Customer Reviews

Leading Man: Best of Broadway ~ Hampson

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Opera singers usually come off sounding stiff, pretentious and completely miscast when they attempt musical theater pieces. Which was why I decided to give this collection of Broadway standards a listen with a good deal of trepidation. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by how good Hampson was on this album. His lush baritone works wonders on songs like "Bring Him Home", "If Ever I Would Leave You" and "Soliloquy". He also manages to bring something new to his rendition of "Gigi". And then there's the highlight of this album - Hampson's gloriously thrilling take on a wonderful arrangement of "Unusual Way". Worth the price of the disk for this track alone.

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.

This is a superb album of broadway classics. Hampson is a fabulous singer with a seemingly perfect technique and a wonderful interpretive style. Although Hampson is a leading man in the opera world, he has excellent command of this style of music as well. He also throws in a few pieces that are normally sung by soprano, but he handles them nicely. No complaints about this album. Try it and you'll enjoy a wonderful listening experience.

First of all, I love Thomas Hampson. Secondly, I can live without musical theatre. Thomas Hampson performs well on each song. My favorites are The Music of the Night, Gigi, If Ever I Would Leave You, and My Boy Bill from Carousel. He makes the most dramatic impact on each of these songs. This is the CD I reach for when I feel like hearing my favorite baritone singing in my native tongue.

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.

Thomas Hampson totally rocks these songs with his rich baritone voice soaring through such notes as high G, Aflat and A! His Music of the Night, in my opinion, is even better than Michael Crawford's. I recommend this to Musical Theatre actors who want to learn how to sing really well. For anyone else it really just depends on whether or not they are willing to pay 17 dollars for 11 songs (all amazing).

While looking for albums to purchase my eyes caught a glimpse of Thomas Hampson's Leading Man. Myself being a singer was immediately intrigued with the concept of a wonderfully trained, and very high I might add, baritone perform broadway pieces that deserve a little bit more technique than they often get. I've purchased many c.d's of this kind with artists such as Bryn Terfel performing broadway classics and have gotten a lot of satisfaction from it. However, I was severely dissapointed with "Leading Man". I'll state my three reasons...

1. The orchestration is absolutely terrible. When I initially spotted this c.d I was very excited with the idea of hearing standard old broadway classics the way I've heard them hundreds of times before, however this time with a guaranteed good performance. I was soon disturbed to hear probably THE WORST arrangements I've ever heard of these pieces. EX: The original orchestration for Beauty and the Beast's "If I can't love her" is absolutely wonderful. It makes me believe that broadway is actually doing something worth while. However, whenever i hear monotone drumbeats start pumping through my speakers....well, I just get pissed off. What was wrong with the initial orchestration? Why did they feel the need to be "creative" and ruin something that was perfect the way it was. Its because people feel the need to frustrate me....that's why.

2. The overall performance. I must say that I respect the work of Thomas Hampson immensely, his technique is absolutely brilliant and it has allowed him to sing things all across his range...from the more Baritone in nature, to singing in the high bflat range. That being said, I do not prefer the techniques used in this c.d. Like Bryn Terfel, Hampson utilizes his ability to float high notes with a pure, ALMOST phalsetto like sound. However, this is not what I disagree with, but rather the fact that he feels the need to practically scoop up to EVERY high note. This is usually used as a way of getting really high notes with securing the support underneath it. However, after hearing Hampson sings Rossini's Largo al factotum you realize that he is quite capable of picking out these top notes very cleanly with little to no difficulty or strain. I would of preferred to have heard more of this for some of the songs (Phantom of the opera, If I can't love her, If ever I would leave you)

3. For a man who love's music, I found it very difficult to enjoy this album. I might be a musician, but I can dumb down the ol' critics ear and simply listen to music for the hell of it. However, too many things got in the way of the music. There was too much self promoting in this album that did not allow for the REAL music to be shown. Instead of hearing "If i can't love her" featuring Thomas Hampson, i heard Thomas Hampson singing "If i can't love her"...(Theres a difference, the later is a much more selfish way to approach music)

Overall, I believe that if your a hardcore Hampson fan, by all means purchase this album. If you are hoping to hear old favorites you might want to take a second thought about it...

Excellent album. Excellent singing. Beautiful diction, tone, expressiveness. Yes, he is an opera singer. Yes, you will hear the influence of his opera training. But it isn't pretentious, as other reviewers have stated. In many songs you get the feeling he is singing as a 6'3", 250lb dockworker, not someone in tails (or a man who spends a lot of time decorating). His manly voice sounds like someone who would actually be attracted to the lovely ingenues (and not acting like it, if you know what I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that...) Unfortunately, in some songs you also get the feeling he is singing to a soprano that is about 15 feet tall while in the Roman colliseum.

Leave it to Thomas Hampson and his giant ego to title an album, Leading Man. We all look forward to that day when Hampson wakes up from his reverie and realizes that he cannot sing everything. Here is the album that states the case emphatically that Opera singers have no business singing American Musical Theater. Particularly Opera singers who THINK they CAN sing this repertoire. Hampson's indulgent, charicatured, pompous and bloated renderings of this strong material is an embarassment. His performance of "Not A Day Goes By" is painful, and for all the wrongs reasons. He uses his celebrated falsetto to mamby-pamby effect in "Bring Him Home", a song written for the tenor voice. Maestro Raitt must have cringed while recording "Hey There". Too bad Hampson couldn't learn from one of the true Giants of American Musical Theater. If you want a good laugh, or cry, purchase this album. Don't say you weren't warned.