Nathan Gunn is back at the San Francisco in what is arguably one of his greatest roles, Papageno in Mozart's "The Magic Flute." Despite the fact that we're a site clearly dedicated to baritones, we often get asked why we don't feature tenors. So for all of you hunkentenor lovers, you'll be thrilled to know that Alek Shrader has been cast as Tamino.
Much of the chatter in San Francisco opera circles has been that the popular David Hockney production has been scrapped for a new production by visual artist Jun Kaneko. By all accounts, it's going to be every bit as spectacular and visually stunning.
SF Opera's "Magic Flute" by visual artist Jun Kaneko
Performances run from tonight through July 8th and tickets can be purchased on the San Francisco Opera website. The company is also presenting Verdi's "Attila" and John Adams' "Nixon in China." The Magic Flute will be sung in English.
Make sure to read our post about Nathan Gunn's upcoming performance in Mark Adamo's "The Gospel of Mary Magdalene," which is sure to generate a lot of interest in the opera world, as well as press attention.
No one saw this one coming: The Aussies invaded England in the midst of the Queen's "Diamond Jubilee" and put on quite a show. Aussie barihunks Grant Doyle and Joshua Bloom took the stage at the Garsington Opera at Wormsley estate and had the crowd thinking about things other than British Royalty and Navy flyovers.
Grant Doyle sings "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen" from Korngold's "Die tote Stadt":
There are still six performances remaining between now and July 2nd. Check out the Garsington Opera website for more information. Also on the docket at Garsington is Mozart's "The Magic Flute" with barihunk Richard Latham, Vivaldi's "L'Olimiade," and Offenbach's "La Perichole."
Papageno won't be Richard Latham's first encounter with feathers
If you haven't been to Garsington and experienced opera in the lush English countryside, we highly recommend adding it to your travel itinerary.
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.
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:
Some of you may remember West Edge Opera as the Berkeley Opera. They rebranded, but continue to produce some of the most interesting productions in the opera-rich San Francisco Bay Area. They re-imagine opera classics with the goal of appealing to regular opera goers, as well as newer, younger audiences.
Their latest productions is Mozart's The Magic Flute by Mozart re-imagined as The Manga Flute. They commissioned David Scott Marley to create both a new English translation and new story inspired by the Japanese manga films of Hayao Miazaki, the noted creator of many popular films including Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. They also commissioned artist Megan Willis to create new manga art to be projected as scenery.
Barihunk Eugene Brancoveanu, who we recently featured on this site in Machine at Oakland's Crucible, will be singing Papageno. The former Merola Opera student and Adler Fellow always brings 100% to every performance, whether dressed as a bird catcher or undressed in Machine.
There are performances remaining on Friday, March 9 and Sunday, March 11. You can click HERE for tickets or click HERE to make a donation to support this exciting company.
Some days we open our inbox and a theme just seems to appear. Today it was barihunks who are performing Papageno or Sarastro in Mozart's "Magic Flute."
The Opera Theatre Company in Ireland is touring the opera to a number of venues. The Sarastro is one of our favorite barihunks, Matthew Trevino, who also happens to in our Barihunks charity calendar in September. The opening night performance on Friday, November 25 is already sold out, but there are still tickets remaining for the remaing 19 performances, which run through December 10.
The Papageno is Owen Gilhooly and the production is performed in an English translation. Visit the Opera Theatre Company website for additional information or to purcharse tickets.
David Adam Moore (Papageno) and Jamie-Rose Guarrine (Papagena) (Photo by Mark Matson)
Another barihunk featured prominently in our calendar (and showing some skin) is the always entertaining David Adam Moore. Moore is a performer who always brings something extra to a performance, whether singing Mozart, Rossini or contemporary opera. He just wrapped up a run as Papageno with the Austin Lyric Opera. If you're in Texas and are kicking yourself with your cowboy boots for missing him, you're in luck. Moore is returning in April to perform Timur in Puccini's "Turandot" opposite yet another calendar model, Craig Verm,who shows off his amazing chest in our May feature along with Douglas Carpenter, Justin Hopkins and Dan Kempson (you won't want to miss it!).
By the way, you won't want to miss the AMAZING Turandot of Lise Lindstrom, who practically owns this role right now and performed the role to great acclaim at the Met. It's impressive that a smaller company like Austin Lyric Opera has managed to engage her. Buy your tickets now at their website, as this production will undoubtedly be sold out.
Gyula Orendt
We hadn't heard of Gyula Orendt until a reader brought him to our attention. The Transylvania-born singer studied at Franz Liszt University in Budapest. Orendt won numerous awards at the Viñas vocal competition in Barcelona in January 2010, including those for Oratorio/Lied, Mozart singing and Dalton-Baldwin prize. The baritone is a member of the ensemble of the Berlin State Opera House this seasons where he will perform Papageno, among other roles. Next year, he will also perform the Gamekeeper in Dvorak's "Rusalka" at the Royal Opera in London.
Lastly, we had to share the following picture from the Minnesota Opera. As we previously posted, the world premiere of Kevin Puts' "Silent Night" was full of amazing baritones and, better yet, barihunks. One of the things that we like about operas based on war stories, is that they inevitably have a lot of beefcake to enjoy and "Silent Night" is no exception.
Top Photo: Troy Cook, Gabriel Preisser, Ben Wager, Michael Nyby and Craig Irvin
Of course, "Silent Night" has also been a critical success and has instantly become a welcome addition to the repertory. We highly recommend that you read the reviews from the Minneapolis Examiner and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Regular readers of this site will also know that Troy Cook is one of only a handful of singers to appear on this site in the Full Monty. Cooks revealing debut on this site last summer was from a performance of Poulenc's "Les mamelles de Tirésias" and it continues to be a popular post with readers.
Please remember that all proceeds from our Barihunks calendar is going to benefit young artist programs that produce singers like Matthew Trevino, Troy Cook, Gabriel Preisser, Mike Nyby, David Adam Moore and others. Holiday shopping season officially begins this week, so click HERE and order your calendar today. Join us in making this a special holiday for young artists and you can enjoy looking at them ALL YEAR.
Your input, suggestions and occasional corrections are always welcome at Barihunks@gmail.com
Barihunks in disguise: Anstine and Cutlip (Photo by Rozarii Lynch)
We recently introduced Erik Anstine to readers and we suspect that he has a big career ahead of him. He is currently one of the priests in the Seattle Opera's "Magic Flute," which includes the Papageno of barihunk Philip Cutlip and the Sarastro of barihunk and ex-football player Keith Miller. The second cast also includes British barihunk Leigh Melrose as Papageno, a singer who we blogged about last year and who should be better known on this side of The Pond. Cheers to the Seattle Opera for showcasing him to U.S. audiences. The always entertaining Seattle Opera blog has a profile of Anstine and tenor Eric Neuville, which you can read HERE.
Seattle Young Artist member Erik Anstine
Tickets remain for the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday performances. The costumes for this productions are by the internationally renowned fashion designer Zandra Rhodes and are not to be missed! You can click HERE for ticket and performance information.
Philip Cutlip (Top) and Keith Miller (Bottom)
Here is a sampling of Anstine singing Mozart's "Ha! Wie will ich triumphieren" from Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
Michael Mayes, host of the hilarious Texapolitan Opera podcast, will be singing Papageno at the Michigan Opera Theater. Performances will run from April 9-17 and tickets and additional cast information can be found HERE. Here is a brief video of Mayes explaining why The Magic Flute is a great opera for kids (while wearing skulls on his cowboy shirt!). We told you that he's funny.
Here is the famous version of Ileana Cotrubas and Christian Boesch singing the duet for Papageno and Papageno.
By the way, David DiChiera, who runs the Michigan Opera Theater and who is also a composer, will have his opera "Cyrano" performed at the Florida Grand Opera with baritone Marian Pop. Click HERE for additional information and to listen to audio clips. Here is a video of the Act 2 quintet.
