Thomas Hampson |
Thomas Hampson
American singer, one of the most brilliant baritones of our time. An exceptional performer of the Verdi repertoire, a subtle interpreter of chamber vocal music, an admirer of the music of contemporary authors, a teacher – Hampson exists in a dozen of people. Thomas Hampson talks about all this and much more to journalist Gregorio Moppi.
About a year ago, EMI released your CD with recordings of arias from Verdi’s operas. It’s curious that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment accompanies you.
This is not a commercial find, just remember how much I sang with Harnoncourt! Today there is a tendency to perform operatic music without thinking too much about the true nature of the text, about its true spirit and about the technique that existed at the time of the text’s appearance. The goal of my disc is a return to the original sound, to the deep meaning that Verdi put into his music. There are concepts about his style that I don’t share. For example, the stereotype of the “Verdi baritone”. But Verdi, a genius, did not create characters of a characteristic nature, but outlined psychological states that are constantly changing: because each opera has its own origins and each protagonist is endowed with a unique character, his own vocal coloring. Who is this “Verdi baritone”: Jeanne d’Arc’s father, Count di Luna, Montfort, Marquis di Posa, Iago… which one of them? Another issue is legato: different periods of creativity, different characters. Verdi has different types of legato, along with an endless amount of piano, pianissimo, mezzo-forte. Take Count di Luna. We all know that this is a difficult, problematic person: and yet, at the moment of the aria Il balen del suo sorriso, he is in love, full of passion. At this moment he is alone. And what does he sing? A serenade almost more beautiful than Don Juan’s serenade Deh, vieni alla finestra. I say all this not because my Verdi is the best of all possible, I just want to convey my idea.
What is your Verdi repertoire?
It is gradually expanding. Last year in Zurich I sang my first Macbeth. In Vienna in 2002 I participate in a new production by Simon Boccanegra. These are important steps. With Claudio Abbado I will record the part of Ford in Falstaff, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt Amonasro in Aida. It seems funny, right? Harnoncourt recording Aida! I am not impressed by a singer who sings beautifully, correctly, accurately. It needs to be driven by the character’s personality. This is required by Verdi. Indeed, there is no perfect Verdi soprano, perfect Verdi baritone… I am tired of these convenient and simplifying classifications. “You have to light the life in us, on the stage we are human beings. We have a soul,” Verdi’s characters tell us. If, after thirty seconds of Don Carlos’ music, you do not feel fear, do not feel the greatness of these figures, then something is wrong. The artist’s job is to ask himself why the character he is interpreting reacts the way he does, to the point of understanding what the character’s life is like off-stage.
Do you prefer Don Carlos in French or Italian version?
I wouldn’t want to choose between them. Of course, the only Verdi opera that should always be sung in French is the Sicilian Vespers, because its Italian translation is not presentable. Every note of Don Carlos was conceived in French by Verdi. Some phrases are said to be typical Italian. No, this is a mistake. This is a French phrase. The Italian Don Carlos is an opera rewritten: the French version is closer to Schiller’s drama, the auto-da-fé scene is perfect in the Italian version.
What can you say about the transposition for the baritone of Werther’s part?
Be careful, Massenet did not transpose the part, but rewrote it for Mattia Battistini. This Werther is closer to the manic depressive romantic Goethe. Someone should stage the opera in this version in Italy, it would be a real event in the world of culture.
And Doctor Faust Busoni?
This is a masterpiece that has been forgotten for too long, an opera that touches on the main problems of human existence.
How many roles have you played?
I don’t know: at the beginning of my career, I sang a huge number of minor parts. For example, my European debut took place as a gendarme in Poulenc’s opera Breasts of Tiresias. Nowadays, it is not customary among young people to start with small roles, and then they complain that their career was too short! I have debuts until 2004. I have already sung Onegin, Hamlet, Athanael, Amfortas. I would very much like to return to such operas as Pelléas and Mélisande and Billy Budd.
I got the impression that Wolf’s songs were excluded from your Lied repertoire…
It surprises me that in Italy someone can be interested in this. In any case, Wolf’s anniversary is coming soon, and his music will sound so often that people will say “enough, let’s move on to Mahler”. I sang Mahler at the beginning of my career, then put him aside. But I will return to it in 2003, together with Barenboim.
Last summer you performed in Salzburg with an original concert program…
American poetry attracted the attention of American and European composers. At the heart of my idea is the desire to re-offer to the public these songs, especially those composed by European composers, or Americans living in Europe. I’m working on a huge project with the Library of Congress to explore American cultural roots through the relationship between poetry and music. We do not have Schubert, Verdi, Brahms, but there are cultural cycles that often intersect with significant currents in philosophy, with the most important battles for democracy for the country. In the United States, there is a gradual resurgence of interest in a musical tradition that was completely unknown until recently.
What is your opinion of Bernstein the composer?
Fifteen years from now, Lenny will be remembered more as a composer than as a great orchestra conductor.
What about contemporary music?
I have exciting ideas for contemporary music. It attracts me endlessly, especially American music. This is a mutual sympathy, it is demonstrated by the fact that many composers have written, are writing and will write for me. For example, I have a joint project with Luciano Berio. I think that the result will be a cycle of songs accompanied by an orchestra.
Was it not you who inspired Berio to arrange for orchestra two cycles of Mahler, Fruhe Lieder?
This is not entirely true. Some of the Lied, with piano accompaniment by the young Mahler, which Berio arranged for orchestra, already existed in the author’s drafts for instruments. Berio has just completed the work, without touching the original vocal line in the slightest. I touched this music in 1986 when I sang the first five songs. A year later, Berio orchestrated a few more pieces and, since we already had a collaborative relationship, he asked me to perform them.
You are in teaching. They say that the great singers of the future will come from America…
I haven’t heard about it, maybe because I mainly teach in Europe! Frankly, I am not interested in where they come from, from Italy, America or Russia, because I do not believe in the existence of national schools, but of different realities and cultures, the interaction of which offers the singer, wherever he comes from, the tools necessary for the best penetration into what he sings. My goal is to find a balance between the spirit, emotion and physical characteristics of the student. Of course, Verdi cannot be sung like Wagner, and Cola Porter like Hugo Wolf. Therefore, it is necessary to know the limits and shades of each language in which you sing, the peculiarities of the culture of the characters you approach, to be able to decipher the emotions that the composer conveys in his native language. For example, Tchaikovsky is much more concerned with the search for a beautiful musical moment than Verdi, whose interest, on the contrary, is focused on describing the character, on dramatic expression, for which he is ready, perhaps, to sacrifice the beauty of the phrase. Why does this difference arise? One of the reasons is the language: it is known that the Russian language is much more pompous.
Your work in Italy?
My first performance in Italy was in 1986, singing The Magic Horn of the Boy Mahler in Trieste. Then, a year later, he participated in a concert performance of La bohème in Rome, conducted by Bernstein. I will never forget it. Last year I sang in Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah in Florence.
What about operas?
Participation in opera performances is not provided. Italy should adapt to the rhythms in which the whole world works. In Italy, the names on the posters are determined at the last moment, and besides the fact that, perhaps, I cost too much, I know where and in what I will sing in 2005. I have never sung at La Scala, but negotiations are underway regarding my participation in one of the performances opening future seasons.
Interview with T. Hampson published in Amadeus magazine (2001) Publication and translation from Italian by Irina Sorokina
