barefoot baritone alert...

[ftlaudft]

The current September issue of Opera News has a full-page photo (p. 27) of Mariusz Kwiecien, the handsome singer who will be taking the role of Don Giovanni at the Met this season. You really should check it out. He is very barefoot and one might say he has excellent toes.

[gianni9uk]

Damn, we only get Opera magazine and Opera Now in the UK, we used to get Opera News at Borders, but they have shut down over here. He is certainly a handsome chap, and there are actually a few barefoot pics of him on Barihunks. So I take it you are an opera fan, drop me a PM and tell me what areas of opera you are interested in, it would be great to correspond with a fellow foot lover who also loves opera :-)

[whyche]

I'd like to see barefoot pics of counter tenor David Daniels; he is a handsome bear cub with a beautiful voice. Had I the money, I'd hire him for a private concert; he can sing any aria he wants as long as he's buk- nekkid the entire time.

[ftlaudft]

Whyche, if you want scenes with a barefoot David Daniels, look at the DVD of Handel's "'Rinaldo"' with Daniels in the title role. In Act II, the hapless Rinaldo is prisoner of evil Armida and he is dressed in a cute white suit, but he is barefoot. It's a good thing, as Armida's enchanted palace has a steep, sloping floor and he has to flop around while he sings his way out of her clutches.

Gianni, PM will follow, but there are many barefoot opera scenes for foot freaks in general to enjoy and I might as well list just a few of them here.

My own favorite composers, by the way, include all periods. I love the early period that includes Rameau, Monteverdi and Handel. The early Italian operas of Bellini are among my favorites, as well as the later 19th century works of Verdi and Puccini. I'm a great lover of Wagner and R. Strauss, and in the modern opera my favorites are Britten and Rautavaara. My guilty pleasure composers are Rossini and Massenet. I have just about all their works on CD or DVD.

For foot freaks, the barefoot scenes may occur in the most unexpected places. For example, there's a recent DVD recording of Lully's "'Armide"" which was filmed in a great French palace and begins with a modern tourist group being guided through the magnificent setting. One of the members of the tour group steals away to the bedchamber, takes off his shoes, (he's not wearing socks!), and he stretches out on the bed with his bare soles pointing towards the public. He morphs into the tenor lead of the opera and at the end of the opera the tour guide catches him and runs off the stage with his shoes. A bit of whimsy, humor and imagination for a modern staging!

Many of the recent productions of Vivaldi and Monteverdi have lovely bare feet. I think it was Footlover28 who was able to bring us caps from YouTube of the handsome Vittorio Prato as "'Orfeo."' For Mozart, don't miss the YouTube pics of Ildebrando d'Arcangelo as Don Giovanni, very barefoot with an equally barefoot Leporello.

The dancer roles in Britten's "Death in Venice"' have been barefoot. And I notice that in many recent productions of "Billy Budd"' the number Billy sings when he's in the brig toward the end of the opera ""Look! Through the port comes the moonshine astray..."' often is sung by a barefoot Billy.

My love for music extends to our recent popular groups as well. I do love Pink Floyd through groups like Cold Play. And let's not overlook our own Lady Gaga. On Saturday Nite Live she did her magnificent "'Born This Way"' with a group of barefoot dancers that were absolutely orgasmic!

[whyche]

Thank you for that "pic-tip"