The Very Best of Thomas Hampson

Marc Barrard (Artist), Thomas Hampson (Artist), Csaba Airizer (Artist), Georges Bizet (Artist), Charles Wakefield Cadman (Artist), Stephen Foster (Artist), Charles Gounod (Artist), Edvard Grieg (Artist), Charles Tomlinson Griffes (Artist), Imre (Emmerich) Kalman (Artist), Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Artist), Franz Lehar (Artist), Gustav Mahler (Artist), Jules Massenet (Artist), Giacomo Meyerbeer (Artist), Gioachino Rossini (Artist), Franz Schubert (Artist), Robert Schumann (Artist), Johann II Strauss (Artist), Ambroise Thomas (Artist), Giuseppe Verdi (Artist), Richard Wagner (Artist), Carl Maria von Weber (Artist), Antonio de Almeida (Artist), Antonio Pappano (Artist), Eugene Kohn (Artist), Fabio Luisi (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 26, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B0006VYEI2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #136,158 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Details TBA. EMI. 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Homage to a Great Artist, October 29, 2005

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

EMI is wisely creating a series of recordings to gather the moments of artists that showcase the very reasons they become so highly regarded. Usually these collections are produced late in careers or even posthumously, but in the case of THE VERY BEST OF THOMAS HAMPSON the artist is still one of the more active and premiere singers of our day. Yet while he doesn't still perform all of these inclusions, it is wonderful to have excerpts from various successful recordings to remind us of the artistry that Hampson represents.

The two disc set includes arias from operas: Rossini's 'Il barbière di Siviglia', von Weber's 'Euryanthe', Gounod's 'Faust', Massenet's 'Hérodiade', Bizet's 'Les Pêcheurs de perles' (in duet with Placido Domingo), Thomas' 'Hamlet', Verdi's 'Don Carlo', 'Il Travatore', 'Macbeth', 'La Traviata', and 'Falstaff', Korngold's 'Die Tote Stadt', and Wagner's 'Tannhäuser'.

But the rewards of a Hampson recording must include his impeccable career as a lieder stylist and on this recording are excerpts from Schumann's 'Dichterliebe', Schubert's 'Winterreise', Mahler's 'Rückert Lieder' and 'Das Lied von der Erde', as well as songs by Meyerbeer, Rossini, Grieg, Kalman, and Lehar. And very importantly there are examples of American songs that Hampson has always emphasized in his recitals. Works by Stephen Foster, and two extraordinary works with the brilliant accompanist Armen Guzelimian - 'An Old Song Re-sung' by Griffes and 'At Dawning' by Charles Wakefield Cadman - round out this fine survey.

Not usually a collector of such 'recombinations', for this listener this album is so very fine that it deserves the attention of all those who appreciate the artistry of Thomas Hampson - then and now. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, October 05

5.0 out of 5 stars Classical and Folk at its best!, January 14, 2008

By	Evelyn Krueger - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Thomas Hampton does equally well on the operatic numbers as he does on the Stephen Foster numbers in expression and style. A wonderful recording.

5.0 out of 5 stars SImply Untrue, August 16, 2006

By	Spinto "thehighc" (ct) - See all my reviews

The previous review is simply a gross falsification. I have been an obsessed opera fan for a long time, and Thomas Hampson is a truly special singer. He is not the possesor of the largest or most interesting voice, which he will tell you and indeed says so all the time. His commitment to text, his willingness to search out parts to fit his voice, and his dedication to art song make im invaluable to Americans as a ture Troubador. His light Baritone was ideally suited to Figaro and to Valentin and the art song he loves. He must stretch to sing Verdi, where his voice sounds dry and small but many singers have chanced Verdi at their peril, and his innate ablity to inhabit a song, here evidenced in Di Provenza overcomes fact that it is out of his fach. You misinformed opinion of Hampson is mean and strangly bitter. I love Opera, but I do not love every singer, which doesn't mean I debase their very artistic existance. I have seen Hampson live, and have loved him (in Thias) and somewhat disliked him (in Simon Boccanegra) As for him being pretentious, somwetimes I find him mannered, but always charming. SOmetimes Intellectualism can appear pretentious, but surely you wont hold an opera singer to the charge that he must be unintellectual. what a vitriolic review, please buy this Cd, it merits repeated listening to a true American SINGER,