Barihunks Galore available for viewing at Arte Live Web

Giorgio Caoduro

Director Olivier Py's sexy production of Bizet's Carmen is currently available in its entirety at Arte Live Web. The production stars Giorgio Caoduro as Escamillo and it's not to be missed!

If Carmen's not your cup of tea or if one barihunk isn't sufficient to whet your appetite, then check out Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with Paolo Szot as Count Almaviva and Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro. (The production also features the amazing Cherubino of Kate Lindsey).

Paolo Szot & Kyle Ketelsen

Both operas will be available for free for about the next six month. For your convenience, we've posted them both on Barihunks for your viewing pleasure.

In an unrelated matter, we're taking submissions for our 2nd Annual Barihunks Charity Calendar. Send pictures (with appropriate permissions) to Barihunks@gmail.com.

Attitude magazine: "Get Your Rock Off"

Duncan Rock featured in Attitude

Aussie barihunk Duncan Rock generated international buzz when he recently appeared in "Don Giovanni: The Opera" at London's Heaven. The updated, gender bending version of the Mozart-Da Ponte classic rubbed some of the old-timers the wrong way, but young audiences ate it up.

Attitude, which bills itself as the U.K.'s largest LGBT magazine, recently did a feature on the ripped redhead with the great headline "Get Your Rock Off." We couldn't possibly improve on that! We also love that gave a nice shout out to Barihunks, writing:

Rock has featured heavily on the inspired website Barihunks (baritone hunks, obvs), which shows male opera singers in a state of undress. So what happened to opera's rep for the larger gentlemen? "A lot of the roles, particularly the ones for a young baritone voice, now require certain physical characteristics," Rock explains. "For certain roles, for dramatic credibility, people expect a certain look, but opera is an art form that is all about beautiful singing and that will never change."

Fortunately for Rock, his voice is as beautiful as his physique.

Check out a preview of the ENO's Billy Budd featuring Duncan Rock:

We first discovered Duncan Rock when he was in Britten's Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and he's back in the same opera at the English National Opera. Rock will be performing the role of Donald. Performance are running from June 12-July 12. He remains on the ENO roster for a run of Bizet's Carmen beginning in November where he takes on the role of Moralès. Visit the ENO website for tickets and additional information.

Duncan Rock: Master-OF-Arms

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Reader Submission: John Brandon

Two shots from John Brandon's website

Barihunk John Brandon is our latest reader submission. He opened in Carmen on Sunday at Opera Birmingham, where he is singing Morales. The 6' 3" singer has recently performed Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Vivente and Antonio in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with both Nashville Opera and Opera Columbus.

The 26-year-old has toured and recorded with Kammerchor Stuttgart, English Voices and the Westminster Choir. He can next be seen in the St. John Passion as Jesus with the Chattanooga Bach Choir in his home state of Tennessee.

You can listen to audio clips of John Brandon on his website.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Michael Todd Simpson in Carmen & Messiah; Pop's Sexy Carmina Burana; Varnier in Rimini

Anita Rachvelishvili as Carmen & Michael Todd Simpson as Escamillo in rehearsal; (Bill Mohn, photo)

Michael Todd Simpson brought his swaggering Escamillo to Seattle Opera for their performances of Bizet's "Carmen." In a performance that included the riveting Carmen of Anita Rachvelishvili and a host of other hot men, the American barihunk managed to catch the attention of reviewer Jackson Holtz at the Everett Herald.

"Seattle Opera veteran Michael Todd Simpson was sexy and charming as the matador." 

You can read the entire review at the Everett HeraldNet website.

Bernard Jacobson of the Seattle Times wrote:

"Don José...projected just the nebbish air of indecision that makes José putty in Carmen's hands — no competition for the sexy Escamillo and Zuniga of Michael Todd Simpson and Donovan Singletary."

Donovan Singletary in his Barihunks tee shirt

Performances run through October 29th and tickets can be purchased online. Simpson next heads down the coast to California, where he will perform Handel's "Messiah" with the amazing San Francisco Symphony. Performances are on December 16, 17 & 18. Visit the San Francisco Symphony website for tickets and additional performance information.

By the way, if you haven't seen the Seattle Opera's "If Carmen and her friends were on Facebook...," then you missed one of the funniest and creative things that we've ever seen from an Opera Company (that was meant to be funny!). You can see the entire post on their wonderful blog. 

Kudos to the Seattle Opera, which continues to be one of the most creative opera companies in the world.

Cirque du Soleil performers and Marian Pop combine forces in Detroit

The Michigan Opera Theater hired some Cirque du Soleil acrobats to add an erotic touch to Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana." The piece was part of a double-bill with Menotti's "The Medium." Barihunk Marian Pop, a regular fixture with the opera company, was singled out for his performance by the local press.

"Baritone soloist Marian Pop's expressive singing was the musical highlight of "Carmina."

You can read the entire review at the Detroit Free Press website.

Jérôme Varnier

Jérôme Varnier is wrapping up a run as Palémon in Massenet's "Thaïs" tonight at the Opéra de Tours. He now heads to the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz to perform Guido in Ambroise Thomas' "Francesca da Rimini," which opens on November 18. Tickets and additional performance information are available online.

Barihunk-laden Carmen in Seattle

Donovan Singletary as Zuniga and Joseph Lattanzi as Moralès (Alan Alabastro, photo)

The Seattle Opera is going to be putting on one hot Carmen, which will be running from October 15 to October 29. Although most opera goers think of the sultry, seductive protagonist Carmen when they think of the opera, we've always thought that the toreador Escamillo was the sexiest character.

Michael Todd Simpson rehearses as Escamillo while Donovan Singletary observes (Bill Mohn, photo)

Not only has the Seattle Opera given us a sexy Escamillo in barihunk Michael Todd Simpson, but they've cast the other baritone roles with certified barihunks. Joseph Lattanzi will sing Moralès, David Krohn will sing Dancaïre and Donovan Singletary, who looks as good as anyone in a BARIHUNK tee shirt, will sing Zuniga. Simpson should have the role firmly under his belt, as he just wrapped up a run as Escamillo on the opposite coast at the Glimmerglass Festival, which is thriving under Francesca Zambello (who many credit with coining the term "barihunk"). One of the Carmen's will be Daniel Barenbom discovery Anita Rachvelishvili, who in 2009 took La Scala by storm in the role and generated an international press sensation. 

David Krohn as Dancaïre works with Director Bernard Uzan and tenor Andrew Stenson as Remendado (Alan Alabastro, photo)

You can watch a number of preview videos about Seattle's "Carmen" at the opera company's wonderful YouTube channel. Here is General Director Speight Jenkins talking about his Carmen, Don Jose and director for the production. 

Tickets and additional performance information are available at the Seattle Opera website. If you haven't visited the Seattle Opera, which has to be considered among the top tier companies in America, we highly recommend heading to the Pacific Northwest for this production, which promised to be sexy, well-sung and entertaining.

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

Michael Mayes Featured

Michael Mayes: Bourbon, Horses and French Opera

We love American barihunk Michael Mayes and have always maintained that he's one of the most entertaining people in opera. His Texapolitan Opera podcast is a must for any fan of opera and it can always be accessed at the link to the right. You can also follow his musings at mazerthehazer on Twitter.

The Elvis Presley fanatic is in Louisville performing Escamillo in Bizet's "Carmen." He was recently featured in an interview by Selana Fry from Louisville. com where he talked about a number of things including this site. [For the record, the interviewer makes it sound like he has some direct involvement with this site, which he does not. Barihunks and Texapolitan Opera are enthusiastically supportive of each other's site]. You can read the entire interview HERE, but here is what he had to say about Barihunks:

The Barihunks blog is another project you're involved with. The tagline is pretty straightforward: "The Sexiest Baritone Hunks from Opera." I here there's a pin-up calendar in the works.

The guys over there are doing a great service to us. Anytime we can get someone talking about opera, regardless of the context, is an accomplishment worthy of praise.
Will you be shooting your Barihunks calendar photo in Louisville? Most importantly, will horses and/or bourbon figure into the composition?

I am doing the shoot here, though the location is to be determined. Horses might be involved, and bourbon will definitely be a factor, whether prominently featured, or administered as a fortification against my own inhibitions about public displays of partial nudity.

Mayes' Escamillo opens at the Kentucky Opera on Friday, September 23 at 8PM, with additional performances on Sunday, September 25 at 2PM and Friday, September 30 at 8PM. Tickets have been selling fast, but are still available online  or by calling 502.584.7777.

Click HERE for the Texapolitan Opera podcast

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

Nmon Ford's Spicy Hungarian Escamillo

Nmon Ford rehearsing Escamillo in Szeged

Barihunk Nmon Ford will be at the Szegedi Szabadtéri (Open Air Festival of Szeged) in Hungary for the next two days performing Escamillo in Carmen. Szeged sits on the Tisza River and is Hugary's third largest city. It is believed that Attila the Hun's seat of power was somewhere in the area. Regular readers of the site will remember that we dubbed Nmon Ford the hottest Attila the Hun ever when he performed the role in Macerata last year.

Nmon Ford as Attila in Macerata

Szeged is also the home of the spice paprika, which seems appropriate as this production is pretty spicy. Updated to contemporary times by director Gábor Kerényi Miklós, Escamillo is seen in a classic white muscle tee shirt, acid-wash jeans and brandishing a bottle of booze. Ford describes the Escamillo in this production as "strongly sexual" and a "media whore." The production includes cameras on the stage and large video projections of the singers allowing people in the furthest reaches of the theater enjoy Nmon Ford's ripped physique.

Here are two videos of Ford discusing the production and the interpretation of his role:





Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Subscribe to Barihunks by Email

Tweet

Ticket information can be found HERE.