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!].
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.
We continue our Verdi series with two great roles for baritone that aren't one of the lead characters, but critical to the story, Iago in Otello and Ford in Falstaff.
One of the most popular baritone arias is Ford's "E'sogno o realtà," where a singer can display great emotion as the character becomes consumed with jealousy.
We'll start with Lee Poulis who we recently featured singing in Bernard Hermann's Wuthering Heights at the Minnesota Opera. He has the type of voice that is often cast for this role. Poulis shows how well the aria works for recitals and competitions. For comparison listen to the rich, darker baritone of Guido Loconsolo with orchestra.
Few secondary characters are more critical to the plot line that the evil and sinister Iago, who sets in motion everything that leads to Otello killing the innocent Desdemona. A great Iago can easily steal the show from the tenor and soprano, much like a great Azucena or Amneris can steal the show in Il Trovatore and Aida respectively. Let's start with two of the greatest versions ever, Leonard Warren and Ettore Bastianini. We'll follow that with the thrilling duet "S pel ciel" with Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes from the 1979 "Live from the Met" telecast.
Christoph Zadra as Agamemnon (Center & Right) in Vienna
There are certain operas that give us particular delight, as they are both musically rich and filled with roles for barihunks. Don Giovanni, The Pearl Fishers, Billy Budd, Carmen and The Rape of Lucretia come immediately to mind. When looking through our stats of our most popular posts, it dawned on us that singers who performed in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride were some of our most popular singers. Among those are Rod Gilfry, Stephane Degout, Nathan Gunn and our all-time most popular barihunk Gabriel Bermudez.
We couldn't resist posting Christoph Zadra, who is pictured above. He is 34-year-old Viennese actor who works primarily in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. He was Agamemnon in the Vienna production of Iphigénie en Tauride with Stephane Degout and showed up in a number of the publicity shots (apparently for good reason).
Stephane Degout as Oreste in Vienna
Iphigénie en Tauride premiered in Paris in 1779 and was part of his reform movement that forever changed opera. Like Beethoven's Fidelio it is filled with a message of humanity and it became Gluck's greatest success during his lifetime. It's great to see it returning to the repertory of opera houses throughout the world, as it's an amazing piece of theater and filled with some of the most beautiful music ever written. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard and is based on Euripides great story. Like any great story, it is filled with emotion and conflict which creates moral dilemmas and turmoil for the characters.
Here is an extended scene with Rod Gilfry and tenor Deon van der Walt, which ends in the great baritone aria "Dieux protecteurs de ces affreux." You can watch the entire performance on YouTube at the site of carrangel2:
The story of the opera is pretty straightforward: Iphigenia has been saved from being sacrificed by her father. She now lives on the island of the Taurians and has the task of killing any foreigner that comes to the island seeking refuge. Her dreams are plagued by memories of the bloody destruction of her family. She does not know that her brother Orestes was able to escape the massacre. Years later she sees him and his friend Pylades who have been taken prisoner by the Taurians. But brother and sister fail to recognise each other. However, the unknown prisoner reminds Iphigenia of Orestes, so she decides to save him. Orestes, though, prefers to face death instead of Pylades. During the sacrifice, brother and sister recognise each other. Just as Thoas, the king of the Scythians, is about to kill Orestes, Pylades suddenly appears and murders the king. The people sing in praise of the coming peace and the end of the wars on Tauris.
Zadra & Degout in Vienna; Bermudez in Zurich
Clearly, readers of this site love Gabriel Bermudez in this role, as you've made him our most popular singer. Unfortunately, his YouTube site does not allow embedding, so we can't post the video of his singing "Dieux protecteurs de ces affreux," but you can watch it by clicking HERE.
Lately, the great tenor Placido Domingo has been taking up baritone roles, including Orestes in Iphigénie en Tauride. His performance at The Met was a huge success and now he's taken it to the Washington National Opera in Washington D.C., where we've learned that another one of our Über-popular singers, Randal Turner, is covering for the 70-year-old conductor/singer/impresario. Certainly, Turner would be about as perfect for this role as any singer around today. For those of you who still prefer a baritone in the role, we'll make sure to let readers know if Turner is scheduled to perform. Performances run from May 6-28 with a cast that includes the great soprano Patricia Racette as Iphigenie and barihunk Simone Alberghini as Thoas. Click HERE for additional cast and performance information.
