Opera Chic

Teddy Tahu Rhodes on Don Giovanni: "I'm An Older Man"

And by the way, who will sing with David and Teddy at the Sydney Opera House?

TSO + TTR + Henze's Erlkönig Australian Premiere = Win

 

Native New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes (thy blessed saint of laboriously-crafted guns and cut abs), just gave a colorfully complex recitial as part of South Australia's Adelaide Festival of Arts. Between Schumann's 2nd, Brett Dean's Etüdenfest, Glanert's orchestration of Brahms's Four Preludes and Shubert's Erlkönig, TTR (and his noticeably shaved head) gave the Australiann premiere of [The Greatest Living Composer] Henze's Erlkönig. The five works were accompanied by the petite Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and conductor/artistic director Sebastian Lang-Lessing.

What's Manon Lescaut Without Bewbs? Opera Australia's (.)(.) Vision

We're getting "Interview with a Vampire" vibes from Opera Australia's new  Manon Lescaut, opening on July 16. It happens. Director Gale Edwards serves up the Puccini heroine as an irresistible sacrifice for Lescaut...or should we say ~Lestat~? With our leading hunk Lescaut as Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Cheryl Barker sings Manon and Jorge López Yáñez sings Des Grieux. López Yáñez rules...he made a mariachi CD! How bad a$$ is that?

~*~

(TTR goes for the jugular of Cheryl Barker)

Click the link below for more production shots!

Teddy Tahu Rhodes for Team Opera Chic!

October 2008 Ventiquattro magazine ran a nice piece on that nice piece, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, the 41-year-old New Zealand baritone who favors ripped jeans, t-shirts, and kicks rather than playing dress up. Of course, half the article waxed erotic of the tall&skinny, tan&tattooed, athletic beach boy...and even mentioned his romantic travails prior to the "October Surprise"!

The article continues that Rhodes has been called "The Brad Pitt of Opera" in Australia, while The New York Times called him a cross between Paul Bettany & Viggo Mortensen, and the Washington Post called him a hunky version of Sting. Personally, Headquarters O.C. likes to refer to him as John McEnroe's younger, h0tter, cawk-blocking brother.

We've heard it all before, but we'll jump at any chance to publish more TTR pictures! We'll also jump at any chance to endorse O.C. via photoshop if any poor sucka dares to wear a white t-shirt for a photoshoot! Here's the ~real~ image:

I'm addicted to you...Don't you know that you're toxic?

 

~*~

Teddy Tahu Rhodes Will Drive You To Tears (Because He's Getting Married)

Teddy Tahu Rhodes will get married in New York; publicist cries.

The 1893 Turin Manon Lescaut Will Grab Your Attention (And Your Butt. Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Especially)

Riccardo Chailly is bangin' the 1893 complete version of the Turin premiere of Manon Lescaut, at Leipziger Opernhaus. That version, unheard for the last 115 years, comes back to life thanks to Chailly and director Giancarlo del Monaco.

In the cast, many OC regulars, from the hawt Francesca Patané and the meaty Teddy Tahu Rhodes to the unwilling participant in the Roberto Alagna-manufactured drama at la Scala, Antonello Palombi.

Here's the whole playbill:

Conductor: Riccardo Chailly
Production: Giancarlo del Monaco
Stage design: Johannes Leiacker
Costumes: Birgit Wentsch
Choir director: Sören Eckhoff
Oper Leipzig Choir
Gewandhaus Orchestra

The Cast

Manon Lescaut: Sondra Radvanowski/Francesca Patané
Sergeant Lescaut: Teddy T. Rhodes
Chevalier Des Grieux: Aleksandrs Antonenko/Antonello Palombi
Geronte de Ravoir: James Moellenhoff

Makes one want to grab some tickets and get one's butts over to Leipzig.

Green Room Awards: Teddy Tahu Rhodes Is Best Male. Like, DUH!

The male artist award went to Teddy Tahu Rhodes for Don Giovanni.

Need to know anything else?

Thought so.

Keep The Door Open For Teddy Tahu Rhodes; And, TTR Talks!

Scripture -- doesn't matter if you're Jewish, Christian, or Muslim -- agrees that Elijah was capable of raising the dead, could bring fire raining down from the sky, and was taken up to heaven on a whirlwind.

Frankly, what is nowhere to be found is that he was also an Aryan-looking, buff surfer dude with rock-hard abs and a penchant for wearing too-tight wifebeaters.

But the "tall, tanned, tattoed" (TTT, get it? lol) baritone, with "big voice and muscles to match... 195 muscular centimetres", "hunk du jour" but "not too hot to Handel" that is Teddy Tahu Rhodes, is about to return home to New Zealand to play, yes, the lead role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah – with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra on Thursday 6 September at the Auckland Town Hall.

Watch Teddy talk, not sing (he's fully dressed) here;

May the Lord forgive us all.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes Does City Beat

An awesome article from Cincinnati's City Beat perpetuates our endless fascination with all things Teddy Tahu Rhodes, where we get details of his Maori-inspired tattoo, and a confession that he's 'totally flummoxed by the clamor about his good looks and charismatic stage presence'. C'mon Teddy...if you got it, flaunt it! Ain’t no shame in the game. 

Tonight those lucky patrons of the Cincinnati Opera get to see Rhodes star as Guglielmo in la prima of Mozart's Così fan tutte, with direction set in 1930s Hollywood. Rhodes, heart made of gold, waxes chivalric on da Ponte's libretto:

"It's actually quite dark," Rhodes admits. "The idea of tricking the other's partner doesn't sit well now. I'd have great difficulty if the music wasn't so great and it wasn't so much fun."

O teddy…you could be improvisationally singing the libretto in Icelandic for all we care. in bocca al lupo tonight!

Rent-A-Teddy-Tahu-Rhodes: Cincinnati Names Its Price

We're huge fans of Cincinnati, that most musical of cities -- the Orchestra that introduced Mahler 3rd and 5th to the American public, the orchestra once led by Thomas Schippers, that American genius, and frankly, we just like to say "Järvi" a lot.

OC also loves the Cincinnati Opera, with their clever performance descriptions (Gounod’s Faust is commodified as "devilishly good" = teh loals), their endearing opera-centric events (Opera Dogs = kawaii), and the tremendously baffling -- but awesome -- contact sheets for PR shots. We also have the highest respect for Opera Chic readers that come to us from the Greater Cincinnati home base, not to mention the lovely, endless comedy fodder when it comes to the craptastic legacy of the Cincinnati Reds and Mark Twain’s couched barbs. And we will always have a soft spot for the ambitious programs of the Cincinnati Opera, especially regarding a recent fundraiser...

On Thursday, June 14, an opening night cocktail, gala dinner and auction was organized by the Cincinnati Opera in celebration of this year’s 87th Summer Festival, followed by la prima of Charles Gounod's Faust. (and btw fyi memo to Gelb: We heard that Ruth Ann Swenson has been rawking the house with her performance of Marguerite, bravely appearing in the final act in her post-chemo, shorn hair sans wig.)

But the part that makes OC squeal in delight?: an auctioning-off of everyone’s favorite shirtless baritone, "that big lumberjack of a sek-say baritone," Teddy Tahu Rhodes (although lately he seems to be in a tie with Erwin Schrott’s London Don Giovanni among opera's h0rniest gourmets of sexy select cuts, we still think Teddy has an edge -- I mean those abs are just inhuman, and he also dripped oceans of testosterone all over the stage with his Streetcar performances, making it difficult for the other performers to negotiate that messed-up-floor).

At $100 per person, Artistic Director Evans Mirageas held the auction block mast at full attention. With items ranging from a Christian Dior makeover (which fetched $450) to a Tiffany & Co. pearl necklace (fetching $1,150), from a Kentucky Maker's Mark Distillery tour (a sweet, drunken $850) to a random supernumerary role for next season (a cool $750), there was only one item that made us giddy: While Mirageas himself fetched two winning bids of $2,500 with the promise of a home-cooked meal of his own design, the *real* winning bid of the evening (not in monetary value, but in super h0tt, pulsing, invisible currency) was a $1,400 dinner TBA with Teddy Tahu Rhodes at a restaurant PhoParis, described as “French cuisine with a Vietnamese accent”. More like "New Zealand home slice with a hotornot.com rating of 10." Or "10+++AAA would do dinner again!"

We haven’t heard yet if he is required to dine shirtless or not, but we’re guessing not, since the bidding would have gone up to like 100 million dollars if that was the actual stipulation.

A Dramatic Musical Event: Teddy Tahu Rhodes and His Abs

Here's the official site for the forthcoming Dead Man Walking
in Australia, starring TTR's steely abs.

Opera Chic has never been to Australia but Teddy's washboard vocal talent  may be enough to convince us to visit, next September.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes Says NO to the Death Penalty, Thankfully Keeps Saying YES to Hawt Abs

That big lumberjack of a sek-say baritone, surfer dude Teddy "Abz of Steel" Tahu Rhodes, is back as convicted killer Joseph de Rocher in the Dead Man Walking opera (he had already starred in the role in 2003). Leave it to him to make a murderer hawt as, huh, hell.

In the picture right above, TTR, sadly with abs concealed under his shirt, is standing next to Sister Helen Prejean, author of the Dead Man Walking book. 

And we can only close a post as depressing as one on the death penalty with the uplifting image of Teddy's abs in glorious close-up (100% size image pops up, watch out! those things attack!).

Stanley Kowalski messes with Vienna: Teddy Tahu Rhodes Sings With His Abs

At Vienna's Theater an der Wien New Zealander surfer dude Teddy Tahu Rhodes and his abs star as Stanley Kowalski in André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire. Sister-in-law Blanche is played by Janice Watson and preggers wife Stella is played by Mary Mills.

This was the Austrian premiere of an operatic version of Tennessee Williams's superawesome 1947 play