Thomas Hampson Sings His First Met Performances of Verdi’s Macbeth

Thomas Hampson will make his Met role debut as the power-hungry title character in a revival of Verdi's Macbeth opening March 15. Star soprano Nadja Michael makes her Met debut as the bloodthirsty Lady Macbeth. Adrian Noble returns to the Met to direct the first revival of his 2007 production, which will be conducted by Gianandrea Noseda for the first time at the Met. Dimitri Pittas reprises his acclaimed portrayal of Macduff, and Günther Groissböck makes his Met role debut as the vengeful Banquo.

Macbeth will be Hampson's fifth Verdi role at the Met, where he has also sung Giorgio Germont in La Traviata,Rodrigo in Don Carlo, the title role in Simon Boccanegra, and Don Carlo in Ernani. Next season, he will make his Met role debut as Iago in Verdi's Otello. His extensive repertory also includes numerous Mozart roles, most frequently the title character in Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte; the Wagner roles of Amfortas in Parsifal and Wolfram in Tannhäuser; and the title roles in Rossini's IL Barbiere di Siviglia, Britten's Billy Budd, Busoni'sDoktor Faust, Tchaikosvky's Eugene Onegin, and Massenet's Werther. He sang the title role in Macbeth at the Lyric Opera of Chicago last season to critical acclaim.

            Michael, who has sung Lady Macbeth at the Munich Festival and Bavarian State Opera and at the Lyric Opera (opposite Hampson), is internationally acclaimed for her vivid dramatic and vocal characterizations in an eclectic repertory. Her most frequent portrayals include the title role in Richard Strauss's Salome, which she has sung in Munich and Dresden, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, and the Teatro Communale in Bologna, and the title role in Puccini's Tosca, which she has sung at the Arena di Verona, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Bregenz Festival. Her other recent performances include Marie in Berg's Wozzeck at the Berlin State Opera, the title role in Cherubini's Medea at La Monnaie in Brussels, both Venus and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the title role in Mayr's Medea in Corinto at the Bavarian State Opera.

Noseda led the recent new production premieres of Verdi's Il Trovatore (2009) and La Traviata (2010), as well as revivals of La Forza del Destino and Un Ballo in Maschera. He made his Met debut conducting Prokofiev's War and Peace in the 2001-02 season and most recently led four performances of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor during the company's June 2011 tour of Japan. Pittas, who sang Macduff in the premiere of Adrian Noble's production, has sung several leading roles at the Met in recent seasons, including Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème, Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, and Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Austrian bass Groissböck made his Met debut as Marcello in La Bohème in the Met's 2010-11 season. This season, he sang Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Vienna State Opera.

George Gagnidze, who also sings Shaklovity in this season's revival of Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, will make his Met role debut as Macbeth on March 29. Next season at the Met, Gagnidze will sing two Verdi roles: Amonasro in Aida and the title role inRigoletto.