Waltteri Torikka advances to final round in MTV competition

May 5, 2015, 9:32 pm

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Waltteri Torikka sings Fiddler on the Roof

Finnish barihunk Waltteri Torikka has advanced to the final round of the singing pop competition Tähdet, tähdet on MTV against Laura Voutilainen.

The two will compete head-to-head on Sunday to see who takes away the top prize. With Broadway musicals being the theme this week, Voutilainen sang  "Memory" from Cats and "All That Jazz" from Chicago, while Torikka sang "Stars" from Les Miserables and "If I were a rich man" from Fiddler on the Roof. The judges have praised him for his versatility and he has become a fan favorite with viewers.

You can watch his performances HERE and HERE.

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"That it should come to this," Wes Mason plays Hamlet

May 6, 2015, 10:28 am

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Wes Mason as Hamlet

Barihunk Wes Mason is back at the Fort Worth Opera festival where he had his breakthrough performance as the gay Cuban activist Reinaldo Arenas in the 2010 world premiere production of Jorge Martín's Before Night Falls.

This time he's taking on the iconic role of Hamlet in Ambroise Thomas' opera in director Thaddeus Strassberger’s staging, which places the action in a pre-WWII Eastern European dictatorship. The production, which is a regional premiere, was originally conceived for the Washington National Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

He's joined in the opera by Talise Trevigne as Ophelia, Robynne Redmon as Gertrude, Kim Josephson as Claudius, Kevin Newell as Laertes, Stephen Clark as the Ghost, Dane Suarez as Marcellus, Nate Mattingly as Horatio, Wesley Gentle as Polonius and Matt Moeller and Brian Wallin as the gravediggers. 

There is one more performance on Sunday, May 10th at Bass Performance Hall and tickets are available online. On Friday, May 8th, Wes Mason will also sing excerpts from composer Clint Borzoni and librettist John De Los Santos'When Adonis Calls, which is part of the Festival's Frontiers series, a presentation of new operas that are under development.

Malte Roesner's beautiful photos from Heggie opera

May 7, 2015, 6:32 am

≫ Next: Colin Ramsey making role debut as Sarastro

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Malte Roesner, Markus Schneider (Photo © Volker Beinhorn)

Last month, we posted about barihunk Malte Roesner starring in the German language premiere of Jake Heggie's chamber opera For a Look or a Touch at the Staatstheater Braunschweig opening on May 2nd. We finally have some pictures of Roesner from the show.

Based on the true story of two teenage lovers that the Holocaust tore apart forever, the dramatic song cycle For a Look or a Touch casts light on the fate of gay Germans in the Holocaust. The libretto, written by Heggie's frequent collaborator Gene Scheer, juxtaposes the exuberant freedom of pre-World War II Berlin with the brutal Nazi horrors that followed, while making an impassioned plea for remembrance.

Malte Roesner, Markus Schneider (Photo © Volker Beinhorn)

Coming out of retirement to portray Gad Beck, an eighty year old gay survivor of the Holocaust, is famed German actor Jost Leers.  Gad Beck is an 80-year-old survivor of the Holocaust who is haunted by the memories of his first love Manfred, who died in a concentration camp at age 19.

The piece will be performed along with Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Another Sunrise, a 17-minute music drama performed by chamber quintet and soprano. The two Heggie pieces with be performed with  Ilse, the story Ilse Koch, the wife of a camp commandant at Buchenwald, with text taken from the original trials.

Malte Roesner in For a Look or a Touch(Photo © Volker Beinhorn)

There are additional performances of For a Look or a Touch on May 7, 16, 23 and June 14, 24, 28. You can also catch Roesner at the Staatstheater Braunschweig in Werner Egk's operatic version of Peer Gynt opening on May 17 and running through June 13. In July, he sings the role of Silvano at the theater in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, which opens on June 28 and running through July 20. Luca Grassi sings the role of Renato.

Colin Ramsey making role debut as Sarastro

May 7, 2015, 2:32 pm

≫ Next: Carmen's barihunk trio being broadcast twice (with alternating Escamillos)

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Colin Ramsey

American bass-barihunk Colin Ramsey will be making his role debut as Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute in a collaboration between the Pacific Musicworks and the University of Washington. The "new concept" for the opera will be directed by Dan Wallace Miller and conducted by early music specialist Stephen Stubbs. Fellow barihunk Geoffrey Penar will sing the role of Papageno.

Geoffrey Penar

 Performances are on Friday, May 8th and Sunday, May 10th in Meany Hall at the Univeristy of Washington. Tickets are available online. You can follow Colin Ramsey on Twitter @CBRamseyBass.

Carmen's barihunk trio being broadcast twice (with alternating Escamillos)

May 7, 2015, 10:59 pm

≫ Next: Wes Mason's tour de force in Texas

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Carmen's barihunk trio: Valdis Jansons, Ricardo Crampton & John Paul Huckle

There will be two free, live streaming broadcast of Bizet's Carmen from the Teatro Carlo Felice, with alternating Escamillos. The first one is on Friday, May 8th at 8 PM CET/2 PM EST featuring Mattia Olivieri as Escamillo, John Paul Huckle as Zuniga and Ricardo Crampton as Morales. The second broadcast will be on Tuesday, May 12th at 3 PM CET/9 AM EST. In the second broadcast Valdis Jansons will sing Escamillo. Click HERE to watch the live stream.

Carmen will be rotated between Sonia Ganassi on May 8th and Anna Malavasi on May 12th. You can see the opera live until May 17th.

Wes Mason's tour de force in Texas

May 9, 2015, 2:34 pm

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Wes Mason as Hamlet (photos by Ellen Apple Photography)

Barihunk Wes Mason had quite a run at the Fort Worth Opera Festival where he took on two challenging role. On Sunday, May 10th he'll close as Hamlet in Ambroise Thomas' opera. The role is one of the most challenging in the French repertory for a baritone. In director Thaddeus Strassberger’s staging, the action takes place in a pre-WWII Eastern European dictatorship. We have some new photos from Ellen Appel Photography that we wanted to share from the production, which we didn't have for our original post.

Wes Mason sings Clint Borzoni's "Two Nooses" from "When Adonis Calls":

As if Hamlet wasn't enough to sing, on Friday, May 8th he sang three excerpts from composer Clint Borzoni and librettist John De Los Santos'When Adonis Calls, which is part of the Festival's Frontiers series, a presentation of new operas that are under development. That performance included the tour de force aria "Two Nooses" sung by the Poet. His muse was fellow baritone Matt Moeller. All of the text is based on poetry by Gavin Geoffrey Dillard. 

Here is the text to the aria:

I have two nooses, one for you and one for me. 

Let's die to this life and be born again, together

on a farm somewhere, where time is snail-paced and

two dusty lads may share a bed. Let's quiver and

giggle during thunderstorms and gawk dumbfounded at

endless skies full of tireless stars. 

Let us die now together from our lands so far apart, where sirens

shriek, where soulless politicians wave and

rant and preachers vomit vile vitriol about anyone who

doesn't eat the same pathetic breakfast cereal; let us

meet together in a land rules by hobbits, dwarves, and

dinosaurs in flannel vests...

I have two nooses, both weaved from letters and

poems received and sent. They contain your dreams, your

faith, your scent; I share one with you, my poet my

friend, with the queries: What is life, if but the brutal matrix of aloneness; and

What is love, if not worth dying for?

Matt Treviño's ghostly German debut in Leipzig

May 10, 2015, 11:29 am

≫ Next: Matt Moeller and Wes Mason sing "A Garden of Teeth"

≪ Previous: Wes Mason's tour de force in Texas

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Matt Treviño as the Canterville Ghost

American bass-barihunk Matt Treviño is making his German debut at Opera Leipzig as the ghost in Gordon Getty’s opera The Canterville Ghost, based on Oscar Wilde’s story of the same name.

Wilde’s anti-ghost story, which was first published in the newspaper "The Court and Society Review" in 1887, tells the tale of a ghost who fears those he’s supposed to be haunting. Both Bram Stoker, who penned Dracula ten years later, and Wilde tackled changing belief systems in a rational and enlightened era. In The Canterville Ghost,  Wilde satirizes his generation’s meaningless preoccupation with the occult and paranormal phenomena.


The opera opened on May 9 and additional performances are scheduled for May14 and June 14 and 24. The Canterville Ghost is being paired with Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. 

Matt Moeller and Wes Mason sing "A Garden of Teeth"

May 10, 2015, 5:50 pm

≫ Next: Opera singer Waltteri Torikka wins MTV competition

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Matt Moeller & Wes Mason

After the instant popularity of our post featuring Wes Mason singing "Two Nooses" from Clint Borzoni's "When Adonis Calls," we thought we'd share the duet, as well. The performances are from Frontiers, the new opera workshop at the Fort Worth Opera. The selection features Matt Moeller as the Muse and Wes Mason as the Poet, and is conducted by Tyson Deaton with accompaniment by Stephen Carey at the piano.

The libretto was constructed by John de los Santos from the poems of Gavin Geoffrey Dillard. It tells the story of an accomplished author, called the Poet, who is struggling with writer’s block and isolation. He is contacted by an eager young fan, known as the Muse, who is interested in both an artistic and personal correspondence. At first reluctant, the Poet joins the Muse in a sensual game of literary discovery that leads the two into unexpected realms of unbridled eroticism. Through their poems, they unleash one another’s pasts, demons, and secret longings. Their harmonized writings culminate with a final meeting in the flesh that transcends beyond what either of them ever believed was possible when they first put pen to paper.

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Opera singer Waltteri Torikka wins MTV competition

May 10, 2015, 6:22 pm

≫ Next: Get to know the Fort Worth Opera singers

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Waltteri Torikka during the finale of Tähdet, Tähdet

Finnish barihunk Waltteri Torikka won MTV's singing competition Tähdet, Tähdet (Stars, Stars) garnering 58% of the vote and bringing the audience to its feet with his own hip swinging rendition of Ricky Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca.  Sunday's finale culminated a two month journey that included performances of Whitesnake's Still of Night, a country version of "Ring of Fire," the punk rock song "Hei hei mitä kuuluu," a Finnish tango, and even an Ozzy Osbourne-esque version of Scarpia from Tosca!

 Waltteri Torikka sings Livin' La Vida Loca:

Waltteri Torikka finished ahead of Laura Voutilainen. Both finalists performed three songs during the finale. Torikka was a relatively unknown opera singers to most Finns when the competition began, but quickly became a fan favorite with his energetic and often sexually charged renditions of pieces. 

He now heads to the Rijeka Opera in Croatia to sing the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni from May 21-29. Fans in the UK can see him on August 29th at the Proms, where he will be performing Jean Sibelius'Kullervo.

Get to know the Fort Worth Opera singers

May 11, 2015, 1:13 pm

≫ Next: Davide Luciano in Jommelli rarity

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Baritones Trevor Martin, Matt Moeller, Wes Mason, Stephen Clark and Wes Gentile

We made our annual trek to the Fort Worth Opera Festival again this year and hosted another barihunk lunch. It was attended by baritones Trevor Martin, Matt Moeller, Wes Mason, Stephen Clark and Wes Gentile. Normally, we always invite a single Honorary Tenor, but this year we had three of them, as Dane Suarez, Brian Wallin and Kevin Newell joined us. 

In an effort to get to know the singers a little better this year, we asked them some questions, which we'd like to share with our readers. Here are the baritone responses.

I'm a self-proclaimed expert on:

Trevor Martin: Game of Thrones

Matt Moeller: College Sports

Wes Mason: Sharks

Stephen Clark: The Bible

Wes Gentile: Nicolas Cage

David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's next opera should be about [blank] and feature me as [blank]

Trevor Martin: Bruce Jenner....Bruce Jenner

Matt Moeller: Game of Thrones...All the Dragons

Wes Mason: The Wild West...Doc Holliday

Stephen Clark: Mice Minutes...Mouse #3

Wes Gentile: Neal DeGrasse Tyson...A Dying Star

Secret Midnight Snack:

Trevor Martin: Whiteburger

Matt Moeller: Sweet potato chips

Wes Mason: Buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks

Stephen Clark: Wendy's

Wes Gentile: Dark chocolate-covered raisins

At age 10 I dreamed of being a....

Trevor Martin: Skywalker in Star Wars

Matt Moeller: Baseball player

Wes Mason: Marine Biologist

Stephen Clark: Writer

Wes Gentile: Primatologist

My pet peave is...

Trevor Martin: Bad drivers

Matt Moeller: Chewing with your mouth open

Wes Mason: Entitlement

Stephen Clark: Ungrateful people

Wes Gentile: Explaining a punchline

My least favorite character in opera is...

Trevor Martin: Micaëla

Matt Moeller: Gianetta

Wes Mason: Everyone in La sonnambula

Stephen Clark: Carmen

Wes Gentile: Chairman Mao's wife

Tenors Dane Suarez, Brian Wallin and Kevin Newell

Here are the tenor responses.

I'm a self-proclaimed expert on:

Dane Suarez: Guessing temperatures with my hands

Brian Wallin: Trolling Facebook for funny animal videos

Kevin Newell: [Declined to answer]

David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's next opera should be about [blank] and feature me as [blank]:

Dane Suarez: Taylor the latte boy...Taylor

Brian Wallin: A cat....the owner

Kevin Newell: Dune...A sand worm

Secret Midnight Snack:

Dane Suarez: Cheese

Brian Wallin: Sonic

Kevin Newell: Ben & Jerry's 

At age 10 I dreamed of being a(n)....

Dane Suarez: Artist

Brian Wallin: NASCAR driver

Kevin Newell: Butler

My pet peave is...

Dane Suarez: Taylor Swift

Brian Wallin: Mouth noises

Kevin Newell: Social media

My least favorite character in opera is...

Dane Suarez: Micaëla

Brian Wallin: Pamina

Kevin Newell: Micaëla

Davide Luciano in Jommelli rarity

May 11, 2015, 8:09 pm

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≪ Previous: Get to know the Fort Worth Opera singers

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Davide Luciano

Barihunk Davide Luciano will be performing the role of Gernando in Niccolò Jommelli’s rarely performed L'isola disabitata (The Desert Island) at the Teatro di San Carlo from May 14-20.

The opera was composed in 1761 with a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, which was also set by Haydn. The plot concerns Costanza, abandoned (or so she believes) by Gernando on a desert island, along with her sister, Silva. Gernando and his friend, Enrico, have in fact been taken captive by pirates. Gernando discovers an inscription in a rock which leads him to think Constanza is dead, but disaster is averted and a happy ending ensues. 

Joining Luciano in the cast are Raffaella Milanesi as Costanza. Alessandro Scotto Luzio as Enrico, Silvia Frigato as Silvia  and Antonella Morea Rinaldo as Matilde Serao. Alessandrini, who has performed this opera before, conducts.

You can listen to Roberto Abbondanza sing Gernando's aria Non turbar quand'io mi lagno by clicking HERE. 

Davide Luciano, was born in Benevento, Italy to a family of musicians. Before taking up singing, he played piano, percussion, bass and classical guitar. When he was 19 he began studying voice with the baritone Gioacchino Zarrelli. Five  years later, he won his first competition and was awarded "Best New Artist" at the Associazione Lirica e Concertistica Italiana. He subsequently made ​​his debut as Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Opera domani, followed by his debut at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro as Don Profondo in Rossini's comic masterpiece Il viaggio a Reims under the baton of Alberto Zedda. He won first prize and the audience prize at the Premio internazionale di canto lirico Santa Chiara in Naples. 

Clint Borzoni's erotic "When Adonis Calls" to get NY workshop premiere

May 12, 2015, 10:18 am

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Grant Youngblood and Michael Weyandt

If you live in New York and missed the new opera workshop at Frontiers at the Fort Worth Opera, you're in luck. There will be a workshop reading of the sensational new work by composer Clint Borzoni and librettist John De Los Santos presented by operamission on Thursday, May 21 at 8 PM in the rehearsal hall at OPERA America's National Opera Center (330 Seventh Avenue at 29th Street) in New York.

The Poet will be sung by Grant Youngblood and The Muse by Michael Weyandt. The performance will feature string quartet and percussion and be conducted by Jennifer Peterson. The opera is based on the homoerotic poetry of Gavin Geoffrey Dillard.

You can watch the clips from Frontiers, which feature Tyson Deaton conducting with piano accompaniment by Stephen Carey. Wes Mason sang The Poet and Matt Moeller sang The Muse.

John De Los Santos and Clint Borzoni discuss "When Adonis Calls"

Matt Moeller and Wes Mason sing "A Garden of Teeth"

Wes Mason sings "Two Nooses"

The performance will also include the world premiere of Clint Borzoni's song cycle "Earth, my likeness" featuring countertenor Daniel Bubeck. The piece is based on the poems of Constantine Cavafy, May Swenson and Walt Whitman.

Tickets are $20 in advance and are available online.

Iurii Samoilov making role debut as Don Giovanni

May 14, 2015, 7:14 am

≫ Next: Randal Turner to make role debut as Ned Keene

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Iurii Samoilov as Don Giovanni (left), The Frankfurt Opera production (right) Photo © Monika Rittershaus

Iurii Samoilov will be making his role debut at the Frankfurt Opera as Don Giovanni on May 30th in the company's heralded production by Christof Loy. He was originally alternating the role of Masetto with fellow barihunk Bjorn Bürger. He'll also be appearing as the Don on June 5, 13, 26 and 28, before turning the role over to Daniel Schmutzhard in July. Somoilov will be joined by Simon Bailey as Leporello and Kihwan Sim as Masetto.

Until May 23, he's performing Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola. Earlier this season, he appeared with the company in Wagner's Parsifal, Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Puccini's Labohème, 

Iurii Samoilov in Theatre Basel's Cosi by Calixto Bieito (Photo ©Ismael Lorenzo)

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.

Randal Turner to make role debut as Ned Keene

May 15, 2015, 6:33 am

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Randal Turner

It's just been announced that Randal Turner will be replacing Christoph Plessers as Ned Keene in Britten's Peter Grimes at the Theater Koblenz. This will be his role debut and his third Benjamin Britten character, having previously performed Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Pisa and Mr. Redburn in Billy Budd in Torino.

Ned Keene is an apothecary and quack who supplies the old widow Mrs Sedley with her pills. He also finds a new apprentice for Grimes after the last one mysteriously disappeared at sea. To cause a distraction and thus avoid an unpleasant scene in the Boar, he leads the crowd in the round of the sea shantly "Old Joe has gone fishing." The role was created by Edmund Donlevy in 1945 at Sadler's Wells in London.

Performances run from May 30 to July 3. He'll be joined in the cast by Ray M. Wade, Jr. as Peter Grimes, Aurea Marston as Ellen Orford and Jongmin Lim as Swallow. Additional cast and ticket information is available online.

There are a number of performances of Peter Grimes throughout Europe this year, including in Ulm, Vienna, Saarbrucken, Reykjavik, Mönchengladbach, Krefeld and Berlin. 

Zachary Gordin in live broadcast of Carmina Burana

May 15, 2015, 7:11 am

≫ Next: Charles Rice to make role debut as Eugene Onegin

≪ Previous: Randal Turner to make role debut as Ned Keene

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Zachary Gordin appears to have found a gym in San Antonio, TX

Barihunk Zachary Gordin is performing Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio. The performance will be available online on May 17th at 7 PM CST.

The performance will be conducted by Music Director Troy Peters and also features the San Antonio Choral Society, the Children’s Chorus of San Antonio, and several other local choirs. Gordin will be joined by soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine and tenor Ryland Angel.

If you can attend in person, tickets are available online.

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Charles Rice to make role debut as Eugene Onegin

May 15, 2015, 11:05 am

≫ Next: Evan Boyer to peform first Verdi Requiem in Florence

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Charles Rice and Gelena Gaskarova in Eugene Onegin

British barihunk will be making his role debut as Eugene Onegin in Tchaikovsky's operatic masterpiece in Nantes and Angers. He previously performed the role of Zaretsky in the opera at the Iford Festival Opera. He'll be part of an all-star cast that includes Gelena Gaskarova as Tatiana, Diana Montague as Madame Larina, Oleg Tsibulko as Prince Gremin and Suren Maksutov as Lensky.

The opera will run from May 19-28 at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes and then be performed at the Grand Théâtre in Angers on June 14 and 16.

Charles Rice in 2012 singing Eugene Onegin in recital:

Recent engagements have included Sid in Britten's Albert Herring with the English Touring Opera, Ned Keene in Britten's Peter Grimes at the Aldeburgh Festival, Morales in Bizet's Carmen at theRoyal Albert Hall and Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca for Grange Park Opera. Rice studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio. He was a finalist at Les Azuriales Young Artists Competition 2009 in France and winner of the Garsington Prize 2009.

In December, he heads to the Stasttheater Klagenfurt to sing Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen.

Evan Boyer to peform first Verdi Requiem in Florence

May 16, 2015, 6:41 am

≫ Next: Craig Verm in free recital at Dallas Museum of Art

≪ Previous: Charles Rice to make role debut as Eugene Onegin

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The Verdi Requiem, one of the greatest works of the Italian repertory will get its first ever performance in Florence on Sunday, May 17th.

Florence, South Carolina that is, not Florence, Italy. For the record, the Requiem, which premiered on May 22, 1874 at the San Marco Church in Milan, was performed in Florence, Italy the following year, as well as throughout most of Europe.

The Florence, South Carolina premiere will feature bass-barihunk Evan Boyer and the Masterworks Choir along with tenor Robert Watson, mezzo-soprano Katherine Pracht and soprano Huanhuan Ma.
The concert will take place at the Francis Marion University and is free to the public. The 80-voice choir is led by Dr. William Carswell, associate professor of music at Coker College.

Evan Boyer began the current season with Seattle Opera as Masetto in Don Giovanni. He sang Mozart’s Requiem with the Houston and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, followed by Händel’s Messiah with the Jacksonville Symphony. This summer he will sing Ramfis in Verdi's Aida and the Bonze in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Wolf Trap Opera.

Craig Verm in free recital at Dallas Museum of Art

May 16, 2015, 7:02 am

≫ Next: Christopher Maltman's sexy Oreste getting two runs at Salzburg

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Craig Verm's photo from the 2015 Barihunks Calendar

Barihunk Criag Verm, who was featured in our 2015 Barihunks Calendar, will perform a free recital on May 23 at the Dallas Museum of Art.

The recital is sponsored by the Dallas Opera, where he starred as Doug Hansen in the Dallas Opera’s world premiere of Joby Talbot's Everest. He’ll perform works by Mahler, Richard Strauss and Korngold. Both recitals, planned to coincide with the Dallas Opera’s Soluna festival, will be at the DMA’s Horchow Auditorium. He'll be accompanied by his wife Karen Roethlisberger Verm at the piano. Call 214-443-1000 for tickets or additional information.

Next season, the Dallas Opera will present the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Great Scott, Puccini's Tosca, Mark Adamo's Becoming Santa Claus, Massenet's Manon and Show Boat. Manon will feature the exciting US stage debut of Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Lescaut.

Christopher Maltman's sexy Oreste getting two runs at Salzburg

May 17, 2015, 7:47 am

≫ Next: Erik Larson makes role debut at Billy Bigelow

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There will be two opportunities to see the highly successful production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride at the 2015 Whitsun Festival at Salzburg, which still has two performances remaining on May 22 and 25. If you can't make the current run, it will be revived from August 19-28 and opening night is already sold out.

The opera features barihunk Christopher Maltman as Oreste in the best shape of his life (which is saying something!). He'll be joined in the cast by Cecilia Bartoli as Iphigénie, Michael Kraus as Thoas and Rolando Villazón as Pylade.

With Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck took the final step in his mission of operatic reform, radically distancing himself from both the formulaic opera seria, with its rigid sequence of numbers, and traditional French opera, creating a psychologically sound musical drama with self-contained scenes and integrated arias.

Gluck had long since given the chorus an active role, and in this work, the ballet scenes that were obligatory in Paris are no longer harmless, non-committal amusements, but organically integrated in the action. Gluck stated that opera “...should speak the language of the heart, credibly portray great human passions, and serve poetry.”

Visit the Salzburg Festival website for additional information.

Erik Larson makes role debut at Billy Bigelow

May 17, 2015, 5:57 pm

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Erik Larson as Billy Bigelow

We first met Erik Larson busting out of his pants two years ago and we instantly fell so in love with the Midwestern barihunk. Now he's singing "So In Love" for the first time ever as Billy Bigelow in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical Carousel. It's is role debut and it played for two nights at the Middleton Players Theatre in Wisconsin. He'll also sing the beautiful Soliloquy, which is one of the most famous baritone arias from a Broadway musical 

Gordon McRae sings Soliloquy from Carousel:

Known as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s favorite of all their collaborations, Carousel tells the beautiful and heartwrenching story of a young woman who falls in love with a roustabout carnival barker. Carousel is based on Ferenc Molnár's Hungarian-language drama, Liliom, which premiered in Budapest in 1909. Except for the ending, the plots of Liliom and Carousel are very similar.

Famous interpreters of Billy Bigelow have included John Raitt, Gordon MacRae, Stephen Douglass, Robert Goulet, Nathan Gunn, Bruce Yarnell, Michael Hayden, Howard Keel and Patrick Wilson.