Jack Michaels
Barihunks (Blog)
16 July, 2017
Who says that Gilbert & Sullivan can’t be sexy? (Certainly no-one here at the Operetta Research Center.) “The Young Victorian Theatre Company in Baltimore, USA, has assembled a cast of three barihunks and a hunkentenor for their current run of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore,” writes the blog Barihunks. “The pin-up worthy cast includes barihunk Joshua Hughes as Sir Joseph Porter, KCB, First Lord of the Admiralty; barihunk Jeffrey Williams as Captain Corcoran, Commander of the HMS Pinafore; hunkentenor John Kaneklides as Ralph Rackstraw; and, bass-barihunk Christopher ‘CJ’ Hartung as Dick Deadeye.”
The crew of the “HMS Pinafore” at the Young Vic: (left to right) CJ Hartung, Joshua Hughes, Jeffrey Williams, John Kaneklides, and with flag. (Photo: Barihunks Blog)
The show has already proved to be a huge box office success, as recent performances completely sold out. Fortunately for anyone near the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area, there are three remaining performances on July 20, 22, and 23 at the Sinex Theater in the Roland Park area.
The Barihunks blog continues: “Joshua Hughes, graduated with a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Peabody Conservatory, and previously appeared in the company’s 2016 summer production of Iolanthe. He recently performed in Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with Dallas Bach Society.”
“Jeffrey Williams, who won the Middle/East Tennessee District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, will be appearing next season with the Nashville Opera in both Puccini’s Tosca and Hercules vs Vampires. He is also an Assistant Professor of Voice at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee.”
Jeffrey Williams and sailors in “HMS Pinafore” at the Young Vic, 2017. (Photo: Barihunk Blog)
“CJ Hartung is a student at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and is a regular young artist with the Berk’s Opera Company, where he most recently sang the role of Lodovico in Verdi’s Otello.”
“John Kaneklides has been singing both opera and musical theater, having performed Henrik in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music and Tony in Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. This season he made his role debut in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann with the St. Petersburg Opera, where he performed the title role.”
Tickets for the remaining shows are available online.
To read the original article, click here.
I am searching for the name of a jewish librettist who wrote for Johann Strauss II and who survived the war and afterwards moved to England. Any suggestions much appreciated..
Have you checked the worklist in Kurt Gänzl’s ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF THE MUSICAL THEATRE? The last original librettist that comes to my mind would be Victor Leon, but he died before 1945.