Search - Thomas Hampson :: Leading Man: Best of Broadway

The last and most spectacular of Hampson's crossover recordi

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 07/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I haven't heard Thomas Hampson in any solo crossover work since this CD came out in 1996. that's baffling, because this is certainly a spectacular experience in world-class singing applied to musical comedy. Hampson's variety of tone, including a stretch of falsetto in "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables and 'Music of the Night' from Phantom, is nothing less than stunning (I played this CD for a famous soprano who was visiting Santa Fe, and she was torn between jealousy and awed admiration). A good deal of the music lies in the tenor range at the very frontier of Hampson's voice, but even there he does wonders.



For some reason Hampson's crossover work gets pans at Amazon, and it's true that you have to love Broadway to enter into this album. Hampson clearly loves everything from Disney ('If I Can't Love Her' from Beauty and the Beast) to cult musicals like Nine and The Secret Garden. Nothing is less than superbly done, leaving me to wonder why there has never been a follow-up."

You alone can make my song take flight

Emma de Soleil | On a holiday In Ibiza, then back to the UK for stu | 11/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Once upon a time Broadway was dominated by singers with real voices who did not need microphones to be heard. It's a trend all but gone and that is why this album is such an amazing breath of fresh air. Thomas Hampson is mostly known as a Lieder singer and an opera singer, his voice being that of a lyric baritone. His instrument is colorful and warm, velvety yet with the right amount of squillo to keep it from sounding too mushy. But it isn't his timbre, which sounds interesting rather than blandly beautiful, that bewitches and allures the ear, it's his Lieder like attention to the music and the lyrics. Being a first rate musician he doesn't add sobs and sighs but develops the drama through the music and the written word. Take the done to death "Music of the Night" as an example, Mr. Hampson positively delivers it from the Broadway crooners and Popera children, by singing it powerfully and without the utterly annoying falsetto that most who sing this song apply in order to sound more like the originator of the piece, Michael Crawford.



Musically these songs aren't much of a challenge for him, the real challenge was to sing these songs without trying to sound like the aforementioned Broadway interpreters as not to challenge his listeners' habits. A recital that has stood the test of time and it saddens me to see Mr. Hampson attempting heavy Verdi and Wagner roles that are best left to dramatic baritones instead of singing his best lyric repertoire and maybe recording another Broadway album. However, this CD is an absolute must if you love any or all of the following things: Good singing, supreme musicianship and Broadway."