Opera Chic

Garðar Thór Cortes Pwns Joshua Bell

We last reported on the Icelandic crossover tenor Garðar Thór Cortes in March hoping that his, well, frankly arguable h0tness would be catalyst to thaw the tenacious winter freeze. The two-time recipient of Iceland’s lol Sexiest Man award lol, double platinum star, in-the-right-light 80s heartthrob Corey Feldman look-alike, and singer most recently credited for drawing a younger crowd to opera due to his labeling as the "James Bond of opera", will add a string of free, public performances to his upcoming roster. On June 1, you will be able to find him singing outside of the Leicester Square station to the lunchtime crowds in the name of charity.

He is acting in cooperation with Shelter, a(n) UK organiz(s)ation which aims to provide social homes for homeless kids living in unsafe and overcrowded housing situations. Following the June 1 stint, he will move around the city to supermarkets, shopping plazas, and other railway/subway stations for a couple of days.

It has been overly stated that his appearances will simply be participation in the NEW MEDIA HOTNESS of /lame/ "busking" /lame/, which, to OC, is one of the truly annoying blights of urban living. We now humbly request Jessica (or any of our awesome London contacts) to go find him and pelt him with cod fillets as he launches into Nessun Dorma. Captured on camera, of course. Just for laughs -- //we have nothing against his honorable causes.

TEH MIGHTY (Garðar) THÓR (Cortes)

With Juan Diego Flórez resolutely off-the-market (his ensuing marriage branding him "taken"), we at OC Headquarters are destined to fixate on the new h0ttest flavor of the tenorific rainbow. From the mastermind of Icelandic entertainment (??), entrepreneur Einar Bárðarson, promise lurks in the form of “IM HUGE IN ICELAND” cross-over star Garðar Thór Cortes. But when we say “promise”, we really mean “abject despair”.

Opera Chic was initially tempted by the tenor’s website biography (Warning: link has annoying embedded music files) that boasted he was voted Iceland’s sexiest man twice in one year, but we’re not so sure. Iceland may be having a serious shortage of h0tties if this is the trophy. Oh snap! ICE BURN!

The Telegraph is running an article on the Icelandic tenor, who may be memorable to our UK readers from a recent tour with “Welsh sup4r-star” Katherine Jenkins, where he was lauded for his interpretation of Nessun dorma. heh. But he wants to be taken more seriously than his recent cross-over ways, and boasts that he has already sung leading roles between Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti throughout German and Scandinavia. He lists Pavarotti, Domingo, Jussi Björling, and Caruso as his inspiration. His self-titled debut CD is set to launch to the foreign market in April 2007 (pre-ordering now on Amazon), with track listings such as the aforementioned Nessun Dorma -- and curiously, a track called "Caruso", which we are hoping is a long-overdue ode to axxion renegade, David Caruso's "Horatio Caine" from CSI: Miami.

Cortes is adamant on retaining his identity as a classically trained tenor, and states:

"I don't want to go too far down the pop side because then I think I would lose credibility in the classical world," he says. "If the album does well, hopefully I could use that to my advantage, but I'm a classical opera singer - that's what I do, that's what I am."

Hay I sang opera first...Deal with it. The article quote clincher?: “Some suggested that he would make a perfect recruit for Il Divo, Simon Cowell's Chippendale-esque tenor quartet.”

There are so many things wrong with that sentence I don’t even know where to start.

omg i just realized why he's super grody! He looks just like 80s heartthrob Corey Feldman! vvvvv LO-OK vvvvv