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

Thomas Hampson
Leading Man: Best of Broadway
Genres: Pop, Classical, Broadway & Vocalists

Track Listings (11) - Disc #1
1. Very Warm For May: All The Things You Are
2. LES MISERABLES: Bring Him Home
3. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA: The Music Of The Night
4. Carousel: Soliloquy
5. Gigi
6. The Pajama Game: Hey There
7. NINE: Unusual Way
8. Merrily We Roll Along: Not A Day Goes By
9. The Secret Garden: How Could I Ever Know?
10. Beauty And The Beast: If I Can't Love Her
11. Camelot: If Ever I Would Leave You

CD Details

All Artists: Thomas Hampson
Title: Leading Man: Best of Broadway
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Angel Records
Release Date: 5/21/1996
Genres: Pop, Classical, Broadway & Vocalists
Styles: Vocal Pop, Historical Periods, Modern, 20th, & 21st Century, Musicals
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 724355524928, 020831160827, 724355524942

Synopsis

Amazon.com

The luscious baritone Thomas Hampson says, "I grew up with this tradition (musical comedy), with the idea of singing straight from the heart." And sing from the heart he does, while utilizing his extensive vocal training to enliven all nuance, realize each intimate moment, and expand into every climax. His big, broad, totally controlled baritone visits falsetto land more in this recording that in his entire operatic career--but it works! In a nostalgic moment, he sings "Hey, There" with John Raitt, who still possesses a hint of his former dominance in this repertoire. Most effective is his rendition of "Unusual Way," which he winningly makes his own. A stunner. --Barbara Eisner Bayer

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CD Reviews

A surprisingly good collection from Hampson

09/26/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

A leading man

puccinigirl | Shawnee, Oklahoma United States | 08/04/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Wouldn't I love to be Guinever

Gloria | San Francisco Bay Area, CA | 08/25/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

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."