Joshua Jeremian in Barber/Menotti rarity

Joshua Jeremiah

Barihunk Joshua Jeremiah will be playing David in Vital Opera's production of Samuel Barber and Gian-Carlo Menotti's Four Hands of Bridge! 

A Hand of Bridge--a nine minute opera that briefly, but powerfully, touches on themes of societal expectation, commercialism, marital infidelity, greed, repression, isolation, and loss of love... all over one hand of bridge.  It premiered as a part of Menotti’s Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto on June 17, 1959 at the Teatro Caio Melisso. 

The piece is possibly the shortest opera that is regularly performed: it lasts about nine minutes. However, Vital Opera will present four consecutive performances of A Hand of Bridge by the same cast, for the same audience. Audience members will be encouraged to change seats if they like, in order to gain an additional perspective as the evening progresses. These performances will then be followed by a guided conversation between audience and performers about the whole experience.

Jeremiah will be joined by tenor Brent Reilly Turner as Bill, Jeremy Carlisle Parker as Geraldine and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Panara as Sally. Performances are on April 21 and 22, at 8pm. Tickets are $20 ($15 for seniors and students) and are available online.

 

Waltteri Torikka advances to finals of MTV competition

The many faces of Waltteri Torikka on Finnish MTV

Barihunk Waltteri Torikka is competing on a voice competition called Tähdet, Tähdet (Stars, Stars) on Finnish MTV and this week's challenge is Heavy Metal. So he took some time out with David Coverdale from White Snake to work on his rocker technique. You can watch the video HERE.

Over the weeks he's had to perform a number of different genres, including country, punk, tango, Latin pop and even some opera. He's currently one of the finalists in the competition. You can enjoy his performances below.

Country version of "Ring of Fire":

Punk rock song "Hei hei mitä kuuluu" (Hey, hey, what's up?):

The Finnish Tango "Satumaa" (Fairyland):

Singing "Livin' La Vida Loca":

He even sang an Ozzy Osbourne-esque version of Scarpia!:

You can hear Waltteri Torikka live this month on tour with the Concert Band of the Conscript Band of the Finnish Defence Forces. He's the featured soloist on their Finlandia Tour, which plays April 10th in Mikkeli, April 11th in Tampere, April 13th at the Hyvinkää Church and April 14 in Lahti. 

Introducing British bass-barihunk Tristan Hambleton

Tristan Hambleton

Tristan Hambleton, who will be competing in the semi-finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards competition on April 22nd, is new to this site. The British bass-barihunk is currently a member of the Opera School at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was awarded the Tom Hammond Opera Prize.  He is an alumnus of St John’s College Cambridgea and Heidelberg Universität, where he pursued his studies in German.

Tristan Hambleton as a bass-baritone and a treble

Hambleton enjoyed considerable success as a treble soloist performing with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Les Arts Florissant in France and at the BBC Proms, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and with various orchestras in many of the major London venues.

In recent years he has established a career as a recitalist and concert singer appearing with orchestras such as The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Hallé, Devon Baroque, Camerata Viva Tübingen and The London Mozart Players.

On the opera stage he has appeared as Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for Hampstead Garden Opera, Re di Scozia in Handel’s Ariodante for Royal Academy Opera, Cadmus in Handel's Semele for Jackdaw’s, Bottom in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Edinburgh Fringe for the award-winning Shadwell Opera.

Tristan Hambleton

In Wagner’s bicentenary year. Hambleton was asked by Sir Mark Elder to sing the role of Herman Ortel in the Halle's concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bridgewater Hall and has since been invited back to sing the bass solos in the Mozart Requiem with the orchestra.

On May 10th, he'll be performing Mozart's Mass in C minor, K427 with the Mayfield Festival Choir. This summer, Tristan will be joining the chorus at the Glyndebourne Opera for their festival season.

You can listen to him sing Tchaikovsky's None But the Lonely Heart HERE

Biser Georgiev's sexy Scarpia in Sofia

Biser Georgiev as Scarpia this season (left) and in 2013 (right)

A fan in Sofia, Bulgaria alerted us to Bulgarian barihunk Biser Georgiev, who apparently has developed quite a reputation at the opera house for his feral, open-shirted Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca. The Varma born singer has performed the role for the Sofia National Opera the last three seasons. He's been performing the evil police chief since he debuted it with the Prague State Opera in the 2007-08 season, with critics singling him out for "stealing the show."

We've always maintained that a sexy Scarpia adds to the sexual and dramatic tension of the Act 2 rape scene. We're glad to see that the Sofia National Opera has stuck with this concept, which is clearly popular with the audience.

Georgiev has sung a number of roles with the company, including Alberich in Wagner's Ring Cycle, Don Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio, the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto, Amonasro in Verdi's Aida and Alfio in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.

Iurii Samoilov's busy Spring with the Frankfurt Opera

Iurii Samoilov showing off his barihunk credentials

Iurii Samoilov post the picture on the left after the closing of his run as Marcello in Puccini's La bohème at the Frankfurt Opera. He takes the stage again in two days as one of the Knights of the Holy Grail in the final night of Wagner's Parsifal with the company.

On May 10th, he takes over the role of Dandini from fellow barihunk Bjorn Bürger in Rossini's La Cenerentola. The production runs until May 23. After singing Tracolin in Adams' Le Torreador in Palermo and Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, he returns to the company on June 5th. He'll be alternating the role of Masetto in Don Giovanni with Bjorn Bürger in Christof Loy's production.

Iurii Samoilov sings Verdi's "Nell'orror di notte oscura"

Samoilov joined the ensemble at the Frankfurt Opera this season after having been part of their Opera Studio since 2012. His debut with the company was as the Embittered Gambler in Prokofiev's The Gambler.

Samoilov graduated from the National Music Academy of Ukraine in 2011 and in 2009 he was the youngest singer to ever reach the finals at the Neue Stimmen Competition in Germany.

Barihunk duo in mariachi opera

Ricardo Rivera as Acalán

The Lyric Opera of Chicago just wrapped up a run of Jose “Pepe” Martinez’s mariachi opera El Pasado Nunca Se Termina/The Past Is Never Finished, which included the barihunk duo of Paul La Rosa as Enrique and Ricardo Rivera as Acalán.

The opera will now travel to the revamped San Diego Opera on April 25 for a day/night doubleheader and then head to the Houston Grand Opera for performances on May 13, 16, and 17 at the Wortham Theater Center.  The duo will be joined by the internationally renowned ensemble Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, soprano Abigail Santos Villalobos and the gifted young tenor Daniel Montenegro.  

Paul La Rosa as Enrique

El Pasado is the second mariachi opera from the creative team of José "Pepe" Martínez and Leonard Foglia, who collaborated to create the international hit Cruzar la Cara de la Luna/To Cross the Face of the Moon.

The story takes place in Morelos, Mexico in 1910, where the son of a wealthy European landowner falls in love with a humble Mexican servant girl living on his family's hacienda. The story begins on the eve of the Mexican Revolution and blazes a riveting path through forbidden passion, the fight for freedom, and political destiny all the way to the modern-day United States.

Barihunks confounding Susanna offstage in Vienna Marriage

Degout and Esposito

Two of our favorite singers in the world, Alex Esposito and Stéphane Degout, are appearing together in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro from April 11-22 at the Theater and der Wien. Degout is singing the Count, while Esposito takes on Figaro.

The two have been having fun on Facebook posting pictures of themselves "napping" at rehearsals. We're not quite sure how Susanna feels about her beloved Figaro ending up in bed with the Count, but it certainly adds an interesting (offstage) twist to the story.

Alex Esposito and Stéphane Degout

When the two barihunks wrap up their onstage and offstage fun in Vienna they will head their separate ways. Esposito will stick to Mozart taking on his signature role of Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House in London from June 12-25. Degout will head to the Paris Opera to sing Apollo in Gluck's Alceste (and Team Barihunks will be in the audience). That performance runs from June 16-July 15,