Domingo's "Operalia" to be broadcast live

Baritone Aldo Heo

We're still listening to the Concours vocal competition from Montreal because we can't seem to get enough of the amazing singing that took place. We've listened not just to the three thrilling barihunks - winner Philippe Sly, 3rd place winner John Brancy and Sidney Outlaw - but to many of the other contestants who wowed us with their vocalism. We were particularly impressed with 2nd place winner Olga Kindler and countertenor Eric Jurenas, who remarkably didn't advance to the finals. 

Yunpeng Wang sings "Ah! per sempre" from I Puritani:

We're hoping that we have time to recover in time for the live broadcast of Placido Domingo's Operalia competition being broadcast live from Beijing, China on Sunday, June 10th. A number of well-known singers were exposed to the opera world at the Operalia competition including barihunks Stéphane Degout and Ludovic Tezier, as well as Joyce DiDonato, Rolando Villazon, Inva Mula, Nina Stemme, José Cura, John Osborn and Susanna Phillips.

Yungpeng Wang

This year's competitors include four baritones, Amaruvshin from Mongolia, Roman Burdenko from Russia, Aldo Heo from South Korea and Yunpeng Wang from China, as well as soprano Janai Brugger form the United States, tenor Like Shing from China, mezzo Nadezhda Karyazina from Russia,    tenor Antonio Poli from Italy,  tenor Hyojong Kim from South Korea, soprano Guanqun Yu from China.  mezzo Olesya Petrova from Russia, countertenor Anthony Roth Constanzo from the United States and  tenor Brian Jadge from the United States. 

You will probably need to be a subscriber to Medici.tv to watch the competition, but we be keeping our eyes and ears open for audio feeds. [We've been informed that Medici will have the Operalia competition online for FREE for 90 days. Enjoy it!].

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Konstantin Shushakov Garners 2nd Prize at Operalia; Gabriel Preisser Advances

Konstantin Shushakov

The baritone winning streak that we've been covering in international singing competitions suffered a minor setback at this year's Operalia competition. Russian baritone Konstantin Shushakov came in second place after being nudged out by American tenor René Barbera and South African soprano Pretty Yende.

"I was one of the two baritones who were allowed into the finals," Shushakov told Voice of Russia. "I was surprised to see how many tenors reached the finals. That was a real battle of tenors, you know. But all competitions after all are aimed to help singers get access to the world`s best opera stages. Very often those who received second or third prizes become even more successful than top-prize winners."

Barihunk Erwin Schrott is a past winner of the competition.

The annual competition, which was founded in 1993 by tenor Placido Domingo, was held last Sunday. The competition is held in a different city each year. During Sunday's ceremony, Domingo received the Russian Order of Friendship for his work in cultural exchange.

Here are some selections of Shushakov from other performances.





Meanwhile, across the globe at the Utah Festival Opera, Gabriel Preisser was redeeming baritones as he won the final round of the Lirico Concorso Competition and will now advance to the interantional finale in Italy. The Barihunks Team wishes him well.

Gabriel Preisser

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New Barihunk: Tae Joong Yang

Tae Joong Yang

Korean born barihunk Tae Joong Yang first came to international attention after performing in the Neue Stimmen competition in Germany. He is another one of our reader submissions from Germany.

Yang resides in Germany, but is a member of the ensemble at the Vienna State Opera in Austria. Yang continued his studies in Germany with Siegfried Lorenz at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has performed in throughout Europe and the Far East.  In 2007, he won first prize in Plácido Domingo’s famous OPERALIA competition in Paris.

He made his critically acclaimed debut with the Vienna State Opera as Figaro  in Rossini's "Barber of Seville. " As a member of the ensemble he has also performed Schaunard (La Bohème), Christian (Un ballo in maschera), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Silvio (Pagliacci), Marullo (Rigoletto), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore) und Alessio (La sonnambula).

His video of "Largo al factotum" has received almost 200,000 hits on YouTube. 





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