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.

Christopher Job Makes Role Debut as Escamillo

Christopher Job

Somehow Southern California barihunk Christopher Job has fallen off our radar for four years. Since our last post in January 2008, he's performed at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, where he performed in Janacek's From the House of the Dead, Shostakovich's The Nose and The Enchanted Island with fellow barihunk Luca Pisaroni.

He's about to make his role debut at Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at the Lyric Opera Virginia. The opera opens on May 4th in Newport News and then moves on to Charlottesville, Richmond and Virginia Beach. Visit the Lyric Opera website for additional information.

Last summer, he was seen as Caronte in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo ed Euridice as well as the Poet in Philip Glass' Orphee at Glimmerglass Opera,. This summer he returns to Glimmerglass to sing Capellio in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

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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.

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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

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Ryan Kuster in 9/11 Tribute & SF Opera Fall Season; Hampson's 9/11 opera

Ryan Kuster (L) & Thomas Hampson (R)

One of the most gifted young barihunks on the operatic horizon Ryan Kuster, who we've featured previously on this site. He was a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia before participating in San Francisco Opera's prestigious Adler Fellowship Program.

Kuster will be performing in the city of San Francisco's official tribute to the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack. The city and the San Francisco Opera have teamed up for a performance of Mozart's Requiem at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park at 2 PM today. Kuster will be joined by fellow singers Nadine Sierra, Maya Layhani and Daniel Montenegro along with maestro Nicola Luisotti.

The San Francisco Opera has wisely engaged the future star in a number of this season's operas. Kuster will perform Escamillo in Carmen, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Astolfo in Lucrezia Borgia and a Mandarin in Turandot. For performance and ticket information visit the San Francisco Opera website.



The San Francisco Opera is also premiering composer Christopher Theofanidis' "Heart of a Soldier," which opened last night. The opera tells the story of Rick Rescorla, a British-born adventurer who fought in Vietnam before settling in New York as head of security for a brokerage firm based in the World Trade Center. On September 11, 2001, his extraordinary courage and calmness in a crisis paid off: Rescorla led all of the 2,700 people under his care to safety—literally singing them down the stairs—before heading back into the burning building for one last check. He never emerged.

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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:





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Ticket information can be found HERE.

Barihunk Switch at Glimmerglass

Michael Todd Simpson as Escamillo

Michael Todd Simpson has been asked to step in for fellow barihunk Keith Miller as Escamillo in the current run of Bizet's "Carmen" at Glimmerglass. Simpson recently sang the role at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China. 

Simpson takes over on July 15 for Miller who decided to withdraw from the production. Performances run through August 23 in the Alice Busch Opera Theater in Cooperstown, New York. Visit www.glimmerglass.org for tickets and information. 

We recently blogged about another barihunk in the production, the Morales of barihunk Wes Mason.

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Ryan McKinny as Escamillo in Berlin

Ryan McKinny, the winner of the Birgit Nilsson Prize for 2010, sings "Die Frist ist um" at La Scala in 2010. The Dutchman has been condemned to sail the seas forever with his only respite coming every seven years. The seven years have at last passed again and the Dutchman is to go on land again. The only thing he truly wants, though, is death but he is not allowed to die.



McKinny is showing off his formidable vocal skills as Escamillo in Bizet's "Carmen" from June 25-30 at eh Dresden Semperoper. Click HERE for tickets and performance details.

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