Thomas Hampson was last week in Geneva.
While he is singing at the Zurich Opera, he is touring with the Wurttenberg Philharmonic in one of these typically frustrating recitals made to accomodate star performers. Program was a typical mix of unrehearsed arias, -this was the first concert in the serie and yes, one could hear it in more than few places - intertwined with basically "Elevator music" classical style ...
Yet Hampson's artistry is special and his renderings of Posa's death in Don Carlos or Renato's 3rd act aria in Ballo was worth having to cope with the rest ... As an encore, Don Giovanni's serenade was outstanding in phrasing, color, breath control, charm, ...
As it is customary, before presenting the encore, Hampson spoke to the audience and expressed surprise to have sung in so many places including Don Giovanni and Marcello as well as many recitals at the
Grand Théâtre but never at Victoria Hall.
He is right. Geneva and in particular Victoria Hall lacks good communication to potential audiences. The
web site of the hall is full of sloppy mistakes, ..., a clear sign of managerial amateurism ...
If you go outside of the hall and look at the posters, you would never have guessed that someone like Hampson was singing there and saw ads for flashy low-level provincial-like events. There is no single place where you can buy tickets for all possible events. (and also, should I say, only the OSR and the Grand Theatre have a serious press department with a relation where
Concertonet editors review events. All the others have turned down my requests so I will not do a review of the Hampson concert ...)
Until this is fixed which basically mean taking communication with audience seriously, events like Hampson's recital will never been sold out (as I am sure it is in every "normal" city of the stature of a Geneva ...) and many touring musicians who are not coming to Geneva will never come.
