From La Scala to Scales

You might need to call him Dr. Thomas Hampson now. The acclaimed American opera star has just received an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Conservatory.

“It’s very flattering, probably the only doctor’s degree I’ll ever get,” Hampson, 44, said modestly in a recent phone interview from San Francisco. He was in the City by the Bay to sing and teach before his recital tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

“Actually, I do quite a lot of teaching,” the singer said. “I’ve developed a seminar in England--four or five days of intensive work--called ‘One on One With Tom Hampson.’ I would like to do that here in the States. I don’t mind the odd class--even if it’s a class that’s odd.”

That might come as news to many people who know him only from appearances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Staatsoper and La Scala, among other places.

Indeed, local audiences might remember him for his 1990 Philharmonic Society recital at the center, as Marcello in Puccini’s “La Boheme” in 1987 at Los Angeles Opera, and most recently, his appearances in 1998 with the Pacific Symphony, when he sang songs by Mahler and Copland.

He loves singing, but he gets something different out of teaching, which he regards as a two-way street.

“Singing is a continual and perpetual balance between the spiritual, the emotional and the physical, and usually, talented young musicians are pretty clear about what they want to communicate spiritually. It’s the physical or emotional things that they get derailed.

“You’re really helping young singers synthesize their art. I really love that, being part of that ‘aha’ moment.”

He described his classes as “a healthy mix of technical advice and detective work. I don’t want to say ‘interpretation’ because I’m not fond of the word,” he said.

“ ‘Interpreting’ sounds like some person’s individual idea, whereas what one is responsible for is to what the truth of the issue is and re-creating it. I think of ‘interpretation’ as being left to the individual listener.”

When he began teaching, colleagues seemed perplexed because he was so young.

“But I think that the player-coach-manager position--to use a sports metaphor--is an interesting development, and more and more of my colleagues are teaching. Some don’t like to. They haven’t found their way. I respect that.”

Born in Elkhart, Ind., in 1955, Hampson was raised in the Northwest and majored in political science at universities in Spokane and Cheney, Wash.

“I was studying political science and singing at the same time, and [studying] history and literature,” he said. “My degree is actually in comparative pedagogy.”

Encouraged by teachers who recognized the quality of his voice, he moved to Santa Barbara in the late ‘70s to study voice more seriously at the Music Academy of the West and then to Los Angeles for further vocal work at USC.

His ascent to stardom really started in Germany, when he sang at the Deutsche Oper Am Rhein in Dusseldorf, from 1981 to 1983. After that, other European opera houses beckoned.

But he also pursued recital singing, and in a 1995 Mahler Festival in Amsterdam, he sang all the Mahler lieder. That was the program he repeated last week over two evenings in San Francisco.

“I love Mahler’s music,” Hampson said. “I love the world of poetry that he writes from. I think Mahler’s extraordinary gift of bringing the past through the present into the future is just so extraordinary. I don’t know a song of Gustav Mahler that I don’t think has some moment of profundity. . . . But even in the most serious moments, there is a certain simplicity.”

Originally, Hampson was going to duplicate the Mahler programs in Orange County. But plans changed.

“There wasn’t the hoped-for ticket response to two evenings of all-Mahler,” a center representative said last week. So the center cut back to one evening, and Mr. Hampson graciously changed his program to a more varied repertory.

Said Hampson: “My responsibility is to the presenter and the demographics of his community. I have no criticism or negative comments to make about the change. Things simply got shifted.

“Besides, it’s not a less serious program, but a different kind of program. The important thing is that people are coming to hear poetry and music. There’s still a huge chunk of Mahler songs. We’ll warm them to the Mahler.”

The first half of his program will include selections from Schubert’s “Schwanengesang” and Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.” After intermission, Hampson will sing songs by Samuel Barber and a series of American art and folk songs. Craig Rutenberg will be his accompanist.

“The Schubert-Mahler connection is very serious, sometimes not very much talked about,” Hampson said.

“From Gustav Mahler to Samuel Barber and the 20th century is a very natural step. Barber is one of the finest songwriters in this century. Then we’re ending with wonderful songs we don’t get to hear very often. Folk-based, they’re wonderful. Entertaining and emotional. We’ll send everyone home whistling something after we killed them off, turning them into ashes and dust with Mahler.”

* Baritone Thomas Hampson will sing lieder and songs by Schubert, Mahler, Barber and other composers at 7:30 tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Craig Rutenberg will accompany him on piano. $35-$44. (714) 556-2787.

Chris Pasles can be reached at (714) 966-5602 or by e-mail at chris.pasles@latimes.com.