Thomas Hampson Returns in Met Wozzeck and Vienna Boccanegra, New Lyric Parsifal & More

The new season sees Thomas Hampson - "America's foremost baritone" (International Herald Tribune) - return to the world's greatest opera houses and festivals, including London's Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, theBavarian State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and New York's Metropolitan Opera, where he will make hisrole debut as the eponymous antihero of Berg's Wozzeck. Equally active on the concert stage, Hampson looks forward to collaborations with such top international orchestras as Washington's National Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, which he will join for a twelve-stop European tour. Having been hailed as "an artist fully in control of a remarkable instrument" (Los Angeles Times), the baritone will take his celebrated lieder recitals to London's Wigmore Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and to Coburg, Heidelberg, Brussels, and Berne. In the wake of his recent induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame, the baritone's star turn in the title role of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra - recorded live at the Vienna Konzerthaus - is due for September release on the Decca label.

Hampson adds another title role to his already extensive repertory when he gives his first performances as Berg's Wozzeck at theMetropolitan Opera, opposite Deborah Voigt, also making her role debut, in Mark Lamos's "arrestingly abstract" (New York Times) staging. With Met music director and longtime Wozzeck champion James Levine on the podium, the production marks the baritone's third Met role debut in as many seasons (March 6-22).

Coinciding with the release of the new Decca set, Hampson launches the operatic season in a revival of the Vienna State Opera's Simon Boccanegra (Sep 27-Oct 4). Reprising his portrayal of the Doge, he will be joined, as on the new recording, by Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja. Last season the baritone proved "fabulous" in this Peter Stein production; as Vienna's Kurier confessed, "His Boccanegra gets under your skin."

Since 2013 marks the Italian composer's bicentennial, it is fitting that Hampson also revisits another signature Verdi role, undertaking Giorgio Germont alongside Richard Tucker Award-winner Ailyn Pérez in La traviata at the Bavarian State Opera (Dec 31-Jan 6).

Celebrating opera's other big bicentennial, Wagner's Parsifal also looms large in the baritone's upcoming schedule. As the New York Times noted when he sang the role at the Met, "Hampson has made something of a specialty of the agonized, desperate Amfortas." At Chicago's Lyric Opera, Hampson graces a new production of the opera by two-time Tony Award-winner John Caird, with Sir Andrew Davis conducting (Nov 9-29). The same piece is the vehicle for the baritone's first U.S. performances of the season in Washington DC, where he joins Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra for a concert version of the opera's final act at the Kennedy Center (Oct 10-12).

Hampson revisits Puccini's sadistic Baron Scarpia, to which he brought "freshness and edge" (Opera Today) on Decca's live DVD recording from the Zurich Opera, in three important European Tosca productions. At Covent Garden, he teams up with Oksana Dyka and Roberto Alagna in Jonathan Kent's classic treatment (May 10-30), and performs the role alongside Anja Harteros at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Jan 18 & 22) and Marcello Giordani at the Vienna Staatsoper (June 23 & 27).

Rounding out the opera season, the baritone stars as Mandryka in a new production of Richard Strauss's Arabella at the Salzburg Festival, opposite Renée Fleming in the title role (April 12 & 21).

In the concert hall, Hampson opens the 2013-14 season in performances of Eisler's Ernste Gesänge with the Staatskapelle Dresdenunder principal conductor Christian Thielemann (Sep 1-9). With the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, now celebrating its tenth anniversary season, he premieres a new arrangement of Brahms's Vier ernste Gesänge alongside works by Schubert, Wolf, and Barber, on a twelve-stop European tour that takes him to Munich, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Dublin, Gstaad, Madrid, Lisbon, and more (Jan 25-Feb 9). Other orchestral collaborations include programs of arias and duets with Luca Pisaroni in Prague (Dec 9), Bratislava (Dec 4), Baden-Baden (June 11), and Essen (June 14), and selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony in Glasgow (Sep 19) and Perth (Sep 20).

On the recital stage, Hampson joins forces with his regular pianist Wolfram Rieger, in whom he has an "excellent collaborator" (New York Times), for Liederabend programs in London's Wigmore Hall (Sep 14), the Leipzig Gewandhaus (Sep 17), Coburg's Lied und Lyrik Festival (Sep 23), as well as Heidelberg (Dec 20), Bern (Dec 23), and Brussels (Jan 11).

Last season, Hampson's operatic engagements brimmed with Verdi, from his company role debut as Iago in Otello at the Met to Giorgio Germont at the Vienna State Opera. Having wowed critics in the title role of Simon Boccanegra at Chicago's Lyric, he reprised the Doge at Vienna's Konzerthaus and Covent Garden, before returning to the Salzburg Festival as Rodrigo in a new Pappano/Stein production ofDon Carlo. It was in May 2013 that the baritone - already named a Metropolitan Opera Guild "Met Mastersinger" and presented with the inaugural Venetian Heritage Award (2013) - was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame, alongside fellow honorees including conductors James Levine, Zubin Mehta, and Mariss Jansons, and sopranos Renée Fleming and Anna Netrebko.

A list of Hampson's upcoming engagements follows, and additional information is available at www.thomashampson.com.

Thomas Hampson: engagements, 2013-14

Sep 1, 2, 5, 8 & 9
Dresden, Germany
Dresden Semperoper

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann
Eisler: Ernste Gesänge

Sep 14
London, UK
Wigmore Hall

With Wolfram Rieger, piano
Mahler: Liederabend

Sep 17
Leipzig, Germany
Leipzig Gewandhaus

With Wolfram Rieger, piano
Mendelssohn: Liederabend

Sep 19
Glasgow, Scotland
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Donald Runnicles
Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Sep 20
Perth, Scotland
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Donald Runnicles
Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Sep 23
Coburg, Germany
Landestheater

With Wolfram Rieger, piano
Lied und Lyrik Festival
Liederabend

Sep 27; Oct 1 & 4
Vienna, Austria
Vienna Staatsoper / Franz Welser-Möst
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (title role)

Oct 10, 11 & 12
Washington, DC
National Symphony / Vasily Petrenko
Wagner: Parsifal, Act 3 (Amfortas)

Nov 9, 13, 17, 22, 25 & 29
Chicago, IL
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Wagner: Parsifal (Amfortas)

Dec 4
Bratislava, Slovakia
Prague Symphony Orchestra / Rastislav Stur
With Luca Pisaroni, bass-baritone
Duo concert

Dec 9
Prague, Czech Republic
Prague Symphony Orchestra / Rastislav Stur
With Luca Pisaroni, bass-baritone
Duo concert

Dec 20
Heidelberg, Germany
With Wolfram Rieger, piano
Liederabend

Dec 23
Bern, Switzerland
Musiksaal of the Casino
With Wolfram Rieger, piano
Liederabend

Dec 31; Jan 3 & 6
Munich, Germany
Bayerische Staatsoper
Verdi: La traviata (Giorgio Germont)

Jan 11
Brussels

Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR)

With Wolfram Rieger, piano
Strauss

Jan 18 & 22
Berlin, Germany
Deutsche Oper / Alexander Joel
Puccini: Tosca (Scarpia)

Jan 25-Feb 9
Amsterdam Sinfonietta

European tour

Brahms, Schubert, Wolf, and Barber

Jan 25: Ludwigsburg, Germany (Forum am Schlosspark)
Jan 26: Munich, Germany (Prinzregententheater)
Jan 28: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Concertgebouw)
Jan 29: Dublin, Ireland (National Concert Hall)
Jan 31: Zug, Switzerland (Church St. Oswald)
Feb 1: Gstaad, Switzerland (St. Mauritius Church Saanen)
Feb 2: Friedrichshafen, Germany (Graf-Zeppelin-Haus)
Feb 4: Hamburg, Germany (Laeiszhalle)
Feb 5: Bilbao, Spain (Sociedad Filarmónica)
Feb 6: Madrid, Spain (Teatro Real)
Feb 8: Oviedo, Spain (Auditorio Príncipe Felipe)
Feb 9: Lisbon, Portugal (Cultural Center Belém)

Feb 23
New York, NY
Manhattan School of Music
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

March 6, 10, 13, 17& 22
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera / James Levine
Berg: Wozzeck (title role; role debut)

April 12 & 21
Salzburg, Austria
Salzburger Festspiele
Strauss: Arabella (Mandryka)

May 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 27 & 30

London, England
Royal Opera House / Teodor Currentzis
Puccini: Tosca (Scarpia)

June 11
Baden-Baden, Germany
Festspielhaus
Baden-Badener Philharmonie / Pavel Baleff

With Luca Pisaroni, bass-baritone
Duo concert

June 14
Essen, Germany
Philharmonie
Baden-Badener Philharmonie / Pavel Baleff

With Luca Pisaroni, bass-baritone
Duo concert

June 18
Vienna, Austria
Musikverein

Orchestre de l'Opera de Paris / Philippe Jordan

Strauss

June 23 & 27
Vienna, Austria
Vienna Staatsoper / Franz Welser-Möst

Puccini: Tosca (Scarpia)