Opera Chic

The Baritone & HARDtalk: Thomas Hampson Shows You How It's Done

Beauty and the beast. (Hint: this time, the blonde isn't the beauty.) Calm down. We're not talking about looks. We're going skin deep -- a turn of phrase burdened by as much double entendre as HARDtalk (the HARD is ~extra hard~ caps lock for plebeians), where Thomas Hampson graciously agreed to a half hour interview with Sarah Montague, who gets, at least, one thing right from her bafflingly-outdated lede by introducing him as an "opera superstar".

We're thrilled that HARDtalk has validated opera as a viable industry and glad that they didn’t tap the usual suspects -- genius/madmen intendants, like Barenboim, who was tied up in his agony & ecstasy BBC Proms Wagner Ring. No stranger to international news outlets, Hampson's humanitarian merits and artistic endeavors make him an excellent interviewee. He's the real deal, far from today's famous-for-being-famous scavengers where celebrity status converges through Amex'd twitter follower hacks and faux awards.

Offstage, Hampson’s philanthropy, backed by deep humanity, makes him unique among his colleagues -- his Heidelberg Lied Academy, Hampsong Foundation and Song of America have created cross-cultural, musical frameworks that will outlast his career (although he’s still going strong at 58). Onstage, his artistry is generous and meticulously prepared, divergent from Montague, who didn't bother to learn the pronunciation of Montserrat Caballé (nor cite an opera singer who, you know, has actually sang onstage in the last decade).

Based on her generalization that opera’s possibly the most expensive, elitist art form in the world, attended by a tiny audience of old, rich, well-educated people, we’re pretty sure that she knew what she thought she was getting into with Hampson by cuing up old BBC Pavarotti interviews and expecting nothing more than a warmly-smiling divo whose hands are more expressive than his words.

The pure magic of the Hampson interview is that HARDtalk's MCs normally spar with presidents who eat road kill for breakfast or venture capitalists with Ivy League braggadocio or billionaire briefcases backed by millionaire press secretaries etc., -- yet humble Hampson, buoyed only by his innate graciousness and intelligence, outclassed someone whose robust paychecks (are supposed to) ensure incisive, well-researched interviews. Hampson’s art wasn’t in playing hardball with an out-of-touch interviewer; it was in not getting lost in it.

Despite relegating opera's sterling ambassador as an oddity who’s devoted his life to entertaining thin slices of gray-haired elitists (when she interviewed Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson last year, did she label his fan base as tattooed, heavy metal degenerates? – don’t know, didn’t watch!), the real mistake is to make this about Montague.

It’s really about the almost-extinct art of being a gentleman, showing the world with poise, patience and (more importantly) humor that opera isn’t populated by hot-tempered, badly mannered, egotistical singers. We'll leave that behavior to the presenters.

Lied Love at Thomas Hampson's Heidelberg Lied Academy

Philanthropist, teacher, soloist, opera star -- we've tried to pigeonhole Thomas Hampson, but it's impossible. Onstage, the versatile American baritone melts into Lied recitals + American song + Verdi bada$$ baritones (he just finished Iago at The Met) while offstage, he's devoted to foundation work like his Hampsong Foundation + Song of America + the Heidelberg Lied Academy, which is now two days into its 3rd annual seminar. In addition to nurturing young singers, artistic director Hampson invites seasoned collaborators (such as Thomas Quasthoff this year) and accompanists for two weeks of intense masterclasses, lectures and performances to nurture the Lied arts.

We saw Hampson at La Scala in 2011 for a well-studied, deeply curious exploration of Schubert, Liszt and Mahler Songs. As an artist who understands the literature & culture behind classic German Lieder, it's very cool that he's livestreaming today's masterclass.

Pull up the livestream here (embed disabled).

Thomas Hampson, Cultural Ambassador & Storyteller

Throughout his career, American baritone Thomas Hampson's sung against the world's best opera choruses and ensembles. Now he can add the awesomeness of singing with an all-male South African a cappella group with the airing of CNN International's Fusion Journeys.

Last fall, Hampson travelled to South Africa to meet Ladysmith Black Mambazo on behalf of the show. The group, best known to America through Paul Simon's Graceland era, taught Hampson popular Zulu songs and he reciprocated with American folk songs. 

The program aired yesterday during CNN's Connect the World and continues on Wednesday and Friday at 8:00pm GMT. Hampson's one of six hosts curated by CNN International for its show, which also includes Royal Ballet principal ballerina Tamara Rojo (she went to Beijing to work with up-and-coming Chinese choreographer Fei Bo) and a forthcoming episode with Korean-American violinist Sarah Chang.

Thomas Hampson's Mahler Moments at his Teatro alla Scala Recital

He can't be ignored. He won't be ignored. Thomas Hampson's physique and his even bigger personality can't be hushed, and even when he's onstage -- costumed as Valentin in Gounod's Faust, the lead in Mozart's Don Giovanni, or Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca -- it comes through. In recital, however, it's a constant balance between the lightness of the composer's music/poet's text and Hampson's booming baritone. Especially in Lieder, which the American singer's been lately commited to, with the poems as the protagonist -- and the struggle to leave the lightest touch while saturating each word in emotion is a big task.

But Hampson managed it -- despite tiny, sparse moments of un-Liederlike enthusiasm -- and he showed-off his elegant Austrian/Hungarian Lieder to a packed house at Teatro alla Scala on Monday night as the Milanese went insane for his sensitive program of Schubert, Liszt, and Mahler -- and especially for the five generous encores that he kept hitting out of the park, right onto Lansdowne Street. Hampson's intuitivness and intelligence complimented the songs, and his earnest, "I'm just a boy, standing in front of an audience, asking them to love Lieder" approach was refreshing.

The program started with six Lieder from Franz Schubert's "Schwanengesang", Swan Song, a posthumous collection that used texts from 3 poets, composed in 1828 and published the next year, only a few months after Schubert's death.

Hampson sang the six songs set to poems by Heinrich Heine, all ruminations on love and longing. Der Doppelgänger -- where the protagonist looks towards the house where his love once lived and is appalled to see someone else standing there, only to realize that it's the shadow of himself, miserable and lonely /lol/ ("You may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful house and you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful wife." /lol/) -- was an expression of great, softened emotion and expression. Hampson mastered the songs through lovely passages that segued gracefully from tranquility to turbulence.

The second set was six assorted Lieder from Franz Liszt, and pianist Wolfram Rieger's beautiful expression and well-shaped phrases took the spotlight. He shadowed Hampson expertly and lovingly, giving him space to interpret and breathe through the Lieder. Hampson sang Liszt's Lieder with a dark weight, very powerful and at times uplifting. "Vergiftet sind meine Lieder" was a standout, a piece full of longing, tenderness, and remorse where Hampson saturated it with a nice balance of melancholy and nostalgia that never sunk to the depths of depression and rode the rallying undercurrent of Hampson's interpretation.

It's Mahler's centenary and everyone is going cray-cray for the Austrian composer's gorgeously romantic, lushly-pastoral works. Trendsetter Hampson recently dropped a new CD in celebration of Mahler's 100th with Des Knaben Wunderhorn and the Wiener Virtuosen. So it's no surprise that the selections form Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn was the most engaging, resonant part of the program. Set to 14 poems over the span of almost 10 years, Mahler's composition was taken from a three volume collection of folk songs from two Romantic poets from the very beginning of the 19th century.

Hampson's rich, Austrian pronunciation worked well with his clean voice in a stellar reading of 8 Lieder from Das Knaben Wunderhorn and overlap in Lieder und Gesänge. He affected a convincing vulnerability, singing with a nativity, freshness and youthfulness that was much younger than his years. Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald had an uplifting hope and tenderness, one of his standouts.

Poised and lyrical, Hampson's real skill was the streamlining of his Hampsony idiosyncrasies to allow the gorgeous Lieder breathing room, always staying tender and pensive throughout the poems. And as if La Scala's audience wasn't enthusiastic enough over his concert, Hampson came out for five separate encores, all Lieder, like from Mahler's Lieder und Gesänge, with a standout by Meyerbeer.

Thomas Hampson in La Repubblica on Embracing New Media

Last night in Milan, American baritone Thomas Hampson rocked La Scala in a recital program of Lieder, a stunning sampler of Schubert (Schwanengesan), Liszt, and Mahler (Des Knaben Wunderhorn). His only visit to Italy this season, it gave his Italian fans (who packed the house) a single night to catch him in full-on baritone action. OC was in the theater for the half-dozen encores and standing ovations that the Milanese public heaped on him, deservedly, a full review coming later.

Yesterday the American singer spoke to La Repubblica in an inteview about his Mahler and his eight-year-old foundation, Hampsong. He also spoke about being part of a generation (his Metropolitan Opera debut was in 1981) that has witnessed the opera industry's evolution. Unlike some of his colleagues, Hampson embraces new media (aside from social media, there's a Hampson ipad and iphone app), bridging the old school with the new. Really, it's what we'd expect from a singer who is known for his flexibility and versatility on stage and with repertory.

Off with a bang, Hampson on being compared to the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: "Fischer-Dieskau has no heir. It's a huge compliment, and I thank you for it, but it's like saying that there's another Pavarotti or Callas. It's just impossible."

You're also a popular teacher. In what present condition is the relationship between young people and classical music?

"There's good news and bad news. The good news is that there are lots of awesomely good, young musicians that are entering the professional world of classical music, and the levels of instruction are much better than they've been for years. The bad news is that instead, they seem disinterested in the vehicles of communication like radio, newspapers, and television. The media's musical offerings and outlets have diminished and I don't understand the reason. And there are just way too few people under the age of 40 who come to the concerts and buy classical music CDs. Maybe it's because the media doesn't really affect them and probably because music gets perceived as too expensive, although personally, i don't think it's true."

So can the internet be used as a solution to spread information about classical music?

"Definitely. Especially for its ability to integrate lots of way to disseminate information, all at the same time: the vision, the audience, and the lessons. The internet is a frontier with thousands of possibilities, but it's also just one part of a series of technological advances that can be useful in the future. I believe that we're just at the beginning of this, and at present time ,the most interesting thing is the social network. But we have to figure out how to fall into the trap -- those which use technology or substitute it with certain traditional methods. So if the question is, 'Can you learn music over the internet?' the answer is, 'No.' If the question instead is, 'Can the internet help you expand your knowledge about music?' the answer is, "yes."

Yes!

Thomas Hampson Will Put George W. Bush On Trial, Then E-Mail You An Out-Of-Print Score

Unlike those of us -- the President included -- who kind of focus on the current appalling state of the economy, there are some Americans who, understandably, would really like to see examined in court certain actions of that indefatigable d1ldo factory also known as the Bush administration: Thomas Hampson is one of them.

In the latest New Statesman, the Hampster leaves aside for one second the trademark self-love fest of his average interview, and goes political:

Now is not a time to forget but to take responsibility for those wrongs. If righting them means holding those responsible to account, then so be it. We made it through Watergate; we can make it through this.

On the other hand, as a commenter of Tom Service's blog reminds us, Hampson is also the kind of dude who'll e-mail you an out-of-print score that you really need.

Thomas Hampson Poised to Debut Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca at Opernhaus Zürich

 

(Above: ~Hampson is like the fire to our earth, wind & water~. photo: Simon Fowler)

American baritone Thomas Hampson embraces the dark side of ~The Force~ as he prepares to make his career debut as the villainous Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca at the Opernhaus Zürich on March 29, 2009. The shiny-new Robert Carsen production will be conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi, and stars Emily Magee as Tosca & Jonas Kaufmann as Cavaradossi.

Puccini's ~Go Big or Go Home~ opera interpreted by Carsen should be awesome for all the right reasons: the rape scene extra rapey, the stab scene extra stabby, and somehow, he'll manage to incorporate an orgy (we're thinking for the Te Deum). And if anyone can get Hampson to show off his arsenal for art's sake, it's Carsen.

Use the ~Sith Force~, Hampson!

MC Hampster: Thomas Hampson Raps

In a very funny interview with Corriere della Sera, Thomas Hampson, who just rawked Bolzano Festival Bozen with a Richard Strauss-Mahler program, gives a shoutout to Leonard Bernstein and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, "who taught me to love music completely, without boundaries", and explains that he loves Kurt Weill and Cole Porter as much as he loves Wagner and Mozart and that,

"with the only exception of Gilbert & Sullivan, I'm open to everything, rap included".

Ferruccio Furlanetto's Bicoastal Triumph

Give it up for Ferruccio "I Got Teh Powah" Furlanetto: after rawking the West Coast with his Russian mad skillz he's setting New York on fire with his powerfully bada$$ Fiesco in the Met's Simon Boccanegra alongside our lovely Thomas "Big Bear" Hampson and Angela "Roberto, Don't Bee A Vimp" Gheorghiu.

Sieglinde's Diaries review is here.