Barihunks

A SEXY Don Giovanni at New York City Opera

barihunks@gmail.com — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:36:27 PST

If this is the look of the George Steel era at New York City Opera then we at Barihunks heartily approve. There was a lot of controversy and discussion about his hiring, particularly amongst opera aficionados on the East Coast. From what we heard from people who had worked with him, we knew all along that he would make the "People's Opera" interesting and he's lived up to his reputation.

[Jason Hardy as Leporello and Daniel Okulitch as Don Giovanni; Photo by © Carol Rosegg]

[Joélle Harvey as Zerlina and Kelly Markgraf as Masetto; Photo by © Carol Rosegg]

Here is how City Opera described this new production:

Visionary director Christopher Alden reimagines this masterwork in a thrilling new production which explores the intersection of dark eroticism and strict Spanish-Catholic tradition in the early 20th century. Rising star Daniel Okulitch makes his City Opera debut as the notorious antihero.

[Jason Hardy as Leporello, Keri Alkema as Donna Elvira, Kelly Markgraf as Masetto, Joélle Harvey as Zerlina, Gregory Turay as Don Ottavio and Stefania Dovhan as Donna Anna; Photo by © Carol Rosegg]

[Jason Hardy as Leporello; Photo by © Carol Rosegg]

[Daniel Okulitch as Don Giovanni; Photo by © Carol Rosegg]

Don Giovanni provides a lot of material for this site and we're grateful for some wonderful new images from NYCO. For more information visit the New York City Opera website. The production runs through November 22nd.

[Clockwise: Kelly Markgraf as Masetto, Gregory Turay as Don Ottavio, Keri Alkema as Donna Elvira, Stefania Dovhan as Donna Anna, Daniel Okulitch as Don Giovanni (center), Jason Hardy as Leporello and Joélle Harvey as Zerlina; Photo by © Carol Rosegg]

It is important the New York City has two major opera companies and this production shows why. City Opera will put on productions that one will never see at the Met. If you're in the New York, we encourage you to support this new regime which is working its way back to financial viability.

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Philip Cutlip in Glass' Orphée

barihunks@gmail.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:13:55 PST

[Photo from Portland Opera by Cory Weaver]

The hunky Philip Cutlip performs the title role in Philip Glass' opera Orphée. For more information visit the Portland Opera website.

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Three Barihunks in Boston Lyric's "Carmen"

barihunks@gmail.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:17:49 PST

[Top photo of Greg Gerbrandt; Bottom photo of Daniel Mobbs by Jeffrey Dunn for Boston Lyric Opera]

We love any opera with a barihunk, but three barihunks in one opera is bariheaven. That's just what Boston Lyric Opera has put together, with Daniel Mobbs as Escamillo, Andrew Garland as Dancaïro, and a favorite on this site, Gregory Gerbrandt as Morales.

In this production we think Carmen should dump Don Jose and run off to Valencia with Dancaïro, Morales and Escamillo. Now that's living like a true gypsy!

Click HERE for tickets and information.
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Another Sexy Don From the Hot Pole

barihunks@gmail.com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:35:24 PST

It doesn't matter who directs Mariusz Kwiecien in Don Giovanni, he still manages to ooze sex. At the Bavarian State Opera German director Stephan Kimmig splatters him in blood, shaves his head, throws a cheap blond wig on him and even surrounds him by butchered pigs, but the Hot Pole still seethes with his usual sensuality. His counterpart, once again, is barihunk Alex Esposito.

He remains the most interesting actor among male singers in operas. Kwiecien and Esposito works incredibly well together on stage, so even if you don't like the production, the acting is outstanding.

For more information about the production, visit the Bavarian State Opera website.
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Okulitch at Museum of Sex

barihunks@gmail.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:00:47 PDT

By PlaybillArts Staff
October 26, 2009

In anticipation of its forthcoming production of the Mozart classic, New York City Opera will host an Oct. 27 event exploring the legend behind Don Giovanni. The 7 PM presentation will be held at the Museum of Sex in Manhattan.

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New York City Opera's own Don Juan (bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch) in its new production of Don Giovanni, director Christopher Alden, and Esther Perel, a prominent sexologist, join us for an intimate, provocative exchange on the Don Juan legend, including a live excerpt from Don Giovanni, and film and audio clips and slides.

The evening will explore history versus myth, the Don's changing image, how Mozart's Don Juan relates to the composer's own lusty sexuality, City Opera's new interpretation, and Don Juan in the 21st century.

PARTICIPANTS:

Christopher Alden, director
Daniel Okulitch, bass-baritone
Esther Perel, couple therapist, author of Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence
Liora Maurer, pianist
Moderator: Cori Ellison, City Opera Dramaturg

Tickets are $10. The Museum of Sex is located at 233 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Call 212-689-6337 x115 or visit www.museumofsex.com

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Can You Tell Them Apart?

barihunks@gmail.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:34:55 PDT

The Arizona Republic newspaper recently ran this paragraph in a review of Cosi fan Tutti at Arizona Opera:

The girls and boys are pretty much interchangeable - can you tell the difference between Guglielmo (David Adam Moore) and Ferrando (Gordon Gietz)? Didn't think so.

I'm not sure that it matters if one can tell them apart. They're both pretty hot and we happily welcome tenor Gordon Gietz to the site.

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The Hot Pole

barihunks@gmail.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:03:41 PDT

What more can we say about Mariusz Kwiecien's special gift? After all, it's one of the reasons we call him the Hot Pole.

Kwiecien is heading to his homeland to sing Lord Ashton in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Opera Krakowska beginning in November.

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Zachary Gordin in "A Night of Barihunks"

barihunks@gmail.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:13:56 PDT

Zachary Gordin is new to our site and he's part of what we're calling "A Night of Barihunks" at the Oakland East Bay Symphony on November 13th. The former countertenor will be joining barihunks Brian Leerhuber and Joshua Bloom in a night of operatic scenes (including tenors and sopranos, as well).

Bloom and Leerhuber have both appeared on this site before. Leerhuber was featured for his amazing chest and Gordin gives him some serious competition in that category. These are two guys who need to be featured in the shirtless barihunk roles that provide this site with content (i.e. - Pearl Fishers, Rape of Lucretia, Don Giovanni and Billy Budd).

Gordin has recently performed with the Oakland East Bay Symphony in a concert performance of “Otello." In August, he appeared as Wagner in “Faust” with the Festival Opera in Walnut Creek. If you miss him in "A Night of Barihunks," you can see him portray Enrico in “Lucia di Lammermoor” with North Bay Opera in March 2010.

We hope to see a lot more of Gordin in the future.

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See David Krohn for FREE (but with his shirt on)

barihunks@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:41:23 PDT

For those of you in the New York area, you can go see barihunk David Krohn for free at his Julliard recital concert. It will take place on November 17 in Julliard's Paul Hall at 8 PM.

He'll be performing Handel's "Dalla Guerra Amorosa", Schubert's "3 Gesänge des Harfners" and Ravel's "Histoires Naturelles."

Krohn has been featured on Barihunks three times before and he's building quite a following as he launches his career.

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Markus Werba sings Don Giovanni's "Finch'han dal vino"

barihunks@gmail.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:38:39 PDT

A video of Markus Werba's recent performance of Don Giovanni in Japan has finally emerged for your viewing pleasure. He is every bit as sexy as we were told.

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The sexiest Tarquinius?

barihunks@gmail.com — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:28:21 PDT

We have always maintained that Matthew Worth is the sexiest Tarquinius in the world today, but Christopher Maltman offers up quite a challenge in this performance from the Aldeburgh Festival. He also sings this music as beautifully as we've heard. Here's a clip from what may be the most glorious five minutes of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.

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Random Barihunks: Forde, Prato & Turner

barihunks@gmail.com — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:13:04 PDT

Here are three of our favorite barihunks, two Americans and an Italian.

The top photo is Tom Forde, who will be singing Mozart's title character in Figaro at the Tacoma Opera in February. He's a gifted young singer with a wonderful stage presence and we predict great things for him.

The center photo is Italian barihunk Vittorio Prato who will be singing Massimo in Handel's Ezio next month at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. We think he's one of the hottest singers in Europe right now and really wish that someone in the U.S. would engage him.

Finally, there's Randal Turner who is a favorite on this site and the winner of our "Hottest Don Giovanni" competition in a landslide. He's singing Konrad Nachtigall in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. Turner is another barihunk who we'd like to see singing more in the United States.

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Happy Birthday, Dmitri Hvorostovsky!

barihunks@gmail.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:08:08 PDT

The "Siberian Hunky" celebrates his 47th birthday on October 16th. In our eyes he just gets sexier every year.

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Our Latest Baby Barihunk was Paul Armin Edelmann

barihunks@gmail.com — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:16:41 PDT

No one managed to guess that our latest baby picture was of Austrian barihunk Paul Armin Edelmann. The popular guesses seemed to be Rod Gilfry and Teddy Tahu Rhodes.

Edelmann may be the only singer that we know of who has made Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus sexy. After this video, perhaps we should add it to our list of barihunk roles. He also manages to sing this aria as beautifully as we've heard since Herman Prey three decades ago.

Fans of this site will be pleased to know that Edelmann has an actual barihunk role on his agenda. He's scheduled to sing Papageno in both Beijing and at the St. Margarethen Opera Music Festival.

EDELMANN AS PAPAGENO

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Simon Keenlyside as Cover Boy

barihunks@gmail.com — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:23:39 PDT

Fans of Simon Keenlyside should rush out to buy the latest copy of BBC Music, which features Simon Keenlyside. Inside the magazine is a wonderful feature on the popular barihunk. There is also an interesting article on what they deem the ten greatest baritone roles.

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Name the Baby Barihunk

barihunks@gmail.com — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:40:08 PDT

Not too many of you were fooled by the last Baby Barihunk, so let's see if you can identify this major talent. Submit your guess by clicking on the "comments" link below.

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Wilhelm Schwinghammer: Latin Lover? Vibrating Hammer?

barihunks@gmail.com — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:48:55 PDT

[Photo from the Hamburger Abendblatt]

Bass-Barihunk Wilhelm Schwinghammer was recently featured in the Hamburger Abendblatt. The first line of the article roughly translates, "With his thick black hair and dark eyes under thick brows, he could easily be mistaken for a Latin Lover." The article goes on to explain that the singer is actually Bavarian. He's also been featured on this site before in a post called "Hamburger Hunks." The hunky German studied at the Musikgymnasium der Regensburger Domspatzen before heading to the University of the Arts in Berlin. He has refined his craft in smaller roles at the Hamburg Staastsoper.

Schwinghammer recently gave a riveting performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. You can briefly hear him in this YouTube clip from Johann Gottlieb Naumann's "Aci e Galatea." Word out of Germany is that he is an extremely gifted Handel performer.

Just for laughs, Barihunks placed "Schwinghammer" in the Google Translator and it came out "Vibrating Hammer." With a name like that he might be mistaken for more than a Latin Lover.

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Martin Achrainer's Sexy Don Giovanni

barihunks@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:56:18 PDT

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Bay Watch Barihunk?

barihunks@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:54:40 PDT

PHILIP CUTLIP PUTTING ON SOME MOO-VES

DAVID HASSELHOFF IN HIS BAY WATCH DAYS

We've seen some strange things in opera reviews, but Jay Gabler may have taken the prize with his description of barihunk Philip Cutlip. The Twin Cities Daily Planet critic compared the blond-haired, straight-haired All American Barihunk to the wavy-haired, Bay Watch boozer David Hasselhoff.

Cutlip, who has excelled in everything from Handel to Philip Glass, is starring as the sexy Zurga in "Les Pêcheurs de perles" with Minnesota Opera. Although this production has some retro touches, Cutlip hardly evokes the Bay Watch boy babe. One thing we know for certain is that he's keeping the tradition of casting Zurga with a barihunk alive and well.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, on the other hand, stayed away from odd comparisons and had this straight forward assessment:

"[Cutlip] went far towards making sense of the mercurial Zurga, who toggles between jealous rage and magnanimity; in "O Nadir, tendre ami," perhaps the opera's most emotionally complex number, Cutlip registered his character's shifting, conflicting feelings with keen sensitivity."

For more information visit the Minnesota Opera website.

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Emerging Barihunk Jose Rubio Featured in Hometown Paper

barihunks@gmail.com — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:46:17 PDT

We recently featured emerging barihunk Jose Rubio on our site. His hometown newspaper in Vancover, Washington, The Columbian, wrote a feature on Rubio and mentioned his appearance on the site.

Read the entire article HERE. Here's the highlight:

The 5-foot-10, 170-pounder also is part of a new generation of opera singers, [coach Robert] Ainsley said, redefining the look of the profession, casting off the stigma of "big, fat, old warbley people."

Rubio recently was listed on a fan Web site, barihunks.blogspot.com, that focuses on this nation's "bari-hunks." The singer, who ran varsity cross country in high school, features yoga classes, bike riding and other physical fitness training in his weekly routine, which includes numerous classes in languages, history, movement, acting, dancing and stage fighting. He rarely sings for more than an hour a day, and often not at full volume to save his voice for the performances.

The 26-year-old hunk is singing in Portland Opera's "La Boheme" through October 3rd. You can get ticket information HERE. By the way, Portland's "La Boheme" also features one of this site's most popular barihunks, Michael Todd Simpson.

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Cuddling Up to Monteverdi

barihunks@gmail.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:22:44 PDT

This bottom picture is from Den Norske Opera's production of Monteverdi's sublime opera "L'incoronazione di Poppea." We believe that the guy in the rear is bass Giovanni Battista Parodi and the guy in the front is countertenor Jacek Laszczkowski. Despite the fake blood, this looks like a wonderfully fun time.

The photo on top is definitely of barihunk Giovanni Battista Parodi, who we're desperately trying dig up more photos of to post on Barihunks.

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Mariusz Kwiecien: Then & Now

barihunks@gmail.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:22:33 PDT

Not many of you were fooled by the baby picture of Mariusz Kwiecien. I guess he's kept his baby cuteness.

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Name the Baby Barihunk

barihunks@gmail.com — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:11:40 PDT

Can you name this famous barihunk based on his baby picture?

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Emerging Barihunk: Nicolas Courjal

barihunks@gmail.com — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:12:03 PDT

Here's a shot of Nicolas Courjal as Masetto looking at fellow barihunk Franco Pomponi in a production of Don Giovanni in Montpellier, where he is currently singing The Speaker in Die Zauberflote opposite Detlef Roth, the brilliant Sandrine Piau and the Queen of the Night as sung by Uran Urtnasan-Cozzoli.

The French-born bass studied at the Conservatory in Renne and established himself at the famed Opera Comique in Paris. Like many basses, he's not given many barihunk roles, getting stuck singing Zuniga instead of Escamillo, and Basilio rather than the Barber. That's why we decided to feature a picture of him offstage, so that Barihunk fans can see him in his full glory and not dressed up looking like Moses.

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Two Bohemian Barihunks in Portland

barihunks@gmail.com — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:03:54 PDT

[Back row: Gus Andreassen (Colline), Michael Todd Simpson (Marcello) Front row: Arturo Chacon-Cruz (Rodolfo), Kelly Kaduce (Mimì), Alyson Cambridge (Musetta), Jose Rubio (Schaunard) Photo by Julia Sheridan]

The Portland Opera's "La Boheme" is opening on September 25 and features two barihunks. Michael Todd Simpson, who is a regular on this site, will be singing Marcello. Simpson has proven that he can make any role hot and lit our fire with a recent performance of Escamillo in Carmen.

We're admittedly not familiar with Jose Rubio, but he looks like a certifiable Barihunks candidate from this photo. Let us know what you think.

By the way, if you haven't heard Kelly Kaduce sing yet, she's worth the trip alone. Even at her young age, she's sung riveting performances of both Salome and Madama Butterfly. If we were in her shoes, we'd run off with Marcello in this production.

Tickets and performance information can be found HERE.

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