Opera Barihunks Taking on Musical Theater

Matt Worth as Curly

There is a sudden upsurge of barihunks crossing over from opera to musical theater. We recently featured Tom Corbeil, who has been a critical success in "The Addams Family" musical national tour an Teddy Tahu Rhodes, who is touring in South Pacific in Australia.

The Central City Opera has filled their roster with barihunks for their upcoming production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma." Matthew Worth will star as Curly, joined by Curt Olds as Will Parker and Paul LaRosa as Jud. Performances run from June 30th through August 3rd, with two performances in Denver on August 5th and 7th.

Hugh Jackman sings "Oh, what a beautiful mornin'" from Oklahoma:

The company will also be presenting Puccini's "La boheme" and Britten's "Turn of the Screw." The three bohemian baritones are the enviable trio of Troy Cook (who has appeared Full Monty on this site), Ryan Speedo Green and Chris Carr. Visit the Central City Opera website for additional performance and ticket information.

Gregory Gerbrandt

A month later and about 3,200 miles to the south, Gregory Gerbrandt will be taking on Riff in Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" at the Teatro Nacional Sucre in Quito, Ecuador. Performances run from July 26-29.

Visit Gerbrandt's website to hear his recent recording of Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. 

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Tom Corbeil featured in OPERA NEWS

Tom Corbeil in Opera News (Photo © Jörg Meyer 2012)

We can gauge the popularity of singers a number of ways on Barihunks, the most reliable is Google Analytics, which lets us know exactly which posts are receiving the most traffic. The other is email, which is less reliable, but a better gauge of the intensity of interest in a singer. Many famous barihunks generate a lot of traffic and email, particularly Nathan Gunn, Mariusz Kwiecien, Dmitry Hvorostovsky and, incresingly, Luca Pisaroni. It's fascinating when a younger, lesser known singer starts generating intense interest with fans, as is the case with Tom Corbeil.

Our recent post generated a lot of traffic, as well as links to older posts about the current star of the Addams Family musical. When Corbeil appeared in the recent issue of Opera News, we were inundated with emails making sure that we saw the article. The emails came from four continents, which was pretty impressive for a singer who is just beginning to make a name for himself.

Here is a highlight of the SOUND BITES feature from Opera News:

By F. Paul Driscoll

Tom Corbeil has been hitting low E-flats all over North America this season — but he hasn't been singing any opera. Explanation? Since September 2011, the thirty-four-year-old bass-baritone — who has won great notices over the past several years in Mozart, Haydn, Rossini and Puccini roles — has been on tour as Lurch, the taciturn butler in Broadway's The Addams Family. This month alone, Corbeil is scheduled to strut Lurch's stuff in Madison, Wisconsin; St. Paul, Minnesota; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and his hometown of San Diego, California. 

Although Corbeil says he has no intention of moving away from opera permanently — there are confirmed dates on his 2012–13 calendar for Rossini's Basilio at Michigan Opera Theatre and Rodolfo in Florida Grand Opera's La Sonnambula — he is enjoying his current stint as a touring actor. "I'm not singing for the entire show, so it's not as stressful as if I were doing eight Collines or eight Leporellos a week — it's more akin, from a purely vocal standpoint, to doing eight performances a week of the Marquis d'Obigny in La Traviata. That comes with its own stress, because you have a very short amount of time to make a very strong impression — or to make a very strong failure!"

[Read the entire article and Opera News HERE and, if you haven't already,  subscribe while you're there]

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Tom Corbeil Lurches Onto Broadway Tour

Tom Corbeil

We've posted some pretty hot pictures of barihunk Tom Corbeil over the years, especially the shirtless ones from Joseph Haydn’s "L’isola disabitata." He's currently put his opera career on hold to join the traveling cast of the Addams Family musical touring the country. Anyone who saw him shirtless in L'Isola disabitata would barely recognize him as the morticianly looking Lurch.

The Addams Family was created by Jersey Boys authors Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, Drama Desk Award winner Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party), choreographer Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys), and Olivier Award-winning director/designers Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch (Shockheaded Peter) with production supervision by four-time Tony Award® winner Jerry Zaks.

The Road Cast of the Addams Family

The show is currently in Cleveland through April 22nd. It then travels to Memphis, Madison, St. Paul, Grand Rapids, San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Kansas City and Washington D.C. Check HERE to see if the show is coming to your town. 

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com