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THOMAS HAMPSON,
baritone
A member of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences since
and
Gramophone
’s Hall
of Fame since
, baritone omas Hampson
has long led a singular international career as an
opera singer, recording artist, and “ambassador”
of classic song. He has also recently been named
a “Met Mastersinger” by the Metropolitan Op-
era Guild and honored with the inaugural Ve-
netian Heritage Award ( ) and the Concert-
gebouw Prize ( ). Hampson commands a
repertoire of more than roles and has sung at
all of the world’s major opera houses. His reper-
toire also continues to expand: he made his role
debut as the titular antihero of Berg’s
Wozzeck
at
the Met in
, and he created the role of Roald
Amundsen in Miroslav Srnka’s
South Pole
with
Bavarian State Opera in
.
is fall he will
create the title role of Rufus Wainwright’s
Hadri-
an
with the Canadian Opera Company, and in
early
he will star as Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mo-
zart’s librettist, in Houston Grand Opera’s world
premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s
e Phoenix
. Hamp-
son’s recent credits include Scarpia in Puccini’s
Tosca
with Bavarian State Opera, the title role
of Verdi’s
Simon Boccanegra
with Vienna State
Opera, Count Danilo in Lehár’s
e Merry Wid-
ow
with Paris National Opera (he performed the
same role in a new production with Lyric Opera
of Chicago in
), the title role of Mozart’s
Don
Giovanni
at La Scala, Giorgio Germont in Ver-
di’s
La traviata
at the Met and Deutsche Oper
Berlin, the four villains of O enbach’s
e Tales
of Ho mann
with the Royal Opera at Covent
Garden. With a discography of over
albums,
he has earned a Grammy Award, ve Edison
Awards, and the Grand Prix du Disque, and he
was bestowed the Living Legend Award by the
Library of Congress, where he serves as a special
advisor to the study and performance of music
in America.
omas Hampson rst performed
at Ravinia in
and tonight returns for his
eighth season at the festival.
LUCA PISARONI,
bass-baritone
Since his professional debut at age with the
Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival,
Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni has been a
regular guest of the world’s leading opera hous-
es, concert halls, and festivals. Over the past
year, he made his debut at the Rossini Opera
Festival in Pesaro as Mahomet II in the compos-
er’s
Le siege de Corinthe
, followed by role debuts
as Golaud in Debussy’s
Pelléas et Mélisande
at
the Paris Opera, Don Pizarro in Beethoven’s
Fi-
delio
at Teatro alla Scala, and Mustafà in Rossi-
ni’s
L’italiana in Algeri
at the Vienna State Opera,
where he also sang Leporello in Mozart’s
Don
Giovanni
and Alidoro in Rossini’s
La Ceneren-
tola
. Pisaroni also returned to the Metropolitan
Opera as Count Almaviva in Mozart’s
e Mar-
riage of Figaro
and appeared as Méphistophélès
in Gounod’s
Faust
at
the Tchaikovsky Concert
Hall in Moscow. His operatic repertoire extends
to Enrico VIII in Donizetti’s
Anna Bolena
, Con-
te Rodolfo and Giorgio in Bellini’s
La sonnam-
bula
and
I puritani
(respectively), Guglielmo in
Mozart’s
Così fan tutte
, Conte Dorval in Martín
y Soler’s
Il burbero di buon cuore
, Maometto
in Rossini’s
Maometto II
, Tiridate in Handel’s
Radamisto
, and the title role in Cavalli’s
Ercole
Amante
. On the orchestral concert stage, Pis-
aroni was recently a soloist in Rossini’s
Petite
Messe Solennelle
at Vienna’s Konzerthaus and
with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, Beetho-
ven’s C-major Mass with the Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra and
Missa solemnis
with
the London Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s
C-minor Mass with the Concentus Musicus
Wien at the Musikverein, and Schubert songs
with the Filarmonica della Scala. He also sang
a Schubert recital with pianist Malcolm Mar-
tineau in Berlin and Essen, and he performed
an Italian/American program in Firenze, Tren-
to, and Philadelphia. His career recital credits
include critically lauded programs at Carnegie
Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Teatro de la Zarzuela,
and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, among many
other venues. Luca Pisaroni made his Ravinia
debut in
and is making his rst return to
the festival.
KEVIN MURPHY,
piano
New York native Kevin Murphy studied piano
performance at Indiana University under Men-
ahem Pressler and James Tocco, completing a
Bachelor of Music, and later studied piano ac-
companiment at the Curtis Institute, earning
a master’s degree. In
he was invited to be
the rst pianist to participate in the Lindemann
Young Artist Program of the Metropolitan Op-
era, where he was an assistant conductor from
the following year until
, when he was
named director of musical studies for the Paris
National Opera. Murphy has played harpsichord
continuo with the Metropolitan Opera Orches-
tra in productions of Rossini’s
La Cenerentola
and Mozart’s
Così fan tutte
,
Le nozze di Figaro
,
Idomeneo
,
La clemenza di Tito
, and
Don Giovan-
ni
(several of which he has also performed at Ra-
vinia), and traveled with the company on tour to
Japan, where he has played and been a musical
assistant for the Seiji Ozawa Opera Project. He
also regularly collaborates with such artists as
Michelle DeYoung, Gary Lakes, Kathleen Bat-
tle, Nathan Gunn, Bryn Terfel, Cecilia Bartoli,
Frederica von Stade, Plácido Domingo, Renée
Fleming, Gerald Finley, Kiri Te Kanawa, and
Pinchas Zukerman. Murphy has been a vocal
coach at San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program,
the International Vocal Arts Institute, Glim-
merglass Opera, Tanglewood, and
e Juilliard
School; an opera coach for the Canadian Opera
Company and Netherlands Opera; and a regular
adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera Nation-
al Council Auditions. He was director of music
administration for New York City Opera from
until
, when he joined the faculty of
Indiana University as professor of practice and
head opera coach, and in
he was appoint-
ed artistic consultant of the Tucson Desert Song
Festival.
is is Kevin Murphy’s ninth season
in performance at Ravinia, where he rst ap-
peared in
, and his seventh year as director
of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute Program for
Singers.
AUGUST 6 – AUGUST 12, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
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