Quantcast
Channel: BARIHUNKS ®
Viewing all 1805 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Barihunk duo in French double-bill

June 1, 2015, 9:56 pm
$
0
0
Ben Connor (far left & right) with Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod and Julian Henao Gonzalez
The Theater an der Wien is presenting a double-bill of Ravel's L'heure espagnole with American barihunk Tobias Greenhalgh as Ramiro and Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tiresias with Australian barihunk as Ben Connor as Marì. Performances run through June 23.

Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc wrote their respective works with the hope that they would revive the genre of Italian opera buffa in the French language again. Although both operas failed initially at the Opéra Comique in Paris, both became staples of the standard repertory in the 20th century.

Tobias Greenhalgh in L'heure espagnole
Later this year at Theater an der Wien, Greenhalgh performs two roles in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea and Ned Keene in Britten's Peter Grimes. On June 25 and 27, Ben Connor performs the baritone solo in Orff's Carmina Burana at the Wiener Volksoper.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
Search

Richard Alexandre Rittlemann in finals of Armel Vocal Competition; Highlights overall talent

June 2, 2015, 7:04 am
$
0
0
Richard Alexandre Rittlemann
Richard Alexandre Rittlemann, who was featured in this year's Barihunk's calendar, has advanced to the final round of the Armel Vocal Competition. The competition is unique, as it seeks not just the best voice, but the best all-around performer, placing major emphasis on acting and stage movement. The singers actually have to perform in an opera that is co-produced with an opera house. This year's partner company's include the English Touring Company, Szeged National Theatre in Hungary, Muziektheater Transparent in Belgium, Cluj-Napoca Hungarian Opera and Josef Kajetán Tyl Theater in the Czech Republic. The final judging in on June 5th.

Anyone who watched Rittelmann in the disturbing broadcast of Birdwhistle's Punch and Judy at Neue Oper Wien will know what a complete performer he is.

Richard Alexandre Rittelmann in Punch & Judy
Rittelmann has a busy summer ahead of him. From June 15-20, he takes on three roles in the premiere of Alberto Caruso's Il Piccolo Principe (The Little Prince) in Turin. The opera is set in an airport in a 1950s ghost town 'in a terminal without borders or fixed routes. The piece is built around the concept of ​​carrying suitcase, which becomes a metaphor for what people carry around each day: our dreams and aspirations, our regrets and mistakes, as well as our good intentions.

From July 7-11, he'll appear in a double-bill of Offenbach's one-act, Paris-based operettas Pomme d'Api and M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le... (Mr. Cauliflower will be at home on... ) with the Chamber Opera of Geneva. The pieces will be conducted by Franco Trinca and directed by Jean Pierre Rousseau.

On August 5th, he'll perform Escamillo opposite the Carmen of Sandrine Sutter  at the French Festival Nuits Lyriques de Château Thuerry. The following night he'll perform French arias with accompanist Francois Rene. Additional information is available online.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
↧

Take Kasey Yeargain's young artist fitness survey

June 4, 2015, 9:04 am
$
0
0

BariChunk to BariHunk Kasey Yeargain

Kasey Yeargain, a.k.a. The Opera Bro, has created a survey to get an inventory of the fitness options available to young artists while they are at summer programs.  He is taking all of this information and making a free searchable database, so that singers can make plans on how to stay in shape while at these programs.

The results will help inform singers about gym availability, hours of operation, types of fitness programs, as well as the amount of free time you can expect to have at a summer program. You can access the survey HERE.

Kasey tells us that a number of singers list as one of their goals to "be featured on Barihunks." We couldn't be prouder! A healthy voice + a healthy body = a longer career and life.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Boheme's barihunk duo at Grange Park Opera

June 4, 2015, 3:05 pm
$
0
0
Nicholas Crawley and Quirijn de Lang
Grange Park Opera will have a Bohemian barihunk duo in their production of Puccini's La Bohéme that opens June 6 and runs through July 17th. Dutch barihunk Quirijn de Lang will sing Schaunard  opposite the Colline of British barihunk Nicholas Crawley.

Joining them in the cast are Susana Gaspar as Mimi, Gianluca Terranova as Rodolfo,  Kelebogile Pearl Besong as Musetta, Brett Polegato as Marcello and Nicholas Folwell as Benoit/Alcindoro.

Grange Park is also presenting Fiddler on the Roof with Bryn Terfel in the role of Reb Tevye, Eugene Onegin with Brett Polegato and Samson et Delila.  Tickets and additional production information are available online. Follow them on Twitter @grangeparkopera.

On October 18th, Nicholas Crawley makes his role debut as Bottom in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater.  In February 2016, he sings Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Nederlandse Reisoper.

Quirijn de Lang then heads off to sing Fred Graham/Petruchio in  Kiss Me Kate for Opera North from September 21-November 21. The production will be performed in Leeds, Newcastle, Salford Quays and Nottingham.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Stephen Hegedus in sexy double-bill

June 4, 2015, 4:43 pm
$
0
0
Stephen Hegedus and Krisztina Szabó
How could this marketing campaign not catch our attention?

Bass-barihunk Stephen Hegedus is currently performing Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin at Against the Grain in Toronto along with mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó performing Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi. They are joined by accompanist Topher Mokrzewski.

Director Joel Ivany has put together this double-bill of two very different sounding song cycles, tied together by Death/Desire. Die schöne Müllerin is comprised of twenty songs that move from cheerful optimism to despair and tragedy. Messiaen's Harawi features twelve songs centering around the death of two lovers, thus providing a vehicle from the composer's exploration of the theme of love-death central to the myth of Tristan and Isolde.

The show opened on June 2nd to great acclaim and seats are limited for the two remaining performances tonight and tomorrow.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
↧

Barihunk duo in Komische's Giulio Cesare

June 4, 2015, 8:58 pm
$
0
0
Günter Papendell & Dominik Köninger(Photos: Iko Freese)
The barihunk duo of Dominik Köninger and Günter Papendell is back together at the Komische Oper in Berlin as Julius Caesar and Achille respectively in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto. We first featured them together in the company's Monterverdi Trilogy. The Komische ensemble members have also alternated the role of Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.

There are two runs of Giulio Cesare in Egitto, the first which opened on May 31 and runs through July 4th. The two then return in their respective roles from September 11 through October 31.  The rest of the cast includes Valentina Farcas/Mirka Wagner as Cleopatra, Theresa Kronhalter as Sesto, Anna Bernacka as Tolomeo, Alexey Antonov as Curio and Ezgi Kutlu as Cornelia.

Köninger is singing a role that has historically been sung by a countertenor. In fact, two of the worlds greatest countertenors will take on the role in other German cities this season, as Andreas Scholl sings it in Frankfurt and David Hansen in Dresden.

Valentina Farcas & Dominik Köninger (Photos: Iko Freese)
This season,  Dominik Köninger can be seen as Agamemnon in Le Belle Hélène, the young Hoffmann in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Papageno in The Magic Flute and Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro.

Günter Papendell can be seen as Peter in Hansel and Gretel, Pollux in Castor and Pollux and the tile characters in Don Giovanni, Gianni Schicchi and Eugene Onegin.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Twitter Barihunk Submission: Simon Dyer

June 5, 2015, 4:43 pm
$
0
0
Simon Dyer
British Bass-Barihunk Simon Dyer, who recently performed the Bear in Walton's The Bear and Mr. Grinder in Sullivan's The Zoo at Odyssey Opera, was recently introduced to us via Twitter.

The singer, who began his studies at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in England, is now based in the U.S. after having completed his studies at the Boston Conservatory of Music. He'll be returning to the school to perform The Immigration Officer in a rare American production of Jonathan Dove's comedic opera Flight at the Boston Conservatory of Music from November 19-22. The story is set entirely at an airport terminal, where a storm had stranded passengers, whose lives become a twisted plot of love, regret, injustice, sex, and boredom.

This Fall, he'll return to the U.K. to compete in the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition with the pianist Lindsay Albert. You can listen to him online HERE.

During his time in London, he performed with the Blackheath Halls Community Opera, Thrapston Plaza Opera, Oxbridge Opera and Go Opera. He performed the role of Death in the U.K. premiere of Gregory Rose’s Danse Macabre, conducted by the composer. In 2013, he performed with the Philip Glass ensemble for the 75th birthday celebrations of the composer at Barbican Hall in a performance of Koyaanisqatsi

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

San Francisco Opera's exciting summer season kicks off this weekend

June 6, 2015, 6:33 am
$
0
0

Philippe Sly and Luca Pisaroni
The San Francisco Opera kicks off one of its most exciting summer season's this weekend in decade. First up is Hector Berlioz's epic 5 1/2 hour masterpiece Les Troyens with Anna Caterina Antonacci as Cassandra. She is perhaps the most exciting singing actress in opera since Leonie Rysanek.

The opera has not been performed in San Francisco in 47 years, where the U.S. stage premiere took place two years earlier in 1956 with Regine Crespin and John Vickers. The five-act opera is set to Virgil’s classical poem The Aeneid and is performed in two parts: “The Capture of Troy,” the Greek siege of ancient Troy including the famed Trojan Horse, and “The Trojans at Carthage,” the escape of the Trojans to the North African Mediterranean city of Carthage.

Christian Van Horn as Narbal (left)
Bass-Barihunk Christian Van Horn takes on the role of the queen's adviser Narbal, in an all-star cast that also includes Susan Graham as Dido, Bryan Hymel as Aeneas and Sasha Cooke as Anna.  The production is the largest physical production ever to be presented as the War Memorial Opera House, requiring 134 artists on stage and 95 musicians in the orchestra pit and backstage. The production first opened in 2012 at London’s the Royal Opera and later at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. Following the San Francisco Opera performances, the production will be seen at the Vienna State Opera. Performances run from June 7–July 1 and tickets are available online.

Two of the most beloved and gifted barihunks in the world head the cast of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, with Philippe Sly as Figaro and Luca Pisaroni as the lecherous Count. They'll be joined by Nadine Sierra as his Countess, Lisette Oropesa as Susanna, Kate Lindsey/Angela Brower as Cherubino, John Del Carlo as Bartolo and Catherine Cook as Marcellina. Performances run from June 14-July 5.

Christian Van Horn with fellow barihunk Andrè Schuen and hunkentenor Jonas Kaufmann
Van Horn also appears as the Field Marshall in the world premiere of Italian composer Marco Tutino’s Two Women (La Ciociara), with a libretto by the composer and Fabio Ceresa. Anna Caterina Antonacci is also back as the mother Cesira. Her daughter will be played by Sarah Shafer. It is the first time in the history of San Francisco Opera that an Italian composer has been commissioned to write a new opera for the company.

The opera is based on 20th-century Italian author Alberto Moravia’s novel of the same name. Moravia’s critically-acclaimed 1958 work was adapted in 1960 by noted Italian film producer Carlo Ponti into a film directed by Vittorio De Sica starring Sophia Loren. Loren won the 1962 Academy Award for Best Actress for the performance—the first artist to win an Oscar for a foreign language film. Performances run from June 13-30.

Van Horn next appears as Zaccaria in Verdi's Nabucco at the Seattle Opera from August 8-22.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
Search

Kostas Smoriginas in Rachmaninov triptych; Available online

June 8, 2015, 3:05 pm
$
0
0
Kostas Smoriginas
La Monnaie is offering a rare chance to see Rachmaninov's three one-act operas performed in the same evening. One can occassionally encounter two of them performed together, so this is a unique opportunity that will be available for viewing online from July 7-27.

Barihunk Kostas Smoriginas will be featured in the most famous of the three operas, Aleko. The piece was written in 1893 while Rachmaninov was still a student at the Moscow Conservatory and it became his first great success. Based on Pushkin's poem "The Gypsies" it tells the story of an outsider who has joined a band of gypsies who turns to murder when he discovers that his wife has betrayed him. The piece was greatly influenced by the music of Tchaikovsky and Borodin, as well as the operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Carmen. 

Kostas Smoriginas sings the cavatina from Aleko:

Performances will run from June 16-30 at the Art Deco Marivaux cinema while the main opera house is under renovation. The other two operas are Skupoj rytsar (The covetous knight) and Francesca da Rimini. The three operas are linked in that they tell the story of fate following in the footsteps of sin, whether it be a matter of jealous murder, greed or illicit passion. Tickets and additional cast information are available online.

Smoringinas will next appear on July 19th at the Royal Albert Hall in London as one of the soloists in Beethoven's Symphony No.9  with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.


Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
↧

César San Martín in Granados rarity Goyescas

June 9, 2015, 7:17 pm
$
0
0
César San Martín
Spanish barihunk César San Martín is performing Ozias in Enrique Granados' rarely performed Goyescas under the baton of Placido Domingo. The opera is being performed as part of a double-bill with Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.

The opera premiered on January 28, 1916 at the Metropolitan Opera after its scheduled debut at the Paris Opéra was prevented by World War I. Goyescas was the first opera to be performed at the Met in Spanish and was paired with Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.
Goyescas is based on a series of six paintings from Francisco Goya’s early career, inspired by the stereotypical young men and women of the majismo movement. These majos and majas are known for their bohemian attitude and soft spot for finery. The opening scene is directly based on his 1791 painting "El Pelele," painted for Charles IV of Spain to hang in his textile mill, although the painting implies a satire of the monarch’s popularity.
César San Martín made his professional debut in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Real in 2008. He has performed numerous zarzuela roles with the company, as well as Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale.
Performances run from June 30-July 12 and tickets and additional cast information are available online.  
Listen to César San Martín sing Masino's aria from La Vera Costanza HERE. 

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Celebrating 150 years of Tristan und Isolde

June 10, 2015, 5:30 pm
$
0
0
René Pape as King Mark and Ryan McKinny as Kurnewal
Today we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Richard Wagner's masterpiece Tristan und Isolde. The opera premiered on June 10, 1865  at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich.  

We were planning on doing a more comprehensive post, but due to time restraints, recommend that you listen to today's feature on WQXR. 

One of our favorite performances in recent years was Ryan McKinny role debut as Kurwenal in Christof Loy’s production at the Houston Grand Opera in the 2012-13 season featuring Ben Heppner and Nina Stemme as the lovers.
 
A couple performances featuring barihunks that we're looking forward to include René Pape singing König Marke in Munich from July 8-12, Kay Stiefermann as Ein Steuermann in Bayreuth from July 25-Aug 23 and Tommi Hakala as Kurnewal in Helsinki from May 14-28, 2016.


Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Barihunk duo in broadcast of Pelléas et Mélisande

June 11, 2015, 10:07 am
$
0
0
Elliot Madore and Markus Eiche
The Bavarian State Opera's free live streams atSTAATSOPER.TV continue from Munich on July 4th at 7 PM CET/2 PM EST/11 AM PST with Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.

The cast includes barihunks Elliot Madore as Pelleas and Markus Eiche as Goulaud, as well as soprano Elena Tsallagova as Melisande. Later this year the duo appear together again in Strauss'Ariadne auf Naxos, with Madore as Harlekin and Eiche as the Music Instructor.

Madore has become a regular on live streaming opera, having been featured recently in Don Giovanni, Chabrier's L'étoileRameau's Les Sauvages.

Markus Eiche studied at the Music Academy of Stuttgart and went on to win the 1998 the International Singing Competition ”Francesco Viñas” in Barcelona. He has become a regular at both the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. Upcoming roles in Munich include Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Gunther in Gotterdammerung, Marcello in La boheme and the Count in Le nozze di Figaro.



Elliot Madore, a native of Canada, has been singing primarily in Europe since becoming part of the ensemble at the Zurich Opera. However, he'll be appearing on both US coasts this year, starting on September 12 when he sings Antony Hope in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd at the San Francisco Opera with Gerald Finley and Stephanie Blythe. In December, he'll head east to appear at the Metropolitan Opera opposite Isabel Leonard and David Portillo in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia .

Barihunk lovers should be alerted that from May 8-29, 2016 at the Opernhaus Zürich, Pelléas et Mélisande will be performed with the barihunk trio of Jacques Imbrailo as Pelléas, Kyle Ketelsen as Goulaud and Eric Anttine as the Doctor.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Reader Submission: Vartan Gabrielian

June 12, 2015, 6:29 am
$
0
0

Vartan Gabrielian

Armenian-Canadian bass-barihunk Vartan Gabrielian served as an alter boy at St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic church in Toronto and began voice lessons at age fourteen. He went on to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and has been studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia since 2012. He is currently part of the Russian Opera Workshop where he performed a concert of Rachmaninoff songs and arias earlier this year. In March, he performed Tchaikovsky's Don Juan Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart, along with O du mein holder Abendstern from Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser.

In July, he'll perform the King in Handel's Ariodante at the Chautauqua Music Festival's Fletcher Music Hall, followed by Colline in Puccini's La behème in August at the Chautauqua Amphitheater with the Music School Festival Orchestra.

Roles at Curtis have included Prince Gudal in Anton Rubinstein's The Demon, the Loudspeaker in Ullmann's Emperor of Atlantis, Mago and Eustazio in Handel's Rinaldo, Masetto  in Mozart's Don Giovanni, M. Javelinot in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and the title role in Le nozze di Figaro.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
↧

Twitter submission: Tom Colwell

June 12, 2015, 4:34 pm
$
0
0

Tom Colwell
We getting introduced to an increasing number of barihunks, including our latest submission Tom Colwell. The British singer makes his role debut tonight as the Helmsman in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Longborough Festival Opera in the heart of the Cotswolds. Additional performances are on June 16th, 18th and 20th.

Colwell started singing as a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral Choir School in London, performing on tours throughout France, Spain and Japan. He has been a soloist on numerous recordings and sang the title theme to the Channel 4 drama The Big Battalions.

He studied at Junior Royal Academy in London and the Royal Northern College of Music, in Manchester. During his time in Manchester, he performed in Verdi’s Falstaf  and Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.

He has added a number of new roles to his repertory in the last season, including Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at Opera’r Ddraig, Capulet in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet at Riverside Opera, Marcello in Puccini's La Boheme with Opera up Close at the Ravenna International Festival, and Dr Bartolo in Rossini's Barber of Seville at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

In August, he will be singing the role of the Inn Keeper in the premiere of Louis Mander's Oh whistle and I will come to you my lad, a ghost story opera set in Sussex. This will be performed as part of the Tete-a-Tete opera festival.

Colwell is also the co-founder and artistic director of Island Opera, a classical vocal ensemble providing entertainment across South Wales and the U.K.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Cardiff Singer of the World Competition features 6 low voices

June 13, 2015, 8:41 am
$
0
0
Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel
There is no shortage of great low male voices in this year's Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, as six baritones and basses are competing. The include Jongmin Park, Blaise Malaba, Sebastian Pilgrim, Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Ryan Speedo Green and Insu Hwang. 

A number of operas most famous low voices were winners at Cardiff, most famously Dmitri Hvorostovsky who won the main prize in 1989 and Bryn Terfel who won the Song Prize that same year. Other winners have included Tommi Hakala who won the main prize in 2003, Christopher Maltman who won the Song Prize in 1997, Paul Whelan who won the Song Prize in 1993 and Jacques Imbrailo who won the coveted Audience Prize in 2007.
 
This year, fans around the world will have two ways to enjoy the competition, either on BBC radio or for a fee on Sonostream.tv, which will be the first international broadcast outside the U.K. The broadcasts of the first rounds on Sonostream are on 24-delay and are simultaneous with the BBC transmissions. The main competition final on Sunday, June 21 is LIVE. Broadcasts of the initial rounds begin on June 16 at 8:30PM CEST/3:30 PM EST/12:30 PM PST.
 
Over 300 young singers from around the world applied to participate in the current competition, but only twenty artists were selected to perform with the orchestra at St David’s Hall in Cardiff, Wales.

Parallel to the main competition, there is also the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize, in which singers perform art songs to piano accompaniment at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and St. David's Hall.  

Purchased programs  on Sonostream. tv will be available for 30 days on demand after the first broadcast date.

Jongmin Park
Jongmin Park studied at the Korea National University of Arts and at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he worked with Mirella Freni and Renato Bruson. His roles at La Scala included Bartolo in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and the Doctor in Verdi's Macbeth.

Jongmin Park sings Rossini's La calunnia:

From 2010-13, he was a member of Hamburg State Opera where he performed Masettoin Mozart's Don Giovanni, Sparafucile  in Verdi's Rigoletto, the King of Egypt in Aida, and Truffaldino in Richard Strauss'Ariadne auf Naxos. He joined Vienna State Opera at the start of the 2013/14 season.  He won the Birgit Nilsson Prize at Operalia, first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition and second and Audience Prizes at the Neue Stimmen international singing competition.

Blaise Malaba
Blaise Malaba was born in Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is studying at the Faculty of International Relations and the Faculty of Culture and Arts at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. 

Blaise Malaba sings "Let my people go"

He started singing in the church choir as a soloist, then the student choir at my university and with the male choir of Lviv. Since January 2014,  he as been studying with Professor Bogdan Bazylykut. He enjoys singing Verdi and sacred songs.  

Sebastian Pilgrim
Sebastian Pilgrim was born in Herford in North Germany and studied in Detmold and Hannover with Sabine Ritterbusch and Alessandra Althoff-Pugliese. He won the Wolfgang Wagner Award for performances as Daland and Hagen at the 2012 International Competition for Wagner Voices. While still a student, he became a member of the Theater Erfurt, performing such repertoire as Tierbändiger and Athlet Lulu and Kaspar and Eremit Der Freischütz.  

He subsequently joined the ensemble at Nationaltheater Mannheim in 2013, singing leading roles such as Sarastro Die Zauberflöte, Fiesco Simone Boccanegra, King and Cook Love for Three Oranges and King Philip Don Carlo. He also composes and conducts and has given several premieres of new music.
You can listen to Sebastian Pilgrim's clarinet sonata HERE. 

Amartuvshin Enkhbat
Amartuvshin Enkhbat was born in Sukhbaatar and studied at the State University of Arts and Culture, Ulan Bator. He won second prize and the audience prize at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition; shared first prize in Operalia 2012 and second prize and two special prizes at the International Singing Contest Francisco Viñas in 2013. He is a principal Soloist of the State Academic Opera House of Mongolia where he has performed Escamillo and Morales in Carmen, Tonio in Pagliacci, Amonasro in Aida, Count di Luna in Il trovatore, Iago in Otello, Renato in Un ballo in maschera; and numerous other roles.

Ryan Speedo Green


Virginia native Ryan Speedo Green studied at Florida State University and the Hartt School of Music. He made his Metropolitan Opera stage debut in the 2012/13 season as the Mandarin in Puccini's Turandot, and the Second Knight in Wagner's Parsifal  He was a National Grand Finals winner of the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Ryan Speedo Green sings This Nearly Was Mine from South Pacific:

In 2014, he received a George London Foundation Award, first prize in the Opera Index Competition, an Annenberg grant, first prize in the Gerda Lissner Foundation competition and both the Richard and Sara Tucker Grants from the Richard Tucker Foundation.  Operatic highlights include the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni with The Juilliard School, Colline in Puccini's La bohème with Central City Opera and Don Magnifico in Rossini's La Cenerentola with Opera Colorado.  In 2014, he joined the Wiener Staatsoper ensemble, where he has performed Sparafucile, Basilio, and the King in Aida. 

Insu Hwang
Insu Hwang was born in Seoul, South Korea and studied at Yonsei University, then in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik, Karlsruhe. He reached the finals of the 2011 Queen Elizabeth competition and in 2013 won third prize and the Mozart special prize at the Veronica Dunne International singing competition, and 2nd prize at the Gut Immling international singing competition.  He is currently a member of the Young Artist program at the Landestheater Detmold, where he has performed the roles of Montano Otello, First Nazarene Salome and Sarastro Die Zauberflöte.  

Other competitors in this year's BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition include soprano Nadine Koutcher, mezzo Marina Pinchuk, soprano Aviva Fortunata, soprano Anaïs Constans, tenor Nico Darmanin, mezzo Ingeborg Gillebo, soprano Kelebogile Besong, tenor Jaeyoon Jung, soprano Regula Mühlemann, tenor Ilker Arcayurek, tenor Oleksiy Palchykov, soprano Lauren Michelle and soprano Céline Forrest. 
 

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
Search

Watch the Live Stream on The Tempest with Adrian Eröd

June 14, 2015, 7:27 am
$
0
0

Adrian Eröd as Prospero
Austrian barihunk Adrian Eröd returns to the role of Prospero in Thomas Adés'The Tempest, which he performed at the Frankfurt Opera in 2009/10. Prospero is the banished Duke of Milan who practices his otherworldly arts.The current production is at his home base of the Vienna State Opera and will be conducted by the composer with a cast that includes countertenor superstar David Daniels, Audrey Luna and Stephanie Houtzeel. Performances run from June 14-27.

Eröd has been one of the most popular baritones in Vienna since his debut in 2001 as Mercutio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. He's gone on to sing a number of roles to great acclaim including Guglielmo, Conte Almaviva, Eisenstein, Albert in Werther and Olivier in Capriccio.

Adrian Eröd backstage as Prospero
You can watch the performance live on Wednesday June 24, 2015, 7 PM at the Vienna State Opera's live streaming site. The live stream costs € 14.00 (approximately15.71 USD - 10.14 GBP.

Shakespeare's story has inspired 50 operas including Fromental Halévy's La Tempesta, Zdeněk Fibich's Bouře, Frank Martin's Der Sturm and Michael Tippett's The Knot Garden. Incidental music based on The Tempest has been written by Arthur Sullivan, Ernest Chausson, Jean Sibelius, Malcolm Arnold, Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Bliss, Engelbert Humperdinck, Hector Berlioz, Willem Pijper and Henry Purcell

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Barihunk duo in all-star St Matthew Passion

June 16, 2015, 5:09 am
$
0
0

Benjamin Appl and Edward Grint
An all-star cast of singers has been assembled for Bach's St Matthew Passion at St. John's Smith Square in London tonight at 7 PM. This is a rare opportunity to hear Bach's St Matthew Passion performed with just eight singers, allowing one to hear the work with the sonorities that the composer had in mind. It is believed that Bach wrote the SMP using one voice per part, or eight voices total, rather than the two conventional choirs which is common for performances and recordings.

The cast includes rising star and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Benjamin Appl as Christus and Edward Grint in the bass section, along with Charles Daniels as the Evangelist, Daniel Taylor and Robin Blaze in the countertenor section, sopranos Joanne Lunn and Elizabeth Cragg and tenor Mark Wilde. The London Handel Orchestra will be conducted by Adrian Butterfield.

Tickets are available online.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
↧

West Edge Opera's summer season features barihunks in each show

June 16, 2015, 4:30 pm
$
0
0
Dan Kempson, Nikolas Nackley & Zach Altman
The ever innovative West Edge Opera in Berkeley, California is about to launch their summer season and all three operas feature barihunks. The season will also be performed in three unique settings around the East Bay.

Laura Kaminsky's As One will feature popular barihunk Dan Kempson opposite soprano Brenda Patterson. The piece be performed at The Oakland Metro, a punk rock venue reflective of Oakland’s gritty art scene and the ideal space for such a provocative piece.   

As One premiered at The Brooklyn Academy of Music just this past September with the husband and wife team of Kelly Markgraf and Sasha Cooke. Kaminsky was inspired to write the opera after reading an article in the New York Times in 2008 about a New Jersey marriage in which one of the parties transitioned from male to female, transforming the couple from straight to gay.
The opera is based on the life experience of noted filmmaker Kimberly Reed.

Two singers, a baritone and a mezzo-soprano, together portray the character Hannah.  The two singers embody a young boy who knows he is different but can't understand how or why. The 70-minute opera traces the life of young Hannah through her eventual gender reassignment.  Performances are on July 26 and 31, and August 8th.


Alban Berg’s Lulu will be performed in the abandoned and decaying 1912 Beaux-Arts train station at 16th Street in Oakland where the movies Funny Lady and RENT were filmed. The Oakland 16th Street Station (also known as the Oakland Central Station) was for decades Oakland's main train station. It is now being revived as a space for arts and events. In a bit of luxury casting, barihunk Zachary Altman, who is making a name for himself in Basel, will perform the role of the Athlete. He also happens to be Dan Kempson's husband. Performances are onJuly 25, and August 2 and 8.

The final opera is Monteverdi’s, Ulysses, which will be staged at the American Steel Studios, a former pipe factory turned six acre art studio that’s now home to steel fabricators, sculptors, vertical aerial and trapeze performers, glass artists, and more. The opera stars Nikolas Nackley in the title role and performances are on August 1, 7 and 9.

Tickets and additional cast information is available online. 

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Teddy Tahu Rhodes to tour in Jekyll and Hyde

June 17, 2015, 7:03 am
$
0
0

New Zealand's most famous barihunk Teddy Tahu Rhodes is adding a fifth musical show to his repertoire after successful runs in The King and I, Show Boat and South Pacific, as well as an upcoming appearance singing the title role in Sweeney Todd in Melbourne.

He'll be heading the cast of Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse's Jekyll and Hyde on the upcoming tour of the show with Opera Australia. This is the first professional Australian production since a short-lived run in 1997.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes will be joined by musical theater stars Jemma Rix as Lucy and Lucy Maunder as Emma, his two romantic interests.

Rhodes sings This is the Moment:

Jekyll and Hyde will open in Melbourne in December before moving to Sydney in March 2016. Before the show opens, he'll perform Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust in Adelaide from August 22-29 and in Perth from October 29-November 7. The latter show also includes fellow barihunk Sam Dundas as Valentin. 

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧

Nicolas Courjal in live cinecast of William Tell

June 18, 2015, 6:46 am
$
0
0
Nicolas Courjal rehearsing William Tell (left)
Opera fans in the U.K. will be able to check out barihunk Nicolas Courjal as the evil Gesler in Rossini's William Tell live from the Royal Opera House in London on July 5th. The all-star cast also features Gerald Finley as Tell, John Osborn as Arnold and Malin Byström as Mathilde. The production is directed by Italian  Damiano Michieletto, who is making his debut with the company.

Guillaume Tell had its premiere in 1829, when Gioachino Rossini was 37. He wouldn't write another opera in the remaining 39 years of his life. Rossini's letters suggest he knew Guillaume Tell would be his farewell to opera – an idea that seems to be confirmed by the magnificent music he was inspired to produce. The score – harmonically daring and fiercely difficult for the singers – has an opulent architectural grandeur, heightened with vivid evocations of the soaring Swiss landscape and an incisive dramatic interpretation of Schiller's heroic play.


Christian Van Horn sings Gesler with the Netherlands Opera:

The opera contains many great musical pieces, including Tell's Act III aria "Sois immobile," Mathilde's Act II aria "Sombre foret" and the Act II trio "Quand l'Helvétie est un champ de supplices."

You can see the opera live from June 29-July 17. Tickets and additional information is available online. Locate a cinema showing a performance HERE.

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

↧
Viewing all 1805 articles
Browse latest View live
Search