Thomas Hampson

Thomas Hampson, born in Elkhart, Indiana, in 1955, is an American baritone whose career balances opera and the song recital in equal measure. He trained in Spokane and Los Angeles, and his debut took place in 1978 in Spokane, in Hänsel und Gretel. A year after that debut, in 1981, he won the first prize at the Metropolitan Opera auditions.

Between 1981 and 1984 he was under contract at the Düsseldorf opera, where he sang roles such as the Herald in Lohengrin and Belcore. After that, his repertoire expanded to include Guglielmo in St Louis, Malatesta in Santa Fe and Count Almaviva in Aix-en-Provence. From 1984 he was associated with Zurich for a decade, and he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1986. His appearances at the Metropolitan and in San Francisco further broadened his stage career.

Hampson is also known for his recordings of Mozart's three operas with libretti by Da Ponte, and for his work as a recitalist, with a particular interest in the rarely performed songs of American composers and in the Mahler repertoire, for which he went on to co-edit the Knaben Wunderhorn songs in the critical edition published by the Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft.