburg open on March 24 and tickets are available online.

Reader Submission: Laurent Arcaro

Laurent Arcaro: Headshot and Don Giovanni

We love the fans of our site. You have become our eyes and ears around the world and have exposed us to some amazing talent and some damn hot men. The latest submission is Frenchman Laurent Arcaro. He was recommended to us by a fan who saw him sing Don Giovanni in Marseilles just over a year ago.

Laurent Arcaro

Arcaro studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, Musikhochschule opera studio in Mannheim, Germany and the Conservatoire de Toulouse. He's gone on to sing in a number of houses throughout Germany and France. This summer, he will make his debut at the Opéra de Metz as Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola.

He also appeared in the 2010 movie "Heart Zero" with his wife Nathalie Vignes. The movie is about a spouse who is haunted by the death of her French broker husband during the 9/11 tragedy.

Happy Birthday, Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)

Hugo Wolf

Wolf played the violin, piano and organ as a child and studied briefly at the Vienna Conservatory from 1875 to 1877 where he met his idol Richard Wagner. He wrote musical criticism for the Wiener Salonblatt, taking sides with Wagner and Anton Bruckner against Johannes Brahms. It was difficult for Wolf to get his compositions performed during this period due to his printed views. Wolf was broke most of his life and at times had to make due with one meal a day. His bad temper made it difficult to keep students. He was said to be small, of mean build, thin and undernourished.  

Christopher Herbert sings Wunden trägst du, mein Geliebter:

 In 1888, Wolf was living in a friend's villa in Perchtoldsdorf near Vienna where he had a period of intense creativeness. He wrote many songs with texts by Goethe, Eduard Mörike, Eichendorff, and other German poets. He also used foreign lyrics in translation. He continued and extended the lied tradition of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, but he was original in his conception of the songbook as the larger dramatic form. His later life was clouded by illness, depression and final insanity. Wolf becoming manic-depressive and was sent to a lunatic asylum, mad at the age of 43.

Piotr Prochera sings Gebet:

A number of baritones have successfully recorded his Mörike lieder, including Olaf Baer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Thomas Allen and Hans Hotter. 

Wolf wrote numerous songs for baritone including Der Musikant; Nachtzauber; Verschwiegene Liebe; Das Standchen; Prometheus; Wachterlied auf der Wartburg; Biterolf; Benedeit die sel'ge Mutter; Nun lass und Frieden schliessen; Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag'; Auf dem grunen Balkon; Koniglich Gebet; Der Rattenfanger; Genialisch Treiben; Heimweh; Grenzen der Menschheit; Cophtisches Lied II; Cophtisches Lied I; Harfenspieler I; Seemanns Abschied; Der verzweifelte Liebhaber; Anakreons Grab; Abschied; Lied eines Verliebten; Gesang Weylas; Der Jager; An die Geliebte; Gebet; Seufzer; Verborgenheit; Der Genesene an die Hoffnung; Der Tambour; Fussreise; Der Freund.

Gérard Souzay sings "Gesang Weylas"

Watch the Met Audition winners on WQXR

Met audition winner Brandon Cedel performs in the WQXR studio

Fresh off of their thrilling wins as Met audition winners, a handful of singers appeared in the WQXR studios the next day to reprise some of their winning arias. Brandon Cedel kicked it off with Aleko's cavatina from Rachmaninoff's opera of the same day. Click HERE to watch.

Sydney Mancasola sings the Silver Aria from the Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe; Michael Brandenburg sings Lensky's aria from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin; Musa Ngqungwana sings "Riez, allez, riez du pauvre idéologue” from Massenet's Don Quichotte; Rebecca Pedersen sings “Pleurez, mes yeux” from Massenet's Le Cid; and, Thomas Richards has been ill and didn't sing, but former winner Eric Owens wraps it up singing from Verdi's Macbeth.

Morgan Pearse's "Crack" Performance in Handel's Imeneo

Morgan Pearse and Louise Alder

Barihunk Morgan Pearse showed a little crack in his performance in the title role of Handel's Imeneo with the London Handel Festival. After receiving a tip form a reader, we introduced the Aussie hunk to readers in November 2011. We recently featured him again when he continued the barihunk winning streak by taking the top prize at the Royal Over-Seas League competition.

The production opens tonight at the Britten Theatre at the Royal College of Music in London with three additional performances. Pearse will perform tonight and on March 13th, with Luke D. Williams alternating on March 12th and 14th. The role of Argenio is being alternated between Timothy Nelson and Bradley Travis, two attractive singers who we need to start keeping an eye on. Tickets and additional information are available online.

Australian Barihunk Morgan Pearse in Imeneo

The Italian-language libretto of Imeneo was adapted from poet Silvio Stampiglia's text. Handel had begun composition in September 1738, but did not complete the score until 1740. The opera received its first performance at the Lincoln's Inn Fields in London on November 22, 1740, and received another performance on December 13th. Handel then revised the score, and this revised version received concert performances in Dublin, on 24 and 31 March 1742. The first modern production was at the Halle Opera House on 13 March 1960, conducted by Horst-Tanu Margraf.

Listen to Imeneo in its entirety with John Ostendorf, bass-baritone. Rosmene, Julianne Baird, soprano. Tirinto, D'Anna Fortunati, mezzo-soprano. Clomiri, Beverly Hoch, soprano. Argenio, Jan Opalach, bass. Brewer Chamber Orchestra & Chorus, Rudolph Palmer.:

Photos from Dead Man Walking: Michael Mayes in Glory Denied

Philip Kalmanovitch and Etienne Dupuis are all smiles as opening night arrives

On February 24h, we mentioned the upcoming performance of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking in Montreal, Boston and Eugene, Oregon. We have rehearsal photos from two of those productions, as the much-anticipated opening night in Montreal is upon us.

Etienne Dupuis

Etienne Dupuis is a great example of how much opera is catching up to TV and movies with realistic casting. He hired two personal trainers to get in shape for the role of Joseph De Rocher, which has become a dream role for barihunks. Some of the hottest barihunks in the world have taken on the role of Joseph de Rocher including Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Mel Ulrich, Daniel Okulitch, Jordan Shanahan, Marcus DeLoach and Philip Cutlip. The performance in Montreal also includes Philip Kalmanovitch as a police officer. Many of you will remember him from last year's calendar and probably wouldn't mind being frisked by him.

Performances at Opera de Montreal run from tonight through March16th and tickets are available online.

Etienne Dupuis as Joseph De Rocher in Montreal

Dead Man Walking will open on opposite coasts on March 15th at the Eugene Opera and the Boston Opera Collaborative. If you ever get the chance to see the stage animal Michael Mayes perform this role, don't miss it. His workout photo from Tulsa, as he was preparing for the role a year ago, have rocketed into our ten most visited posts of all-time.

The opera will be performed at the Eugene Opera on March 15 and 17 and tickets are available online.

If you don't have time to schedule a trip to Oregon, there are still six weeks left to get to the Fort Worth Opera Festival where Mayes will portray Colonel Floyd James (Jim) Thompson, America’s longest-held prisoner of war. The opera by Tom Cipullo looks back on Thompson's years as a captive in Vietnam and features Mayes in the title role. If you've not been to this festival, we highly recommend adding it to your agenda, as it's one of the most innovative and entertaining festivals in America. Other operas this year include Puccini's La boheme, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment. Wes Mason, another of our favorite young barihunks, will be appearing as Marcello in La boheme.

Tickets and additional information about the Fort Worth Opera Festival are available on their website.

Michael Mayes getting in character in Eugene

Performances of Dead Man Walking with the Boston Opera Collaborative will run daily from March 15-18 with tickets available online.