Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja - Simon Keenlyside

This is dedicated to the two sisters who can't seem to go a month without seeing Simon Keenlyside on Barihunks. He may be the hottest barihunk over 40 (Nathan Gunn is 39).

Our Michael Rice Crush

Barihunks has to confess to having a major crush on Michael Rice, who just finished a run at Castleton, which we covered extensively. Unfortunately, we didn't feature "Steamy Rice" nearly enough.

Our excuse is that "Steamy Rice" played the role of the very unsexy Mr. Peachum in The Beggars Opera under Lorin Maazel. To our dismay, Rice has landed some pretty unsexy roles in his young career, landing parts in Ariadne, Butterfly, Fanciulla, Sonnambula and L'Italiana. We think directors need to start casting him in some Britten operas (which Castleton specialized in), Pearl Fishers, Dead Man Walking or any opera directed by a gay German, because Rice has the sexiest arms in all of opera (and the rest of him isn't too bad, either).

But "Steamy Rice" is more than a hot bod, he's also one of the funniest men in opera (who is actually trying to be funny.) His OperaNow! podcast is the most entertaining opera broadcast on the web. You can access it at iTunes or by clicking here.

The top photo is by David Deal and was part of an NPR feature where the camera seemed to stick to "Steamy Rice." The bottom two photos were sent to us by his colleagues at Castleton who really seemed to enjoy performing with him.

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What's THAT Between Ben Wager's Legs?

We've heard of "hung like a horse," but an actual horse between your legs deserves a posting on Barihunks. Here is Ben Wager enjoying a little playtime with his horsey.

The AVA graduate has joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he will perform Zuniga in Carmen, Angelotti in Tosca, and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. Additional engagements for 2009-10 include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Mozarteum of Salzburg under Ivor Bolton and Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Oregon Symphony, and his debut at Los Angeles Opera as Julian Pinelli in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten.

He is also scheduled debut at Opera Cleveland as Nourabad in Les pêcheurs de perles, Masetto in Don Giovanni at Dallas Opera, and as Nikitich and Chernikovsky in Boris Godunov.

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Meachem Makes Debut as Don Giovanni

Lucas Meachem is in Santa Fe making his debut as Don Giovanni. It looks like Meachem has slimmed down a little and appears to be joining a long list of modern day hunks taking on the title role. The bottom two pictures are from the current production.

Meachem will be performing a few other barihunk roles in the near future, including Billy Budd at the Paris Opera, which also includes barihunk Paul Gay as Mr. Fink. Before he heads off to Paris, he will be performing Valentin in Faust at the Lyric Opera of Chicago with barihunk Kyle Ketelsen as Méphistophélès.

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Tarquinius Challenge

[Photos: Project Opera of Manhattan, © 2008 Ken Howard]

Within hours after posting David Krohn as Tarquinius, this picture of Michael Krzankowski appeared from a former colleague of his in Seattle. This person claims that Krzankowski is hotter than Krohn or Matthew Worth, who we have hailed as the ultimate Tarquinius.

Krzankowski is from Chicago and earned his Master’s degree from the acclaimed Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. He is currently performing Barone Douphol in Glimmerglass Opera’s production of La Traviata. In November, he will return to the Seattle Opera's Young Artist's Program to perform Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte and Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos.

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Does Matthew Worth Have a Challenger in David Krohn?

[Photos: Project Opera of Manhattan, © 2008 Ken Howard]

David Krohn lives in New York City, where he is pursuing his Master's degree at Juilliard. He has performed a number of small roles with the Baltimore Opera.

Krohn is currently at the Aspen Music Festival singing the sexy role of Tarquinius with Jane Glover conducting. He had previously performed the role with Peabody Opera, but wearing substantially more clothing. Barihunks has a message to directors: Tarquinius should be shirtless and hunky, especially in the rape scene! If ever there was a moment to show some justifiable skin in opera, this is it (and David Krohn proves this point). The picture on the bottom is from Peabody and the others are from Aspen. Which performance would you rather see?

Krohn has performed the role of the Prison Inmate in Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” and we can’t wait for him to graduate to the role of Joseph De Rocher. He’s done some Mozart and other Britten roles, so I suspect that we’ll be seeing more of him on this site.

You can find out about show times at Aspen Music Festival, but good luck finding out about the cast. This is a disturbing trend, as Barihunks was sent a notice about the Banff Summer Arts Festival, which had some operas that might have included some great material for this site. However, there isn’t a cast list in sight and when we emailed them they replied that they couldn’t find one either.

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Paul LaRosa's Hot Chest and Big Balls

There is nothing that we love more than a barihunk who likes to show off some skin, especially when they look like Paul LaRosa. Here he his showing off his hot chest and big balls. Impressive, eh?

Reports from Castleton tell us that this cast is having a great time and putting on some amazing shows (on and off the stage!).

One has to think that it's not easy getting much attention when you're cast opposite barihunk Matthew Worth's Tarquinius, a role he practically owns. Even Allen Boxer as Collatinus could cause one's eye to wander. However, LaRosa can hold his own with any low-voiced stud singing in opera today.

Apparently, the singing wasn't to bad either. Charles Downey in the Washington Post reports that our barihunks sang as beautifully as they looked, "The incisive baritone and feral libido of Matthew Worth's Tarquinius stood out in the male cast, seconded by the powerfully resonant Junius of Paul LaRosa." "Libido" seemed to be the choice word of the critics as Steve Smith penned this about Worth, "Matthew Worth sang powerfully and prowled the stage with an unquenchable libido."

Finally, Barihunks would like to thank Benjamin Britten for providing us with an abundance of barihunk roles.

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