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
Meet the barihunks of the opera in Pforzheim, Germany - Stefan Keijo Hagendorn and Axel Humbert.
Stefan Hagedorn studied in Frankfurt and debuted with the Theater der Stadt Bieleford. He went on to perform with the Chamber Opera at the Rheinsberg Castle, Staadstheater Braunschweig and the Festival Rossini in Wildbad. He is currently in the ensemble at the opera in Pforzheim.
Axel Humbert is also part of the ensemble at Pforzheim and he takes on the roles in the lower bass-baritone range. He studied in Würzburg and went on to sing a number of Mozart roles, including Don Alfonso in Cosi, Figaro in Nozze and Colas in Bastien und Bastienne.
We're unabashedly huge fans of Alex Esposito, who has established himself as one of the leading Leporello's of the last generation. He also made a name for himself as Masetto in the DVD from Salzburg opposite the Don Giovanni of Christopher Maltman and the Leporello of Erwin Schrott, which stands as one of the greatest barihunk productions in opera history.
Alex Esposito: The world's reigning Leporello (with Ildebrando d'Arcangelo on left)
Esposito has generally established himself as one of the most sought after Mozart singers in the world, singing in all of Mozart's standard repertory operas. He recently appeared as Papageno at La Scala and Guglielmo in Toulouse and his schedule is filled with Mozart for the next two years. He can be seen in Munich, Valencia, Valencia and London as Leporello; Papageno in Munich, and; Figaro in Venice and Paris.
To view his complete schedule and see more photos visit his website.
We named Edwin Crossley-Mercer our hottest recitalist in our "Best of 2010" feature. There really aren't many baritones, hot or not, who are better in the art of lied and chanson than this 28-year-old singer. His insights, phrasing and singing are nothing short of magnificent. Unfortunately, there isn't much on the web or on his management site. However, we did find this charming clip of him working on Papageno at Aix-en-Provence and a video of him singing "Autumn Leaves" (Les Feuilles Mortes) in French. Enjoy!
