Opera Chic

Sing For Hope, Play For Hope in 88 Ways

NYC non-profit arts organization, Sing for Hope, hosts an upcoming summer initiative called Play Me, I'm Yours. Play Me brings 60 pianos to the streets of NYC in an arts campaign disguised as a happening, which had success last year in London, São Paulo, Bristol, Birmingham, and Sydney. The pianos arrive to various locationns throughout NYC's five boroughs on June 21 but will be gone on July 5. Baritone Nathan Gunn is participating, in good company with board members Placido Domingo and Renée Fleming. We're not sure that it would work (for lots of reasons) in Milan, but OC would be all over it.  

Nathan Gunn Shows Off His Guns

Five-foot-eleven, 185-pound American baritone Nathan Gunn proves that sometimes, opera singers look decidedly better dressed-down and in their natural habitat. Looking like Al Leiter's hotter, younger brother, The Gunner speaks to The Wall Street Journal about what it takes to look so good. Our favorite part of his workout regiment:

For his daily strength routine, which often occurs in his apartment or hotel room, Mr. Gunn works out only in a pair of athletic shorts because he sweats "like crazy," he says.

Forgive us Father for OC has sinned. Read all about it here.

 

For the record, System of a Down ~sucks~! Gunn needs to try some Deftones (or Rage Against the Machine). Trust us on this one...we know our '90s angsty testosterone music.

And the Award Goes to: Juan Diego Florez (via Placidone) for Hispanics for Los Angeles Opera

(Photo Credit: © Steve Cohn/ Steve Cohn Photography)

The California-based organization, Hispanics for Los Angeles Opera, celebrated their Twelfth Annual Plácido Domingo Awards this past Sunday, November 29. The event took place in the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion after the opening night performance of Barbiere, and the sparkling (albeit exhausted) Barbiere cast also showed up to get their groove on and party with Placidone: Juan Diego Flórez's Count Almaviva, Joyce DiDonato's Rosina, and Nathan Gunn's Figaro.

Flórez had an extra-special reason to celebrate, as he was awarded by Honorary Chair, Plácido Domingo, for his contributions as a Hispanic artist who has done great things for opera. And OC's Yamamotos.

 
(Photo Credit: © Steve Cohn/ Steve Cohn Photography)

*~Under the cut --> photos of DiDonato & Gunn!~*

Christian Van Horn: Between A Rock (Nathan Gunn) & A Hard Pec (Eric Cutler)

(Above: Nathan Gunn & Nicole Cabell in LOC's The Pearl Fishers. Photo courtesy Dan Rest/Lyric Opera of Chicago)

O.C. can't help it...she always roots for the Unterdawg, which is why we've been eying The Lyric Opera of Chicago's current production of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. Exiting to enthusiastic reviews from the Monday, October 6th premiere, this creamy little pearl got swallowed alive by the season opener hype of Natalie Dessay & Jonas Kaufmann's Manon. Not that these two saengers don't deserve all the attention that they can get... It's just that we're flabbergasted at how we've heard almost nothing about the bare-chested duets between The Pearl Fisher stars Nathan Gunn (Zurga) & Eric Cutler (Nadir). omg who wouldn't want sexy time with these two?

We dug a little deeper into the stacks and discovered American Bass-Baritone Christian Van Horn, who is singing Nourabad, and can definitely hold his own sandwiched between the hot manmeat sampler of Gunn/Cutler pecs. A recent graduate of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, this towering Chris Meloni look-a-like keeps an awesome blog, where he writes about all his adventures. He's been at it since this past summer, and candidly shares behind the scenes photos and observations via his colleagues and ports of call. But the particular entry that won us over was his homage to "The Karate Kid" and his mecca-like journey to the Kobra Kai DoJo in L.A. omg what's not to love?

We bid a fond farewell to Xtian on November 4th when he sings his final show of The Pearl Fishers, and swaps bratwurst for weisswurst at Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper, where he sings through January 2009 (Colline in La Bohème, Der Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte, and Oroveso in Norma).

The best part of his blog? Upon request, on his time off from busy rehearsals, Xtian will craft you a very kewl, personalized post card if you send him your address. Sorry guys, naked pictures are not guaranteed no matter how much Van Horn might make u Van Horny.

(Photo by Devon Cass)

Robert Goulet or Nathan Gunn?

The New York Philharmonic has put up a slide show of the upcoming performances of Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot musical. Among Broadway, theater, and opera stars, Nathan Gunn is slated to play Lancelot along with Gabriel Byrne's Arthur and Marin Mazzie's Guenevere.

It also stars Fran Drescher, Christopher Lloyd, and Stacy Keach (as Merlyn) in a semi-staged version with a full cast, costumes, and sets.

(The Gunnster does have big hands).

It opens on May 7 with five performances through May 10. It's a revival of the Broadway 1960s smash hit @ the Majestic Theater, which starred Richard Burton as King Arthur, Julie Andrews as Guenevere, Robert Goulet as Lancelot. Go here for the full Gunn experience.

Nathan Gunn Recital @ Zankel Hall

(above: Julie Gunn, Nathan Gunn, and the private dancer, Sonia Warfel. Photo credit: Thanks to Bradley.)

Last night at Zankel Hall, a former subterranean movie theater in the massive armory of Carnegie’s 57th & 7th enclosure (so very subterranean that the walls were shared with the local subway line, which roared by almost continuously), baritone Nathan Gunn and wife Julie held a sold-out, short performance for an intimate crowd.

With Julie on the ivories and Nathan singing, there was also a woman who performed an interpretive dance throughout the sets, doing like the whole, “I’m washing my laundry on an old scrub board” pantomime. The all-English language program started with Frank Ferko's “Five Songs on Poems of Thomas Merton”, (Ferko took a bow from the audience during the very brief curtain call – with no encores either) and laid the formula for the rest of the evening: seriously yawn inducing music, unchallenging vocal lines, and really long piano breakdowns.

Julie and Nathan were dressed informally, she in a v-neck black sleeveless shirt coupled with black pants, and he in an all-black suit ensemble. The dancer was equally in all black, a mandarin-style blouse and yoga pants. At the wood backboard of the stage, the words to the first poem, “In Silence”, trailed across in a light projection, as was the protocol for many of the following works.

Julie rocked the conservative look, but Gunn was hurting in an ill-fitting, too-large suit. Shirtless would have been much better (heyll, even in a t-shirt & jeans would have been a better choice). Gunn and the dancer swirled around each other as Julie plucked at the keys under filtered lights that swarmed from blue to gold to green. Ferko's composition was um, you know…very minuet-like styling that would give way to waltzy ballroom thang. “Reduced to This” was basically Satie’s first Gymnopédie rehashed...although it was during “Reduced to This” that Gunn departed from a very straight-forward, reserved, concentrated, and stoic presentation...and finally experimented with the word play of the Thomas Merton text…but only a teasing glimpse.

Samuel Barber's "Hermit Songs" (Opus 29) didn't offer anything terribly enticing in their 10-set list, although #6, Sea Snatch, won the award for the best named work of the evening. O yae flapping sea snatch. I was bored dot com. Of the tri-state blogging scene, Susan was there also.

"Please do not turn the page until the end of the song," was stamped at the bottom of each page of the lyric insert, but, "Please do not leave the performance until it has finished," would probably have been a better choice.

Top Gunn Will Bring You To Anti-Climax: A Tendency To Keep One's Shirt On Will Decrease Classical Music's Popularity

On Tuesday night, when the 35-year-old Gunn makes his recital debut in Zankel Hall, he will keep his shirt on, but that doesn't mean the evening will be conventional.

Way to promote classical music among the masses, Daily News.

Gunn Spotting!

Opera blogger Susan spent her Spring Break traveling from New Jersey to attend Lyric Opera's Il Barbiere, catching tagged-out Juan Diego Flórez's Almaviva replacement, John Osborn. While there, she had herself a backstage Gunn Spotting, snagging Nathan Gunn's Figaro in post-opera camera slaying. Here you can find a few 1024x768 images to help get the point across. Gunn HO!!

O RLY? YES RLY: "The Magic Flute" Screencaps

As promised here, I've uploaded 64 (sixty-four) (SIXTY-FOUR) (six-four) screencaps from the English-language version of Mozart/Schkikaneder's Die Zauberflöte (English version, okay, whatevs...The Magic Flute) (with Julie Taymor's direction) at the NYC Metropolitan Opera House, part of PBS's "Great Performances at the MET" series.

Go here to find the new set on the Opera Chic flickr page. Enjoy!

Great Performances at the MET: Die Zauberflöte

Thanks to La Cieca's gentle reminder, this unashamed Opera Nerd stayed in last night and caught the condensed/bastardized version of Mozart/Schkikaneder's Die Zauberflöte at the MET, as part of PBS's "Great Performances at the MET" series. Opera Chic saw this live in NYC during it's inaugural run (albeit in the original German-language), and forgot what a delight it was...with Julie "Lion King" Taymor's direction of giant puppet-bears, floating feasts, skeletal birds, and a boom-box glockenspiel.

High def screenshots were taken (this time on the inferior panel of an LCD) of Nathan Gunn's hammy (but gorgeous) face, Morris Robinson's latex breasts, and Isabel Bayrakdarian's pancaked face. And Rene Pape. Thank you Toll [house cookie] Brothers!!

A few screenshots for now (and much more later), as Opera Chic has a full day of musical adventures awaiting, and therefore must jump!