BARIHUNKS ®

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Barihunk Cover Boys: Ildar Abradzakov & Alex Esposito

Alex Esposito & Ildar Abradzakov

We've previously reported on the wonderful trend of barihunk cover boys increasingly gracing the front of the leading music magazines in the world. We particularly love it when they're featured in February, the month of Valentine's Day. Alex Esposito was featured on the cover of the German magazine Das Opernglas and Ildar Abdrazakov is featured on Opera News, both draped in Valentine's Day hot red.

Alex Esposito is in the middle of the sold out run of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House opposite fellow barihunk heartthrobs Mariusz Kwiecien as the Don and Alexander Tsymbalyuk as the Commendatore. Ildar Abrdrazakov is in the gorgeous production of Borodin's infrequently performed Prince Igor at the Metropolitan Opera.

Fortunately for opera lover, both performances are being broadcast worldwide. The March 1st performance of Prince Igor will be broadcast live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera. You can click HERE to find a theater near you.

The February 12th performance of Don Giovanni will be broadcast live to cinemas in Europe. and taped for screenings worldwide throughout March. If you're in Europe, check the Royal Opera House website for listings. If you're outside of Europe, check your local movie listings.

Abdrazakov next takes on the four villains in Offenbach's Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Wiener Staatsoper from May 23 to June 4. Esposito next takes on Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola from the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich from March 4-12.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Christopher Burchett in North Dakota's first opera premieres

Christopher Burchett in Soldier Songs

Barihunk Christopher Burchett, who showed off that he look pretty hot in a pair of skivvies in David T. Little's Soldier Songs, is about to make history in Fargo, North Dakota. On March 28th and 30th at the Fargo Moorhead Opera, he'll be part of the Poe Project Double Bill, which is comprised of two one-act operas, Buried Alive and Embedded, which were commissioned by American Lyric Theater as part of Edgar Alan Poe centennial back in 2009. These will be the first opera premiere ever presented in the state.

Composer Jeff Myers and librettist Quincy Long's Buried Alive draws on themes of anxiety and mortality from Poe’s story “The Premature Burial,” as a painter’s nightmares of death start to become real. It will be directed by Larry Edelson.

Composer Patrick Soluri and librettist Deborah Brevoort's Embedded was inspired by Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” The libretto revolves around a TV news anchor who finds herself on the other side of the headlines. It will be directed by Sam Helfrich.

Aaron Sorensen & Jonathan Blalock

Burchett will be joined in both operas by soprano Caroline Worra, soprano Sara Gartland, mezzo soprano Jennifer Feinstein, bass Nathan Stark and tenor Jonathan Blalock, who was recently awarded a Barihunks Calendar Grant along with bass Aaron Sorensen to make a joint West Coast recital debut in 2014.

Tickets for the world premiere production of the Poe Project may be purchased online.

Fargo-Moorhead Opera was founded in 1968 and and is the only full-season opera company from Omaha to Winnipeg and Minneapolis to Billings. The company tours regularly throughout North Dakota and rural Minnesota as a part of its commitment to bring opera to communities that have never before experienced live opera.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Jarrett Ott sings Tony Solitro's "War Wedding"; Metropolitan Opera Auditions next week

Jarrett Ott

We recently introduced Jarrett Ott to readers when he advanced in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions. On February 15, he'll be competing in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions at the Kennedy Center.

A reader alerted us to an amazing video of him performing Tony Solitro's "War Wedding" during a closed recording session at the Curtis Institute of Music. The songs of War Wedding chronicle the sensuous wedding night of two young lovers set against the backdrop of a savage and vicious war. After they part at daybreak, the young soldier dies from his wounds, and his bride is left alone.

The cycle was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, musicologist Justin Vickers.

He is finishing up his Master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music where he has performed Argante in Handel’s Rinaldo, Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Gregor Mittenhoffer in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers, Valentin in Gounod’s Faust, Harašta in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and Le Mari in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias. This season he will also perform Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen with Mikael Eliasen at various venues, as well as perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Riverside Symphonia. At Curtis he will sing roles in Poulenc's Dialogues des carmélites and Rossini's La Cenerentola. You can listen to some sound clip HERE.

Justin Hopkins makes role debut as Leporello

Justin Hopkins in Leporello and Opera in the Height's Don Giovanni artwork

Barihunks calendar model and rising star in the bass-baritone repertory Justin Hopkins just made his role debut as Leporello with Houston's Opera in the Heights. Although the role was originally double-cast, Hopkins is slated to sing all seven performances. The production has been moved to the mid-20th century with artwork from surreal artist René Magritte covering the sets.

This is certainly not Hopkins first foray into Mozart, as he's performed Bartolo and Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Verbier Festival, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with the Santa Fe Concert Association and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with Pensacola Opera.

Music critic D.L. Groover in the Houston Post called his Leporello the "standout performance."

Remaining performances are on February 7, 8 and 9 and tickets are available online.

Lee Poulis, John de los Santos and Sean Pannikar

Hopkins is returning to the Fort Worth Opera Festival to perform Nourabad in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers in a production directed by the amazing young director John de los Santos. Barihunk Lee Poulis will sing Zurga and hunkentenor Sean Panikkar takes on Nadir, so this production promises lots of eye candy. Performances are on April 19, 27 and May 2 and tickets are available online.

If you haven't experienced the amazing opera that happening in Fort Worth, you should make travel plans now. They are also featuring Kevin Puts' Silent Night, Mozart's Così fan tutte and Daniel Crozier and Peter M. Krask's With Blood, With Ink.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

John Brancy premieres Kapica's Force on both coast; Live stream available

The 2013 winners of the Music Academy of the West's Marilyn Horne Song Competition, baritone John Brancy and pianist Mario Antonio Marra, will perform the premiere of Force by up-and-coming composer Chris Kapica, Schumann's Dichterliebe, works by Dvorák, and American standards in a trio of East and West Coast recitals. The first will take place at the Music Academy's Hahn Hall in Santa Barbara, California on Tuesday, March 4, followed by Santa Monica's Broad Stage on Friday, March 7, and the National Opera Center in New York City on Sunday, March 16. The New York recital is part of OPERA America's Emerging Artist Recital Series, a showcase for finalists and prizewinners from the nation's most prestigious young artist programs and competitions.

John Brancy

Barihunk John Brancy, who along with accompanist Mario Antonio Marra, won the 2013 Music Academy of the West's Marilyn Horne Song Competition, will perform concerts on both coasts as part of their prize. The first will take place at the Music Academy's Hahn Hall in Santa Barbara, California on Tuesday, March 4th, followed by Santa Monica's Broad Stage on Friday, March 7th, and the National Opera Center in New York City on Sunday, March 16. The New York recital is part of OPERA America's Emerging Artist Recital Series, a showcase for finalists and prizewinners from the nation's most prestigious young artist programs and competitions.

Brancy will perform the world premiere of cross-genre composer Chris Kapica's "Force," along with Schumann's Dichterliebe, Dvorák's Three Modern Greek Poems, Op. 50, Hoagy Carmichael's The Nearness of You, Jerome Kern's The Folks who Live on the Hill and Cole Porter's Night and Day.

baritone Edward Parks, and pianist In-Sun Suh (2008)

Other baritones who have won the Marilyn Horne Song Competition include Edward Parks in 2008 and Evan Hughes in 2006.

Tickets for the March 4 recital in Santa Barbara are $25 general admission and $10 for students. Hahn Hall is located at the Music Academy of the West. Free parking will be available on the campus grounds. For more information, visit www.musicacademy.org.
Tickets for the March 7 recital range from $16 to $35. The Broad Stage is located at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. in Santa Monica. For more information, visit http://thebroadstage.com or call 310-434-3200.
The recital in New York City on March 16, which will be live-streamed, will be presented as part of OPERA America's Emerging Artist Recital Series, which was inaugurated in September by 2012 Music Academy of the West Marilyn Horne Song Competition winners Tracy Cox and Maureen Zoltek. The National Opera Center is located at 330 Seventh Avenue. Tickets, which are $20, can be purchased online at www.operaamerica.org/recitals.

Tickets for the March 4th recital in Santa Barbara are $25 general admission and $10 for students. For more information, visit www.musicacademy.org. Tickets for the March 7th recital at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center range from $16 to $35. For more information, visit http://thebroadstage.com or call 310-434-3200. The recital in New York City will be at the National Opera Center on March 16th. Tickets, which are $20, can be purchased online at www.operaamerica.org/recitals.

If you can't make any of the recitals, you're in luck as the March 16th performance will be live-streamed as part of OPERA America's Emerging Artist Recital Series.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Hottest cast in opera assembled in Omaha for Handel's Agrippina

Doug Williams (photo:Kevin McDermott)

Perhaps the best looking cast currently assembled for any opera performance worldwide is in Omaha. The Nebraska company is located about seven hours from the nearest major opera company in Chicago, but that hasn't stopped them from creating some major buzz in the opera world. The cast of their upcoming performances of Handel's Agrippina includes not only some of the best young baroque singers in the world today, but some of the best looking singers across the entire range of voices.

Agrippina, written in 1710, is considered Handel's first operatic masterpiece and a surprising comic gem. The Opera Omaha production premieres an original edition of the opera prepared by conductor and early music specialist Stephen Stubbs.

Agrippina cast: Hadleigh Adams, Peabody Southwell, Nathan Medley, Jamie-Rose Guarrine, Jennifer Rivera, Zachary Wilder and Douglas Williams (left to right)

There are two bass-baritone roles in the opera, the larger role of Claudio the emperor and Pallante, one of two men that Agrippina pledges to marry. Both roles are being sung by two of the sexiest men in opera.

Claudio is sung by former model and rising superstar Hadleigh Adams. He established himself as a Handel singer to be reckoned with at the 2012 Merola Grand Finale when he performed “Somnus awake! ... Leave me loathsome light … More sweet is that name” from Handel's Semele with Suzanne Rigden and Erin Johnson. Later that year, Adams wowed critics and audiences in another early music piece when he portrayed Pollux in Rameu's Castor & Pollux with Pinchgut Opera in Australia. He also showed off some seriously gym-toned arms [see below].

The role of Claudio includes the great bass aria "Vieni, oh cara."

Hadleigh Adams in Castor & Pollux

Since his debut with the Boston Early Music Festival in 2003, Doug Williams has gone on to establish himself as one of the most compelling low voices in early music. The Omaha production reunites him with conductor Stephen Stubbs, who led him in performances of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria in Seattle with the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa.

His list of successful early music performances includes Purcell’s King Arthur with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato with Tafelmusik, Aeneas in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Polyphemus in Handel's Acis and Galatea and Jesus in the recoring of Bach’s Johannes-Passion with the Yale Schola Cantorum. He can also be heard on the recording of Lully’s Psyché with the Boston Early Music Festival, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording of 2008.

The remainder of the cast includes the brilliant and gorgeous young mezzo Jennifer Rivera as Nerone, who is married to the prematurely retired barihunk Michael Rice. She'll be joined by Nathan Medley as Ottone, Zachary Wilder as Narciso, Jamie-Rose Guarrine as Poppea and Peabody Southwell in the title role of Agrippina.

Performances are February 14 and 16 and tickets are available online.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Barihunks and Mariusz Kwiecien together in The Telegraph

We're big fans of music critic Rupert Christiansen in The Telegraph, so we were thrilled when his profile on über-barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien included a link to our site and a mention in the headline. Christiansen goes on to write:

"...another erotic phenomenon in classical music has gone wild on the internet: the cult of “the barihunk”. Its pitch is that the more palpitating charm in opera emanates not from purveyors of high Cs but gym-buffed baritones with smouldering voices to match their six-pack abs."

We love being included in an article on Mariusz Kwiecien, since he was the original inspiration to create the site. Early discussions were actually about creating a Kwiecien fan site, but it seemed too limiting and casting a wider net seemed much more interesting.

Mariusz Kwiecien as Don Giovanni (photo: Bill Cooper)

Kwiecien has just opened at the Royal Opera House in Kasper Holten's amazing production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, which we recently previewed. The cast also includes barihunks Alex Esposito as his sidekick Leporello and the thrilling Alexander Tsymbalyuk as the Commendatore.

The entire run is sold out through the final performance on February 24th. Don't fret if you missed buying tickets, as the February 12th performance will be broadcast live to cinemas in Europe. and taped for screenings worldwide throughout March. If you're in Europe, check the Royal Opera House website for listings. If you're outside of Europe, check your local movie listings.

Kwiecien will appear next at the Vienna State Opera in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin from March 7-14, before returning to the Metropolitan Opera from April 17-May 10 in Bellini's I Puritani.