Thomas Hampson’s wide-ranging 2012-13 season
On the heels of a summer season that took him from Prague and Salzburg to Tel Aviv, Santa Fe, Germany, and Croatia, Thomas Hampson heads into the 2012-13 season with a portfolio of exciting destinations and repertoire to match. The great American baritone performs at such storied opera houses as the Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, London’s Royal Opera House, and Zurich Opera – as well as the Metropolitan Opera, where he will make his second consecutive company role debut in as many seasons, portraying the treacherous Iago in Verdi’s Otello. Equally busy on the concert stage, he will sing with the world’s great orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Hailed as the ambassador of American song, Hampson will also present recitals in major music capitals both at home and abroad – from Vienna, Munich, and Basel to San Francisco, Boston, and New York – and will give audiences in several of those cities the opportunity to hear new works commissioned for him by composers Michael Hersch and Mark Adamo.
Hampson’s 2012-13 opera season commences in October with his return to Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he sings the title role in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra under Andrew Davis, a role he will reprise at Vienna’s Konzerthaus in April with conductor Nicola Luisotti and at London’s Royal Opera House in July under Antonio Pappano. The baritone takes the stage at Zurich Opera in December and January, performing Scarpia in Tosca (with conductor Marco Armiliato) and Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser (under Marc Albrecht), and in May he appears as Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La traviata at the Vienna State Opera (led by Marco Armiliato). His Metropolitan Opera company role debut as Iago in Verdi’s Otello takes place in March, under the direction of Alain Altinoglu.
Hampson also has a busy and peripatetic 2012-13 concert season, beginning this week with performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Neeme Järvi and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Sept 13-14); in February, he will present songs from the composer’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra led by Joana Carneiro (Feb 22-23). The baritone also performs orchestral songs by Strauss, in concerts this month with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony (Sept 21-23) and again in January with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic (Jan 19). In October he headlines the annual gala of the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, presenting the New York premiere of Noam Sheriff‘s Mechaye Hametim (Revival of the Dead), together with Schoenberg’s Kol Nidre with the Collegiate Chorale and the Israel Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta. Hampson and these same forces caused a significant stir at this summer’s Salzburg Festival with this same program. In a front page New York Times review, critic James Oestreich reported, “Abetted by Mr. Hampson’s tour de force, in which he also served as narrator in the Schoenberg and spoke and sang in the Sheriff, the evening’s performances were everywhere excellent. … The concert was greeted warmly, even clamorously.”
Also this season, Hampson will take part in the New Year’s Gala with Rolando Villazón and Olga Peretyatko at Baden-Baden’s Festspielhaus; and in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s 125th anniversary gala in Amsterdam, together with Lang Lang, Janine Jansen, and Mariss Jansons (April). In February, he makes a European tour with the conductorless chamber orchestra Wiener Virtuosen, performing Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder.
A passionate advocate of the art of song, Hampson debuts two new commissions by American composers in recitals this season: Domicilium, a song cycle on poems of Thomas Hardy by Michael Hersch, which will have its world premiere in San Francisco (Herbst Theater, February 26); and a new work by Mark Adamo for baritone and string quartet, which will be premiered by Hampson and the Jupiter String Quartet at the Mondavi Center in Davis, CA (April) – with subsequent performances in New York and Boston.
Hampson also returns to the Heidelberger Frühling’s Lied Academy – of which he is the artistic director – for master classes, and performs recitals with long-time collaborators such as Wolfram Rieger at the Grafenegg Festival and in Munich, Basel, San Francisco, and other cities.
Hampson began last season at San Francisco Opera, where he created the role of Rick Rescorla in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s Heart of a Soldier, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Reviewing the opening night performance, the Los Angeles Times reported: “Hampson chewed the scenery and sang magnificently. … At the curtain call a few moments later, many still had tears in their eyes. The great baritone Thomas Hampson, a larger-than-life Rick Rescorla, won our hearts.” Hampson’s operatic engagements last season also encompassed role debuts as Iago in Verdi’s Otello and the title role in Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler, both at Zurich Opera, and his house debut as Verdi’s Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera.
Among other previous season highlights were concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, the Munich Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel, and the Pittsburgh Symphony under Manfred Honeck. Hampson also gave recitals in the U.S., Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, including an engagement at the Salzburg Festival. He was also featured in the inaugural season of CNN’s “Fusion Journeys” series, which took him to South Africa for a musical exchange with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. A high point of the 2011-12 season was the debut of the “Song of America” radio series, co-produced by the Hampsong Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network. Hosted by Hampson, this series of 13 one-hour programs explores the history of American culture through song, and has aired in more than 200 U.S. markets.
A list of Thomas Hampson’s upcoming engagements follows; additional information about Thomas Hampson is available at www.thomashampson.com.
Thomas Hampson- 2012-13 Season Engagements
Sept 13 & 14
Geneva, Switzerland
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande / Neeme Järvi / Paul Groves
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Sept 21, 22, & 23
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra / Manfred Honeck
Strauss: Orchestral songs
Oct 15, 20, 24, 28, & 31; Nov 3, 6, & 9
Chicago, IL
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (title role)
Oct 18
Akron, OH
Tuesday Musical Association
“Song of America” Recital
Kevin Murphy, piano
Oct 25
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
Sheriff: Mechaye Hametim
Schoenberg: Kol Nidre
Israel Philharmonic / Zubin Mehta / Collegiate Chorale
Dec 3
Munich, Germany
Herkulessaal
Recital
Wolfram Rieger, piano
Dec 8
Mannheim, Germany
Nationaltheater Mannheim
Opera Gala
Dec 14
Dortmund, Germany
Konzerthaus Dortmund
Recital
Wolfram Rieger, piano
Dec 18, 22 & Jan 6
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Opera / Marco Armiliato
Puccini: Tosca (Scarpia)
Dec 31
Baden-Baden, Germany
Stuttgart Radio Symphony / Andrés Orozco-Estrada / Rolando Villazón / Olga Peretyatko
New Year’s Gala
Jan 13, 20, 26 & Feb 2
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Opera / Marc Albrecht
Wagner: Tannhäuser (Wolfram)
Jan 19
London, UK
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski
Strauss: Four Early Songs
Jan 22
Basel, Switzerland
Recital
Wolfram Rieger, piano
Feb 6
Reykjavik, Iceland
Recital
Wolfram Rieger, piano
Feb 11
Merano, Italy
Wiener Virtuosen
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Dvorák: Zigeunermelodien
Feb 12
Bern, Switzerland
Wiener Virtuosen
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Dvorák: Zigeunermelodien
Feb 13
Zurich, Switzerland
Wiener Virtuosen
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Dvorák: Zigeunermelodien
Feb 15
Innsbruck, Austria
Wiener Virtuosen
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Dvorák: Zigeunermelodien
Feb 17
Vienna, Austria
Wiener Virtuosen
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Dvorák: Zigeunermelodien
Feb 22 & 23
Indianapolis, IN / Greencastle, IN
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra / Joana Carneiro
Mahler: Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Feb 26
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Performances
Recital, including Schumann’s Op. 39; Hersch Domicilium (world premiere)
Mar 11, 15, 20, 23, & 30
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera / Alain Altinoglu
Verdi: Otello (Iago)
April 2-7
Heidelberg, Germany
Lied Academy master classes
April 10
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Mariss Jansons
125th Anniversary Benefit Gala
April 13 & 17
Vienna, Austria
Vienna Symphony / Nicola Luisotti
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra in concert (title role)
April 24
Davis, CA
Adamo commission (world premiere)
Wolf: Songs
Jupiter String Quartet
April 26
Boston, MA
Celebrity Series
Adamo commission
Wolf: Songs
Jupiter String Quartet
April 28
New York, NY
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Adamo commission
Wolf: Songs
Jupiter String Quartet
May 8, 11, 14, & 17
Vienna, Austria
Vienna State Opera / Marco Armiliato
Verdi: La traviata (Giorgio Germont)
May 23
Istanbul, Turkey
Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra / Sascha Goetzel
Mahler: Songs
June 27; July 1, 3, 10, 13, & 16
London, UK
The Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (title role)
July 7
Birmingham, UK
The Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra in concert (title role)
July 31
Munich, Germany
Bavarian State Opera / Kent Nagano
Wagner: Parsifal (Amfortas)
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© 21C Media Group, September 2012