"Madama Butterfly" Simulcast in Seattle Tonight

Brett Polegato (Sharpless) at Seattle Opera  (Elise Bakketun, photo

 

Fresh on the heals of Dallas Opera's successful simulcast of Mozart's "Magic Flute," the Seattle Opera will be featuring Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" in a broadcast at KeyArena tonight (Saturday, May 5th).

Doors open for those who have preregistered at 6 p.m., and for the general public at 6:30 p.m. Anyone without a ticket will be allowed into KeyArena until the capacity is met. The opera begins at 7:30 p.m. This is the first time the Seattle Opera has hosted a simulcast of one of its productions.

Seattle Opera's production stars Brett Polegato as Sharpless,  Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San and Stefano Secco as Pinkerton.

Live performances of "Madama Butterfly" continue through May 19 at McCaw Hall. Visit the Seattle Opera website for more information. 

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Christian Van Horn takes on more Villains, Victims and Bearded, Unhappy Old Men

Christian Van Horn headed off to another role debut

The last time we featured American barihunk Christian Van Horn, he was all the buzz in Opera News. The running joke about Van Horn, is that despite his barihunk looks, he gets cast in roles that don't show off his assets. That's not changing any this summer, as he makes his role debut as Banquo at the Grand Theatre du Geneve opposite the unhappy and ambitious duo of Jennifer Larmore as Lady Macbeth and Davide Damiani as Macbeth. 

Performances of the new Christof Loy production will run from June 13-26. Additional cast and ticket information is available on the company's website. 

James Morris sings Banquo's aria "Come dal ciel precipita" from Macbeth: 

After Geneva, Van Horn will be singing with two of our favorite companies, the San Francisco Opera and the Dallas Opera. In San Francisco, he continues to show off his sinister side as he takes on the four villains in Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann" - Coppélius, Dapertutto, Dr. Miracle and Lindorf. The dream cast also includes Natalie Dessay as the four heroines Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta, Stella; Alice Coote as Nicklausse; and, Matthew Polenazni as Hoffmann. We have a feeling that this is a performance that should be added to any opera lover's travel calendar. Also, don't miss the San Francisco Opera's amazing summer season that includes Adam's Nixon in China, Verdi's Attila and Mozarts Magic Flute with Nathan Gunn.

In Dallas, he continues the trend of playing unattractive old men, as he takes on Timur in Puccini's Turandot. The production opens April 5, 2013 with the amazing Lise Lindstrom as Princess Turandot. The ubiquitous Nathan Gunn will also feature in the Dallas Opera season, as he is cast in Dominick Argento's "The Aspern Papers" in another all-star cast that features Susan Graham, Carol Vaness and the stunning young tenor Joseph Kaiser.

If you want to see and hear Van Horn out of make-up, you'll have to head to Los Angeles, where he's joining the L.A. Philharmonic as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The performance is on July 10, 2012 at the famed Hollywood Bowl and will be conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

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Move Over Tony Romo, Papageno Is In The House

Patrick Carfizzi as Papageno

The Dallas Cowboys were a pretty mediocre 8-8 last year, causing many fans to grumble that a better team needed to be assembled at Cowboys Stadium. That has happened, as the Dallas Opera has put together a winning team for the April 28 live simulcast of Mozart's The Magic Flute starring the always entertaining Patrick Carfizzi as Papageno. Devotees of low voices will also be treated to the resonant low notes of Raymond Aceto as Sarastro.

The opera will be simulcast on the massive high-definition video-screens at Cowboys Stadium beginning at 7:30 PM with doors opening at 6 PM. Over 30,000 tickets have been requested, leaving about 1,500 for the performance. You can reserve your tickets by clicking HERE.

The show will be seen on four viewing screens (the largest is 72 feet tall and 160 feet wide) above the stadium's playing field. The opera also stars soprano Ava Pine as Pamina, L'ubica Vargicova as the Queen of the Night, Angela Mannino as Papageno and tenor Shawn Mathey as Tamino. Listen to Raymond Aceto below (don't miss this voice!).

If you'd rather see the opera at the Winspear Opera House, it opens on Friday, April 20 and runs through May 6. Visit the Dallas Opera website for tickets and additional information. 

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Choose Your Weapon: Gunn replaces Spear in Texas

Deborah Voigt (photo NYTimes) and Nathan Gunn as Billy Budd

Barihunk Nathan Gunn will replace one of the great spear carrying Brunnhilde's of all-time, Deborah Voigt, on March 20th in Ft. Worth. Gunn is stepping in for Voigt at the Cliburn Concerts at Bass Hall. Voigt withdrew because of illness. The performance also serves as a preview to local audiences, who will see Gunn in the Dallas Opera's production of Dominik Argento's The Aspern Papers  in 2013.

Accompanying Mr. Gunn in performance will be his wife, pianist Julie Gunn.

Single tickets are available from $15-$90, and can be purchased at Cliburn.org or by calling 817.212.4280. Tickets to Deborah Voigt's recital will be honored.

Gunn is currently wrapping up a highly acclaimed performance in Show Boat at Lyric Opera of Chicago. After the Ft. Worth recital, he heads back to the stage in two of his most heralded roles at two of America's greatest opera houses. On May 4th, he portrays the title character in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd at the Metropolitan Opera. He then heads to the San Francisco Opera on June 13th, where he will portray Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute. The San Francisco Opera summer season also includes John Adams' Nixon in China and Verdi's Attila. 

Nathan Gunn as Papageno in Julie Taymor's famous production:

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Opening Night at Dallas Opera (and Houston, Syracuse and in one week, Knoxville)

Luca Grassi & Elena Mosuc

The Dallas Opera is kicking of its 2011-2012 “Tragic Obsessions” season tonight with Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." The evening will include red carpet arrivals and a sumptuous post-opera black tie reception.

The big news for us is the long-awaited American operatic debut of Italian barihunk Luca Grassi. We've been pleading for someone to hire this amazing performer for years, so kudos to the Dallas Opera. He's a major talent and sure to be a hit with U.S. audiences with his raw sexual appeal and rich, lusterous baritone.

Grassi won the City of Rome competition and made his debut there as Germont in La traviata. He appeared at the reopening of the Gran teatro La Fenice in Venice as Germont in "La traviata." He has been a regular guest at the Festival della Valle d’Itria where he has sung the title roles in Massenet’s "Werther" (Baritone version) and Piccini’s "Roland" as well as Saint-Bris in "Les Huguenots." Upcoming engagements include Renato in "Un ballo in maschera"; Ezio in "Attila" in St. Gallen, "La traviata" in Leipzig, Florence and Montreal; and "Carmen" in Las Palmas.



Ticket for the remaining performances are available at the Dallas Opera website. For those who can't get tickets, the Dallas Opera in partnership with AT&T Performing Arts Center will present a free, live simulcast of the evening’s performance in Sammons Park. The simulcast will include English language subtitles.

You can read an interview with Luca Grassi at the Theater Jones website.  

Opening Night Hunks: Nathan Gunn, Mark Womack & Jonathan Boehr

It's also opening night at the Houston Grand Opera and the Syracuse Opera. Houston is performing Rossini's "Barber of Seville" with fan favorite Nathan Gunn as the Barber and Kyle Ketelsen as Don Basilio. We should also mention that the Houston Culture Map wrote a nice piece on Nathan Gunn that included a lovely mention of Barihunks (although we don't think of ourselves as a bit"hilarious")

We've already reported on Jonathan Boehr being part of the Syracuse Opera's performance of Verdi's "La traviata," but it's certainly worth a reminder.

We should also mention the Knoxville Opera opening night festivities begin in one week with a "La traviata" that included Mark Womack.

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Samuel Ramey on Sesame Street: The Letter "L"

Samuel Ramey on Sesame Street

We want to thank the Dallas Opera for posting this wonderful video of Samuel Ramey on Facebook. He teaches kids about the letter "L" by singing a revised version of the Torreador Song. The episode originally aired on January 17, 1996. Next year, Samuel Ramey will be celebrating his 70th birthday!

Make sure to check out the 2011-12 Dallas Opera season, which includes Wagner's "Tristan & Isolde," Verdi's "La Traviata," Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and Peter Maxwell Davies' "The Lighthouse."

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Dallas Opera Announces That Luca Grassi To (Finally) Make U.S. Debut

Luca Grassi

We've been singing the praises of Luca Grassi since the inception of this site in 2007. It's amazing to us that no American opera house has engaged this compelling singer and actor until now. The Dallas Opera in announcing their 2011-2012 is trumpeting the debut of the hunky Italian as their Lord Ashton in the company's revival of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor."

Lucia di Lammermoor will open at the beautiful Winspear Opera house on October 21st and run through November 6th. The Dallas Opera will also perform Tristan und Isolde, The Magic Flute and La Traviata. For additional cast and performance information, please visit their website. 

Grassi, who originally trained to be an engineer, can next be seen in Leipzig's "La Traviata" 

Luca Grassi in St. Gallen's "Lucia" from 2007:



By the way, we loved that the Dallas Opera gave a shout out to Barihunks in their press release announcing their new season!

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