World's largest gathering of barihunks at Glimmerglass?

Jarrett Ott, Michael Hewitt, Jarrett Porter and Brent Michael Smith (left) and Justin Austin (right)

Once again, director Francesca Zambello has deservedly landed on our site. Longtime readers know that most opera lovers credit her with beginning the barihunk craze and coining the phrase after having Nathan Gunn appear shirtless in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. Now she may have created the largest single gathering of barihunks ever assembled at the Glimmerglass Festival, where she is the Artistic & General Director, as well as the stage director for Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Donizetti's The Siege of Calais and Ben Moore's Robin Hood.

There are at least a dozen barihunks who we know of in the various casts and probably a handful more that we've not been made aware of yet. Most of them have appeared on this site in the past. The Glimmerglass artists include:

• Norman Garrett as Crown in Porgy and Bess 

• Brent Michael Smith as the cop in Porgy and Bess; Ariodates in Handel's Xerxes; and the Commentator in Derrick Wang's Scalia/Ginsburg.

• Zach Owen as the English Spy in The Siege of Calais and the detective in Porgy and Bess.

• Jarrett Ott as Curly in Oklahoma! 

• Michael Hewitt as Jud Fry in Oklahoma! 

• Harry Greenleaf as Edoardo III in The Siege of Calais

• Cord Elam in Oklahoma! 

• Jarrett Porter as Sam in Oklahoma!

• Justin Austin as Jake inPorgy and Bess

• Calvin Griffin as the Undertaker in Porgy and Bess and Elviro in Xerxes

• Conor McDonald as Skidmore in Oklahoma!

• Eric Shane covering roles in Oklahoma! andPorgy and Bess

The festival opened July 7th and runs through August 22. Additional cast information and tickets are available online.