Daniel Okulitch (a.k.a. that really hawt naked dude from L.A. Opera's The Fly) who is one of the most buff bass baritones in the business (check out these photos from the Fort Worth Opera's Dead Man Walking) chatted with The Los Angeles Times about his upcoming Figaro in Le Nozze for the L.A. Opera. He'll be singing with Marlis Petersen as Susanna, Bo Skovhus as the Count, and Martina Serafin as the Countess under the baton of Plácidone Domingone.
OC was name checked today in The Los Angele's Time's Sunday Conversation, highlighting Okulitch's NYCO Don Giovanni from last year, a standout of GM George Steel's comeback season:
Operachic.com called you "a swaggering rock star" in "Don Giovanni" in New York. Do you think that opera singers have to bring the same kind of sexual bravado that rock musicians do to the stage to attract younger audiences?
I've seen various performances with the people touted as these sort of personas. It gets them in the door, but 20 rows back, no one can tell the difference. You really can't. What's interesting about that that if you tell someone you're going to see Erwin Schrott or Anna Netrebko and they're really hot and you tell them this enough times, even if they're sitting 50 rows back they're going to think, "Wow, I'm watching a really sexy, attractive person onstage." And their brain fills in what the eye is not catching. So it's a self-feeding loop; it's a snake eating its own tail. In the end, what's going to keep people coming back is if they have a satisfying dramatic musical experience.
Yeah, you'll definitely want to go ahead and read the rest of the interview. Trust. Okultich divulges the naughtiest (we hope?) item that he packs in his suitcase. Here's a hint: No time for love, Doctor Jones! We're hoping he packs a black fedora to complete the look!