While he is noted for his vocal prowess and acting, Gunn has received almost as much fame for his physique, a peculiar feat for an opera singer. He has been dubbed a "barihunk"[4] although as a play on baritone and hunk, he has said he prefers the term "hunkitone."[5] In 2008, he was featured in People magazine's list of "The Sexiest Men Alive."[6]
Gunn was appointed a tenured professor of voice in 2007 at the University of Illinois School of Music, and in 2013 he was named general director of the Lyric Theater @ Illinois.[7] In 2012 the Opera Company of Philadelphia appointed him director of its American Repertoire Council promoting new American works.[8] His wife, Julie Jordan Gunn, who holds a doctorate (A. Mus. D.) in vocal coaching and accompanying from University of Illinois, was also appointed associate professor in collaborative piano at the University.
Natalie Dessay is a French soprano, best known as an opera singer before her retirement from opera stage in 2013. She gained wide recognition after her portrayal of Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann in 1992, and then performing at leading stages, such as the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.
Michael Devlin is an American opera singer who is internationally known as a bass-baritone and singing-actor.
Diana Damrau is a German soprano who achieved international fame for her performances, primarily in opera, but also in concert and lieder. She has been successful in coloratura soprano roles since her early career, and gradually proceeded into heavier roles of the 19th-century Italian bel canto repertoire. Her signature roles include the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Violetta in La traviata.
Joyce DiDonato is an American opera singer and recitalist. A coloratura mezzo-soprano, she has performed operas and concert works spanning from the 19th-century Romantic era to those by Handel and Mozart.
Celena Shafer is an American soprano, born c. 1975 in Centerville, Utah.
Mark Lundberg was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the 1980s up until his sudden death in 2008. He began his career as a bass, then progressed to portraying baritone parts, and finally settled as a dramatic tenor, winning acclaim portraying Wagnerian heroes like Siegfried, Tristan and other standards of the dramatic repertoire. Samson from Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah and the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's Otello became "calling cards" for him. Standing at six and a half feet and possessing a big frame and a dark beard, Lundberg made a striking figure on stage. His shoulders measured 6 and a half feet around and the Denver Post once Described as "a big blonde bear of a man", a fitting description for such a large man
Anthony Michaels-Moore is an English operatic baritone and the first British winner of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. Michaels-Moore has since performed in many of the world's major opera houses across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. He has distinguished himself as a specialist in Verdi and Puccini roles, most renowned for his portrayals of Falstaff, Nabucco, Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, Iago in Otello, Germont in La traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Scarpia in Tosca. In addition to the standard repertoire, he has sung and recorded the baritone roles of some of the less-known 19th Century Italian operas, as well as the popular English art song cycles by Stanford and Vaughan Williams.
Stephen Dickson was an American baritone who had an active career in operas and concerts from 1972 through 1990. He was active with the United States's most important opera companies during the 1980s, sharing the stage with many notable singers like Luciano Pavarotti, Jessye Norman, and Renata Scotto. He was particularly admired for his portrayal of Papageno in The Magic Flute, a role he sang throughout Europe and the United States. At the time of his premature death, Dickson had just reached the pinnacle of his career, having only recently gained a more substantial role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and with major European opera houses like the Royal Opera, London and the Bavarian State Opera among others.
Susanne Mentzer is an American operatic mezzo-soprano. She is best known for singing trouser roles, such as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo, Octavian in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and the composer in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as other music of Mozart, Strauss, Rossini, Berlioz and Mahler.
Timothy Nolen was an American actor and baritone who had an active career in operas, musicals, concerts, plays, and on television for over four decades. He was the second actor to play the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway replacing Michael Crawford in October 1988.
James Maddalena is an American baritone who is chiefly associated with contemporary American opera. He gained international recognition in 1987 when he originated the role of Richard Nixon at the premiere of John Adams's opera Nixon in China at Houston. He has since reprised the role on many occasions, and recorded it for the Nonesuch Records release of the opera in 1987. In addition to Maddelena's role as Nixon, he has originated two other Adams characters: the Captain in The Death of Klinghoffer and Jack Hubbard in Doctor Atomic. He has also performed roles in the premieres of operas by Paul Moravec and Stewart Wallace among other American composers.
Gene Scheer is an American songwriter, librettist and lyricist. He is the brother of Samuel Scheer, who is an English teacher at Windsor High School and a part-time musician.
Jamie Barton is an American mezzo-soprano. She won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in June 2013. She is also the winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award.
Delores Ziegler is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international performance career since the late 1970s. A former resident artist at the Cologne Opera, she has performed leading roles with many of the world's best opera houses, including La Scala, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. She is currently a professor of voice at the University of Maryland. While she has performed a broad repertoire, she is widely admired for her performances in operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss; particularly Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Idamante in Idomeneo, and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.
Brenda Rae is an American operatic soprano who has performed leading roles in opera houses internationally. She was a resident artist at the Frankfurt Opera from 2008 through 2017. She is a featured performer on the Naxos Records 2015 recording of Milhaud's L'Orestie d'Eschyle, which was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
Amanda Majeski is an American operatic soprano.
Elliot Madore is a Canadian lyric baritone with an international operatic career.
Craig Irvin is an American operatic baritone. Irvin did his undergraduate study at the Simpson College, in Indianola Iowa, before completing his graduate work at The University of Tennessee. During his graduate studies, he performed with the Knoxville Opera as Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and as a soloist in Verdi's Requiem with the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in many leading opera houses both nationally and internationally, including premiering the role of Lieutenant Horstmayer in Kevin Puts and Minnesota Opera's acclaimed and Pulitzer Prize winning Silent Night “I’ve had the new-opera experience that no one gets” Irvin is quoted to say by Opera News, in singing the same role multiple times.
Erin Morley is an American operatic soprano.
Anthony Robin Schneider is an operatic bass from Austria and New Zealand, based in Germany at the Oper Frankfurt. He has appeared in leading roles internationally, such as Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Santa Fe Opera, Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Houston Grand Opera, and Fafner in Wagner's Das Rheingold at the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl.
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