Mariusz Kwiecien Stars In Two Met HD Broadcasts

Mariusz Kwiecien as the title character of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”

Photo: Nick Heavican/Metropolitan Opera

On Wednesday night, the Metropolitan Opera launched their latest installment of the Live in HD broadcasts to hundreds of movie theaters across the United States with Donizetti's Anna Bolena.

There are five more broadcasts and two feature barihunk mega-star Mariusz Kwiecien, who will be seen in June 27th performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni and the July 18th performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. The Don Giovanni is a barihunk lovers dream cast, as it also includes Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and Aussie Joshua Bloom as Masetto. The Lucia performance will feature Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala as the ill-fated lovers.

Mariusz Kwiecien and Luca Pisaroni (Leporello) in the Met's Mozart's "Don Giovanni"

Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Additional broadcasts include Anna Netrebko in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann on July 11th,  hunkentenor Juan Diego Flórez in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory on June 20th and Renée Fleming in Der Rosenkavalier on July 25th.

All screenings will begin at 6:30 p.m. local time. You can click HERE to find the theater closest to you.

Fans of Kwiecien should be reminded that he'll be in Santa Fe performing Karol Szymanowski King Roger from July 21 through August 14th. Check out the Santa Fe Opera website to watch Kwiecien discuss the opera or to purchase tickets.

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Opera News features Christian Van Horn

Christian Van Horn (Photo © Brian Kuhlmann 2012)

Christian Van Horn has a leading man's energetic charm and dashing good looks — virtues that were kept somewhat under wraps this past fall, when he was singing Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Crespel in Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Turandot's Timur at San Francisco Opera. "When I show up for a job and go to have a wig fitting, I can always spot mine — it's the gray one, and it usually has a long, gray beard to go with it." Van Horn has a fair amount of practice playing older men: during his two full seasons as a contract artist at Bayerische Staatsoper, his seventeen roles included a run as Edita Gruberova's father in Norma, an experience he says was "kind of like singing with Angelina Jolie, because [Gruberova] is so wildly famous there. The applause after the show would last for an hour sometimes, and the crowds of people waiting for her outside the theater were unbelievable."

[Read the entire feature at the Opera News website]


F. PAUL DRISCOLL

You can subscribe to Opera News at their website. 

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Don't forget to buy Randal Turner's CD. He's currently starring in Rufus Wainwright's "Prima Donna" at 

New York City Opera

Lee Poulis as Enrico (Photo by Rod Millington/Sarasota Opera)

Sometimes the sexiest pictures don't show any skin at all. This photo of Lee Poulis as Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at Sarasota is a great example of someone cutting a sexy figure in a period costume with lots of fabric.

The production opened on February 18th, but there are additional performances on February 23, 26 and March 2, 7, 9, 17 and 23. Visit the Sarasota Opera website for ticket information.

The sextet from Lucia at the Met with barihunk Mariusz Kwiecien and Anna Netrebko:

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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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Christian Van Horn's Breakout Performance in Chicago

Christian Van Horn backstage as Raimondo

Andrew Patner of the Chicago Sun-Times has highlighted the performance of barihunk Christian Van Horn in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." It's not often that the character of Raimondo gets singled out, but anyone who has seen the towering Van Horn or heard his incredible voice, knows that he has a way of standing out in a crowd. Here is what Patner wrote:

The breakout performance here was from another Lyric alum, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, as the meddling tutor Raimondo who probably thinks that he’s truly helping Lucia. With both the restored Act 2 aria and especially later with the chilling “Dalle stanze ove Lucia,” announcing to the wedding party Lucia’s murder of the man she was forced to marry, Van Horn made good on the promise he showed during his Ryan years. [Read the entire review HERE].

There are seven performances remaining through November 5th. Visit the Lyric Opera of Chicago website for tickets and performance information.  

Here is Van Horn performing in "Romeo and Juliet" in Salzburg:



After his run of Lucia's, Van Horn heads west to the San Francisco Opera to sing Timur in the company's stunning David Hockney production of Turandot with another breakout performance, the Liu of soprano Leah Crocetto. 

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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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