German barihunk Dominik Köninger has kept the baritone winning streak alive by winning the 2011 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. Köninger won £10,000 for his first place finish. As we've been reporting, baritones Jonathan Beyer, Gabriel Preisser, Andrei Bondarenko, Mark Diamond, Philippe Sly and Konstantin Shushakov have been cleaning up at various vocal award competitions. We've dubbed this the "Golden Age of Baritones" and Köninger's win only reinforces our claim that we're in the greatest era ever for low voices.
Even the prize for best duo (singer and accompanist) went to a baritone, as Jonathan McGovern and his accompanist Timothy End walked away that coveted prize. The duo was awarded £5,000 for winning the prize.
Unfortunately, the competition posts video of the awards celebration, but not of any of the singing (a curious omission). Below the video we've added two sound clips of Köninger, so that you can actually hear his artistry. He's performing Johann Strauß's "Brüderlein" and Ravel's Chanson épique. Here is the announcement of the winners:
If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area don't miss tonight's Schwabacher Summer Concert featuring the latest class of participants. The concert will feature works by great Italian composers, as well as a little Tchaikovsky. The concert will feature scenes from "Don Carlo," "I Capuleti e i Montecchi " "Lucia di Lammermoor," "Rigoletto" and "Eugene Onegin." The scenes concert will be directed by renowned stage director Peter Kazaras, who currently serves as Seattle Opera's Artistic Advisor and Principal Artistic Instructor of the Young Artist Development Program, and was recently appointed Director of Opera and Music Theater at UCLA.
Two Merola participants are of particular interest to us this year, as they have already created a buzz in the opera world for their amazing singing talent and barihunk good looks: Phillipe Sly and Mark Diamond. Both singers have also won major vocal competitions, with Diamond taking first place at the Eleanor McCollum Competition at the Houston Grand Opera and Sly winning the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions Competition.
Mark Diamond
Diamond has already been scooped up by the Houston Grand Opera and he'll be joining their esteemed young artist program after Merola. Houston has engaged him to perform Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Marchese d’Obigny in La Traviata. He will be studying the roles of Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, and Rodrigue in Don Carlos. You can hear his sound clips HERE.
Phillipe Sly in performance
We've featured Phillip Sly prominently on this site since he first came to our attention. You can hear his sound clips HERE. A little trivia about Sly: he originally started out as a countertenor (like fellow barihunk Zachary Gordin). Here is Sly singing Schubert's Der Erlkönig, which we've previously posted, but we can't get enough of.
Both singers will appear in the Merola performances of Rossini's "Barber of Seville" this year. Diamond as Figaro and Sly as Bartolo. Performance are on August 4, 5, 6 and 7 and tickets can be purchased HERE. For those who can't make tonight's concert, there will be a FREE version of the concert at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Park on Sunday, July 24th at 2 PM.
Birthday boy: Jordan Shanahan
We'd also like to wish Jordan Shanahan a HAPPY BIRTHDAY today. Shanahan and his wife soprano Luna recently won the Barihunks "Favorite Opera Couple" poll. We've been trying to find a video of the popular couple singing together and we promise to post one when it becomes available.
