Praised by the New York Times for his “ceaseless curiosity,” Thomas Hampson enjoys a singular international career as an opera singer, recording artist, and “ambassador of song,” maintaining an active interest in research, education, musical outreach, and technology. The American baritone has performed in the world’s most important concert halls and opera houses with many renowned singers, pianists, conductors, and orchestras.
On the opera stage in the 2013/14 season, the baritone makes his role debut as Berg’s Wozzeck at the Metropolitan Opera. He also reprises his star turn in the title role of Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna State Opera, and revisits such signature parts as Amfortas in Parsifal at Lyric Opera of Chicago; Giorgio Germont in La traviata at the Bavarian State Opera; Mandryka in Arabella at the Salzburg Festival; and Scarpia in Tosca at both the Deutsche Oper Berlin and London’s Royal Opera House. In the concert hall, he opens the season in performances of Eisler’s Ernste Gesänge with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden, and sings Brahms, Schubert, and Wolf on a twelve-stop European tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Other orchestral collaborations include programs of arias and duets with Luca Pisaroni in Prague, Bratislava, Essen, Baden-Baden, and Paris, and selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the BBC Scottish Symphony. The baritone takes his celebrated lieder recitals to London’s Wigmore Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and to Coburg, Heidelberg, Brussels, and Berne.
Hampson was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has won worldwide recognition for thoughtfully researched and creatively constructed programs that explore the rich repertoire of song in a wide range of styles, languages, and periods. Through the Hampsong Foundation, founded in 2003, he employs the art of song to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding. He is one of the most important interpreters of German Romantic song and with his celebrated “Song of America” project, a collaboration with the Library of Congress, he has become known as the “Ambassador of American song.”
Hailing from Spokane, Washington, Hampson has received many distinguished honours and awards. Comprising more than 150 albums, his discography includes winners of a Grammy Award, five Edison Awards, and the Grand Prix du Disque. In 2011 he was again named ECHO Klassik’s “Singer of the Year,” marking the fourth time he has received that distinction over a 20-year period.

Luca Pisaroni

Born in Venezuela and bred in Verdi’s hometown of Busseto, Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni has established himself as one of the most captivating and versatile singers of his generation. Since his debut at the Salzburg Festival at age 26 with the Vienna Philharmonic under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, he has performed at many of the world’s top opera houses and concert halls worldwide. Luca Pisaroni gained recognition as a great Mozart singer. His Leporello (Don Giovanni) met with great ovations in 2010 at Glyndebourne (DVD, EMI Classics), in summer 2011 at the festival in Baden-Baden under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin (CD, Deutsche Grammophon) and in October 2011, he debuted with this role in Metropolitan Opera; the performance on October 29 was broadcasted live in HD world-wide. In May 2013, he created Leporello in Baden-Baden, alongside Anna Netrebko’s Donna Anna. As Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) he has excelled at the San Francisco Opera, Paris National Opera, Vienna State Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Bavarian State Opera in Munich and at the Salzburg Festival. In addition to Mozart’s roles, Luca Pisaroni has a rich repertoire, with which he has appeared at many top opera houses. Highlights of 2013/2014 season include number of concerts and recitals as well as Guglielmo (Mozart: Così fan tutte) at the Salzburg Festival, Figaro at the Royal Covent Garden in London, Henry VIII (Donizetti: Anna Bolena) at the Vienna State Opera, Figaro at the Vienna State Opera as well as on the house’s tour to the Sultanate of Oman (Royal Opera House Muscat). He will also return to the Metropolitan Opera as Caliban (The Enchanted Island) and Alidoro (Rossini: La Cenerentola, including May 10, 2014 – Live in HD).
As a devoted concert singer and an ardent and dedicated recitalist Luca Pisaroni has performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York, Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam or Wigmore Hall in London, among other top venues. Along with the EMI DVD of Don Giovanni, Pisaroni features in DG’s “Mozart 22” DVD series from the Salzburg Festival as Publio and Masetto. Further DVD releases include his lauded portrayal of Guglielmo in Nicholas Hytner’s production of Così fan tutte from Glyndebourne; Le nozze di Figaro at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; and Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Ercole amante with the Nederlandse Opera. Luca Pisaroni lives in Vienna with his wife Catherine, Thomas Hampson’s daughter.

Reviews:

Veľvyslanec americkej piesne spieval árie
Pred hodnotením koncertu dvoch barytonistov Thomasa Hampsona a Lucu Pisaroniho v rámci cyklu „Svetové operné hviezdy“ (začiatkom decembra v Novej budove SND), žiada sa mi priblížiť profil jedného z nich, 58-ročného barytonistu Thomasa Hampsona. Viac tu.

Tenory nesmeli, barytóny nemohli
Pred šestnástimi rokmi sa na opernom CD trhu objavil vtipne nazvaný album Tenorom vstup zakázaný! Pointou bolo spevácke obsadenie a výber dvojspevov. Výlučne pre barytón a bas.
Jedným z protagonistov bol svetoznámy americký barytonista Thomas Hampson (basistom Samuel Ramey), ktorý sa v rovnako pomenovanom, no len sčasti totožnom programe predstavil v stredu v Bratislave. Partnerský post v novej zostave zaujal basbarytonista Luca Pisaroni, v súkromí Hampsonov zať. Viac tu.

Zklamání. A ne pro zákaz vstupu tenorům
V netradičnej speváckej zostave, inšpirovanej CD albumom spred sedemnástich rokov Tenorom vstup zakázaný!, sa niesol stredajší koncert na javisku Slovenského národného divadla. Agentúra Kapos Artists predstavila po prvýkrát na Slovensku svetoznámeho 58-ročného amerického barytonistu Thomasa Hampsona a jeho o dvadsať rokov mladšieho kolegu, vo Venezuele narodeného Taliana Lucu Pisaroniho. V súkromí je starší z umelcov svokrom mladšieho. Viac tu.