Reader Submission: Samuel Hasselhorn

Samuel Hasselhorn

As we've stated numerous times, we love our reader submissions more than almost anything. In the international art of opera it is virtually impossible to follow thousands of gifted singers simultaneously. We consider our readers our barihunk scouts and you've delivered some of the best talent and eye candy to us over the years.

The latest submission is German barihunk Samuel Hasselhorn who studied at the studied opera at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, Germany.  Since October 2012, Hasselhorn has honed his skills at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse in Paris.

In 2010, he was awarded the Walter und Charlotte Hamel Stiftung Scholarship award at the Bundeswettbewerb Gesang in Berlin, one of the most prestigious national singing contests in Europe. He was also a finalist in the international Schubert Competition in Graz. In 2011, he became the first German singer to win the Gundlach-Musikpreis.

Samuel Hasselhorn sings Storck, Wolf & Scubert at the Internationalen Wettbewerb für Liedkunst:

In November 2011,  Hasselhorn made his professional stage debut as Guglielmo in Mozarts Cosí fan tutte at the Hameln-Theatre in Germany. On May 12th, he made his debut at the international Händel-Festspiele in Göttingen with songs and arias by Händel, Lully, Vivaldi and Rameau.

You can next see him in Paris, where he will join the Lazarus Quartet in music by Hugo Wolf and Arnold Schoenberg. Tickets are available online.

Glyndebourne to stream six operas

Jacques Imbrailo as Billy Budd (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

This summer Glyndebourne will be streaming six operas worldwide, three live from the festival and three recorded in previous seasons.

The first opera to be streamed will be Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos on June  4th at 7:00pm GST.  It will be followed by Verdi's Falstaff on June 21st at 1:30pm GST.    

Of interest to barihunk lovers is the July 12th broadcast of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro featuring Audun Iversen's Count and Vito Priante's Figaro from a 2012 performance. Also of interest will be Jacques Imbrailo as the title character in Britten's Billy Budd slated for broadcast on August 23rd.

In between those two operas will be Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie on July 25th and Donizetti's Don Pasquale on August 6th.

Visit the Glyndebourne website for more information.

New "opera" uses mashup of porn soundtrack and 20th century music

It was bound to happen, a porno opera. Of course, it it had to be in either the Netherlands or Germany. I guess Germany figured it had featured enough soft-porn Regie productions, so the "honor" goes to the Netherlands. Operadagen Rotterdam 2013 will be presenting the world premiere of Pornographia on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1. 

The opera, which is being described as a mix of performance art and opera is the first part of a series of three about contemporary sociocultural trends in society. The other two will be Megalomania and Nostalgia.    

The "score" of the opera will be the full soundtrack of a gay porn movie with fragments inspired by twentieth century music classics. The opera is about a small society of three figures whose mundane life is intervened by the entrance of a handsome young man. The need to satisfy their feelings of lust drives them crazy and eventually leads them to destruct what they crave for.  

The May 31st performance will be preceeded by a panel discussion about the pornofication of the contemporary artistic discourse in the Netherlands. Pornographia is being described as a new experimental operatic performance about our collective need for immediate gratification of our desires.

Pornographia

Director Sjaron Minailo says he is using pornography as a metaphor for a culture in which the desires of the consumer are the only engine of production; A culture in which the desire for realism results in the opposite: the pornographic illustration of sexuality consumes the sexuality itself.

Admission is € 10 and tickets are available online.

Nmon Ford takes on Ernest Bloch's Macbeth

Nmon Ford

When one thinks of the operatic version of Macbeth, one immediately thinks of Giuseppe Verdi. However, the  Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch wrote a highly dramatic version in 1906, which has only been performed once in the U.S., at the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 1973.

The opera is about to double the number of U.S. performances it has received, with performances at the Long Beach Opera from June 15-23, 2013 and again at the Chicago Opera Theater from September 13-21, 2014. The Long Beach performances will feature Panamanian-American barihunk Nmon Ford in the title role and Suzan Hanson as his scheming wife Lady Macbeth. Adding to the dramatic effect will be the location of the performance, which will be in a vast industrial space at the Port of Los Angeles. The Chicago Opera Theater has not confirmed casting.

The great Inge Borkh sings Bloch's Macbeth:

Bloch’s opera reveals the influence  of Wagner's music dramas and Claude Debussy's symbolist opera "Pelleas et Melisande."  Bloch's probing and dramatic score powerfully illuminates the central couple, and deeply examines the temptation of promised power and its influence over our actions. but it did not receive its first performance until November 30, 1910 by the Opéra-Comique Paris. After the premiere production, the opera was staged in 1938 in Naples, but was then banned on orders of the Fascist government. Subsequently, the opera was produced in Rome in 1953, and in Trieste. 

BREAKING NEWS: Aussie Morgan Pearse selected for Young Concert Artists Trust honor

Morgan Pearse

Aussie barihunk Morgan Pearse, who created quite an internet sensation with our last post, was just named one of five artists to be represented by the prestigious Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT) in the United Kingdom. Over 100 applicants competed in the preliminary and semi-final rounds, and only five artists were selected for representation. Pearse was the only singer selected. 

Set up in 1984, YCAT provides a unique stepping stone for exceptional young artists who have the potential for international performing careers. The group introduces these artists at home and abroad. The organization provides artists with a secure management base and works with event promoters in the United Kingdom and abroad in securing performance opportunities. Soprano Elizabeth Watts and the Sacconi Quartet were previous musicians selected for the honor.

Pearse is the Royal College of Music’s inaugural Joan Sutherland Scholar studying with Russell Smythe. He was recently awarded top prize in the Singers Section of the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition.

Benjamin Covey performing in tribute to poet Robert Burns

Benjamin Covey

Canadian barihunk Benjamin Covey will be performing in a concert celebrating the life and poetry of Scottish poet Robert Burns. The first half of the concert will explore Burns' world through word and song. He'll be joined by soprano Virginia Hatfield in performing "Comin' thru the rye," "Ye Banks and Braes," "Sweet Afton," "My love is like a red, red rose" and "Auld Lang Syne."

The second half of the program will feature music from the Broadway musical Brigadoon.  Songs include "The Heather on the Hill," "Almost like being in Love," "Waitin' for my Dearie" and "Go Home to Bonnie Jean."

The concert is on Friday, June 7th at 7:30PM at the Church of the Redeemer in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, or to purchase tickets by phone, call 416-755-7158.

A Graduate of the University of Toronto and an Alumni of Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artist Development Program,  Covey debuted as Morales/Dancaire in Carmen with Manitoba Opera. He graduated from San Francisco’s prestigious Merola Opera Program in 2010, where he sang Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore. 

Raves for Crossley-Mercer and Maltman in sexy Marriage of Figaro

Malin Christensson and Edwin Crossley-Mercer in Los Angeles (Lawrence K. Ho, Los Angeles Times)

We posted about the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Mozart -Da Ponte Trilogy awhile back. If you missed getting tickets for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, you missed some serious eye-candy, with three barihunks who have been on this site. Leading the way was the sexy Figaro of Edwin Crossley-Mercer.  

The LA Times wrote, "Baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer was a distant, angry, virile yet, as Alaïa dressed him, metrosexual Figaro." After seeing the pictures, we would have added "smoking hot" to the list of superlatives. Also in the cast is Christopher Maltman as the Count. The LA Times wrote, "Maltman [wore] tight whites that only a powerful man could get away with, but Maltman is a magnetic baritone scarily uncowed. When outwitted, he still holds all the power, and he sang that way." In the small role of Antonio is Barihunk calendar model Brandon Cedel.

Dorothea Röschmann and Christopher Maltman (Genaro Molina)

There are still two performances remaining on May 23 and May 25. Conducting wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel is leading the orchestra. Visit their website for tickets.

If you want to catch Crossley-Mercer in the United States, you may want to catch one of these performances. When he wraps up on May 25th, he heads back to Europe for a series of concerts and operas in France and Germany. He kicks of on June 9th at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch Partenkirchen before heading to the Théâtre des Champs Élysées on June 20th for Fauré's Pénélope. There are no other U.S. performances listed on his schedule.

If you want to catch Brandon Cedel, he'll be appearing at the Wolf Trap Opera beginning on June 21st in Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims. That production also includes barihunks Aaron Sorensen, Norman Garrett and Steven LaBrie. Additional information is available online.