By Editorial Staff

Those who think it’s only tenors who get all the attention should witness baritone Thomas Hampson. There he was performing Copland’s Old American Songs on PBS before a national television audience when the New York Philharmonic opened its season on September 11. Less than two weeks later, he took center stage as a guest soloist in Die Fledermaus for the Metropolitan Opera’s opening-night gala (also televised on cable ‘s pay-per-view), celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary at Lincoln Center.

And there’s more: This past June, Carnegie Hall called on Hampson to help celebrate Cole Porter’s 100th birthday (Hampson has captured Porter’s music on disc for Angel/EMI with great flair) and the Met also featured him in the title role of its Central Park production of Don Giovanni before an audience numbering hundreds of thousands. Says soprano Karen Beardsley, who grew up with him in Spokane, Washington, “In some ways Tom is Giovanni. He can walk into a room, demand attention and everyone falls in love with him.”

Indeed, Hampson cuts such a popular figure that one fan at the Salzburg Festival asked him to autograph the back of her sweater. What explains why Hampson is in such high demand is not just his voice. Coupled with his mellifluous baritone are striking good looks and a commanding stage presence along with the intelligence and thorough preparation that he puts into every note he sings. Or as that T-shirt slogan says, “All this and brains too!”

Hampson began somewhat late by musical standards. As a boy growing up in Spokane, he gave the tuba and piano a try and gained musical experience singing in choirs. He was well into college at Eastern Washington State University before he abandoned his plans to become an attorney specializing in international law. After Sister Marietta Coyle, a Catholic nun and voice teacher, persuaded him that with the talent he possessed it was his duty to become a singer, he embarked on musical studies at Fort Wright College and appeared professionally with the Seattle Symphony, rounding out his income as a singing waiter at a German restaurant.

He next headed to Los Angeles to study at the University of Southern California and the Music Academy of the West, where he found in German baritone Horst Günter the ideal teacher. While a member of the San Francisco Opera’s Merola program, he was heard by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who invited him to study with her in Europe, and before he took up his contract with the Düsseldorf Opera in 1981, he availed himself of the opportunity to learn the nuances of lieder singing from the legendary soprano.

By the time this all-American, who spent his youth playing baseball and now wields a mean golf club, made his Met debut in 1986, he had already attracted a following in Europe, where he had appeared in recital at La Scala, participated in a recorded series of Bach cantatas with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and starred in the filmed version of Delius’s A Village Romeo. But it didn’t take America long to succumb to his allure. Hampson, whose lieder talents are often likened to those of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, was described by one enthralled Los Angeles Times critic who heard him in recital as “indecently gifted—tall, slender, handsome, intelligent, elegant, naturally expressive.”

In fact, Hampson prefers the intimacy of the recital stage. His first solo recital album, <i>Des Knaben Wunderhorn</i>, garnered four international awards. This past holiday season saw the release of his Teldec “Christmas with Thomas Hampson” album with Hugh Wolff and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. And in 1992, he will make his debut on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series. Still, Hampson’s operatic successes cannot be denied. Donal Henahan of The New York Times said of his 1990 Don Giovanni at the Met, “no Don Giovanni in recent decades has brought to the part a more convincing blend of vocal authority, athletic grace and psychological depth …. Mr. Hampson is fated to be the Don Giovanni of his generation.” His Mozart recordings—Don Giovanni on Teldec and The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan Tutte with James Levine on Deutsche Grammophon—have been equally praised. And, at the age of 36, he is about to have his second Così released, this time on Teldec under Harnoncourt.

Part of Hampson’s success in character portrayal comes from the studying he does before he puts on his makeup and costume. Known as one of the hardest workers in the business, he came up with his conceptualization of the Don by first tackling the complexities of Kierkegaard, Jung, and Schopenhauer. For his understanding of Ulysses in Monteverdi’s ll ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, which he recently performed at the San Francisco Opera, he delved into Homer’s Odyssey.

A traditionalist who finds the idea of “Bohème on motorcycles” and other such operatic tinkerings abhorrent, Hampson fears that vocal training has deteriorated in the past two decades, having become overly scientific and produced a homogenous sound among young singers. Faced with a grueling schedule that could easily result in burnout, he employs a holistic approach to his art that includes a diet of natural foods and a program of exercise and meditation. And he never stops reading or studying. One of his present scholarly pursuits is co-editing the critical edition of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and he is determined to “set the record straight on the singing of Mahler.” With a variety of engagements booked as far ahead as 10 years from now, Hampson no doubt will continue to provide definitive performances of Mahler, Mozart, and more.