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Baritone Thomas Hampson stars as Macbeth at the Met

Listen to a short interview with Thomas Hampson about the role of Macbeth.

The 2011-12 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Verdi’s Macbeth, starring Thomas Hampson in the title role. Gianandrea Noseda conducts his first Met performances of Verdi’s opera, adapted from the Shakespeare tragedy, which also stars German soprano Nadja Michael in her Met debut run as Lady Macbeth. Dimitri Pittas reprises his Macduff, seen in the 2007 premiere of Adrian Noble’s production, and Günther Groissböck sings the role of Banquo.  

Macbeth will be heard live on Classical 88.7-1 at noon on Saturday, March 24.

Macbeth is Hampson’s fifth Verdi role at the Met, where he has also sung Germont in La Traviata, Rodrigo in Don Carlo, the title role in Simon Boccanegra, and Carlo in Ernani. Next season, he will make his Met role debut as Iago in Verdi’s Otello. His extensive repertory with the company 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; and the title roles in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Britten’s Billy Budd, Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Tchaikosvky’s Eugene Onegin, and Massenet’s Werther.

Michael, who has sung Lady Macbeth at the Munich Festival and Bavarian State Opera, as well as at the Lyric Opera of Chicago (opposite Hampson), is internationally acclaimed for her vivid 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.