Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Coming by accident almost at the same time, an opera singer who’s a remarkable muscle-hunk (from Larry Schourup) and a ballet dancer with an equally notable male dancer’s physique (from Mike McKinley). Barihunk Craig Verm and ABT principal Marcelo Gomes.

Craig Verm. An extreme barihunk (a baritone who’s a hunk; see my 7/26/13 posting on the concept). Verm has remarkable pecs and abs, and truly astounding muscular arms, both well beyond the requirements of any operatic role I know of. Here he is as Adonis in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis:

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And a thumbnail with a front view of him in this role

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And a show of his arms, with the man in his Barihunk t-shirt (yes, there’s a website):

(#3)

I tried to find a good clip of him singing, but to no avail. What I found had him in ensemble  singing or in clips that were mostly interviews or commentaries.

A remarkable feature of his singing is the very wide range of roles he takes on, including many in contemporary operas (and contemporary oratorios, cantatas, and songs).

Marcelo Gomes. Verm has a muscleman’s physique. Dancer Gomes is astonishingly muscular in a few ways, but otherwise he has a dancer’s lean body (and an amazing, striking face). The photo Mike McK. sent to me was this one:

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Really nice lines. And very strong arms and legs.

Now some information on Gomes, from Wikipedia:

Marcelo Gomes (born September 26, 1979) is a Brazilian ballet dancer currently performing with the American Ballet Theatre.

Born in Manaus and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Gomes began his dance studies at the Helena Lobato and Dalal Achcar Ballet Schools. At the age of 13 he left Brazil to attend the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida, and at 16 he studied for one year at the Paris Opera Ballet school. He also studied at the schools of the Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Cuballet. …

Gomes first joined the American Ballet Theatre in 1997 as a member of the corps de ballet. He was promoted to soloist in 2000 and to principal dancer in 2002.

Now two photographs (by Nikolay Krusser) of the darker Gomes dancing with the lighter Denis Matvienko (of the Mariinsky Ballet), on a “Kings of Dance” tour. One highlighting his arms and his face:

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And one highlighting his beautiful buttocks:

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This entry was posted on March 13, 2016 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Dance, Language and the body, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.