I would not handle a masterclass well. It's so difficult to have your insecurities and weaknesses brought out. Hampson seems so sweet and well-mannered, but it's like being grilled and the person grilling you is the best at what they do and you can't do anything about it. It's quite scary. But if I did do a masterclass and Hampson was running it, I'd probably collapse and cry right then.
Here's the thing. He's a pro, you're a student. It's a master class. He's not there to tell you what you suck at, but he's telling you how to improve. That's what teachers do.
I don't think I've ever seen such an interventionist masterclass and it was all the better for it. The subject makes a tremendous sound and Hampson showed how the subtlest of changes could extend the reach of that voice and make it even better. A thoroughly enriching video. Indeed, I checked back on the timing expecting it be eighteen or twenty minutes, but it was thirty-six. So engrossing.
You can hear the immediate improvement!!! Great singing being taught....PLUS you can tell when the master singer starts singing they’re ENJOYING the singing!!!
Wonderful video. If only all voice teachers were this picky and detailed and this perfectly understandable - speaking in a way that would make sense to someone who has never even had a lesson. For example, he doesn't just say, "support more", or "I need more head voice" followed by a jargon that attempts to explain the pedagogy but has zero utility. He makes it so simple and he is 100% spot on with his simplifications. Brilliant! And thank you, Manhattan School of Music, for sharing this gift with us.
I've been in masterclasses like this and it reminded me of all the subtle things to learn that improve the voice quality, yet as singers we often can't hear the differences ourselves.
So right about posture. Keep the spine absolutely straight and the back of your neck (I was told to imagine you have a pony tail at the back of your head and you're hanging from the ceiling by it). Once the posture is correct the support flies and the power of the core is absolute taking pressure off all the stuff around the throat. He's also right about yoga. Singers warm up their voices but warming up your body (and specifically your spine, ribs, and neck area) really helps with both production and resolving the "nerves things". In settling the body we help settle the voice and the mind. Loved this and isn't he lovely - he simply wants to help in all the best ways. Great quality for a teacher.
Thomas Hampson is a wonderful man and therefore a great coach (mentioning Sir Charles Santley shows his profound education). The young man has a wonderful voice, but it may help him to better learn the pronouncing of the French language.
This guy Thomas Hampson seems like a great friend and master at his craft. He's the best I've heard do Largo al Factotum. I'm not really into opera and music theory but he's the first singer that has gained my interest. I can now sing the whole part of Figaro's Aria that is in Mrs. Doubtfire. I feel like one of the audience members while watching this. Thank you all.
"Easier" I think is the wrong word to describe it. It's "easier" to be lazy and let the phrasing suffer. But it's tiring. Consistent phrasing is less tiring. It also sounds a lot nicer.
Thomas Hampson is the best baritone I have ever heard of. SeokJong Baek has been amazing as a baritone in the masterclass and as of now he is a superior and amazing tenor that sang a wonderful Calaf at the Met.
You have not heard too many great baritones if you think he is the best....try for example...battistinni,bastiannini,ruffo,danise,apollo granforte,urbano,tagliabue,merill,capuchilli,taddei,gobi,herlea,warren,bruson,i could go on and on,but they are all truly great baritones,hampson is also a fine baritone but a lighter lyric,try some of the others
I just love this, masterclasses with the best in classical music are so encouraging. There's no tear down, just incredible advice with attention to detail to make your technique the best it could be. Really excellent and the baritone has a great voice !
What a superb instrument! I could listen to this young man all day. ... Thomas Hampson.... One of the best Masterclasses I have seen online. I respect his ability to work with and have knowledge of the body while putting it into context of the music and text. We need more teachers in general who have this or similar, approach.
This is a fine voice (SeokJong Baek). Your voice has some growing to do and I hope you will let it grow naturally and not try to force it to grow as so many singers do. Good luck.
From operawire 2022's top 10 rising stars Pest - He didn't listen to Hampson and went tenor🙂 SeokJong Baek The South Korean tenor began his career as a baritone, during which time studying as an Adler Fellow, a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Programme, and a Resident Artist at the Lyric Opera of Kansas. With San Francisco, he performed in various productions including “Carmen,” “Romeo et Juliette,” Manon Lescaut,” “Rusalka,” and Le Nozze di Figaro.” However, he moved into the tenor repertoire over the past two years slowly building his career. In 2021 he received the third prize at the Tenor Viñas Competition as well as the Plácido Domingo prize, Public prize, and Teatro Real de Madrid prize. He was also the first place winner of the 2021 Loren L. Zachary Society National Vocal Competition, First Prize, Audience Award, and Enrico Caruso Award winner of the 2021 Vincero World Singing Competition. But it was in 2022 that the tenor broke out and made an unprecedented debut at the Royal Opera House in a new production of “Samson et Dalila;” this also represented a role debut and his highest-profile assignment to date. OperaWire raved about the tenor noting he “may well be the outstanding voice of the cast.” The debut was even filmed in HD and presented in cinemas. That was followed by more performances at the Royal Opera in “Cavalleria Rusticana,” where the tenor was once again praised and subsequently signed with Intermusica for General Management. Up next, the tenor will return to the Royal Opera House for “Aida,” make his Prague State Opera debut, and will also make his Arizona Opera debut. He is also set to join the Metropolitan Opera’s roster.
The world is going to hear from him. And what a great and nice teacher is Thomas Hampson , but we already know that. But SeokJong Beak , we are going to hear from him.
35:11 ... I have rarely heard a tenor sing a g that beautifull and I never heard a baritone like that! Most singers tend to almost belt it out. But he just started so soft and it was so effortless, and beautifull, I get goosebumps every time I hear it. This is what opera singing/classical singin is about: reaching intensity by keeping it natural, never doing too much. I think he got a bright future ahead, and I'm so amazed as well how Hampson managed to bring him to that point. Bravo bravo bravo!
OMG, this man is not teaching singing, he's giving a lecture. 26 min in he's still not beyond the first phrase. And each time the poor singer is ready to sing he stops him. How can he learn to sing if he's not allowed to sing?
A really wonderful job working with an unknown voice, and making sure that the singer really understood the few things that Thomas asked him to concentrate on. The body work was incredible, and the changes in his sound AND singing were so wonderful in such a short period of time. That is why masterclass teaching is so difficult.
Trovo che sia snervante per chi fa un master ed è continuamente interrotto con uno che ti parla continuamente sopra sul canto, io l'avrei mandato a quel paese.
What a boring class. Hampton keeps talking and too much. Let the guy sing, then see what happens. To make somebody self-conscious of their action is no use. I think Hampton is trying to compensate for what he could not do himself. We are in America now. What does that mean? So he is your boss! Come-on man. It is not America but the US of America, the boss of wars and the arts?!! Metaphysician & Philosopher
Well, but Hampson only said that in the context of explaining breathing and breath support to the student: in other words, technique. Your comment suggests that Merrill and Warren had no awareness of their own technique, but that can't be true. Maybe they didn't talk about it in public, but they must have known about ribs and breathing and "support."
I understand your thoughts but...BUT this is a MASTER teacher and he’s showing the purpose of knowing the body and yoga and all that goes with singers. Think about it; how well do we singers know our bodies??
Just curious to know the date of this wonderful masterclass. No comment about the French diction. But all my deep admiration for the great artist and inspired pedagogue Thomas Hampson who metamorphosed this well endowed singer in this short time. ( Palma Toscani, French diction teacher at MSM 1985-2001)
Jesus, where's the dramatic voices nowadays? Even in these universities, the teachers are making it harder for dramatic voices to go out and sing to the fullest. No wonder opera houses (especially the Met), aren't doing as well now. The dramatic, young and rich voices that we should be hearing are getting pushed aside for more little and pushed-lyric sounds. I listened to a masterclass from Maria Callas at Julliard and almost all the male baritone singers... had dramatic voices! Now, I don't know why people think the lyrical voices (where everything sounds smudged and not even resonant or open), is the only way to go. Bellini in his time also stated that voices of that nature would easily die out soon.
tonshaad1230 there are plenty of dramatic voices. I don't think you've been to the met too much. the reason the met is failing is because they are overspending and not advertising to new customers. they're relying on the same money they've been relying on for the past 20 years.
jay hutzler Correction I've been going to the met for the last 28 years and even back then I questioned how much longer would the dramatic voice exist even then. I'm 51 now and I've learned to appreciate all sounds and all types of voices but even I can see the decline in the Met. The Met's been losing money ever since the early 1990s and it isn't because they aren't using new productions. The voices just doesn't fit the roles required to sing. For example Jerome Hines said it best in his book "Back in my day, baritones Leonard Warren and Robert Merrill sounded much more like basses than baritones!" They sung repertoire that their voices could handle and successfully sustain. Now, we have pushed lyric voices, with voices that you can't hear in a large theater or even a small one, singing dramatic roles that will kill them vocally. For Example, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Thomas Hampson. Two great lyric baritones who are punishing and pushing their instruments simply because they are now being supplied with microphones to amplify their sounds. This is what's killing opera, not so much the reusing of old productions. Opera conductors have always used old productions as it's less time focusing on the set, and more time dedicated to working with the orchestra and voices. Callas, even in 1975, saw how this would come crashing down. And she was right.
jay hutzler Oh come now. People like Renee Fleming, Roberto Alagna, Anna Trebeko and Jonas Kaufmann are all the "new breed" and the supposed "Romeos and Juliets" off opera now, but even they can't save the Met from failing. Renee Fleming is doing her best to alert people from ALL types of music that Opera is here to stay, yet that isn't working. Anna is singing countless concerts across the globe and here in America and yet people aren't going to the met on a regular to see her there. Don't blame the met for not trying to advertise when they've been using the same formula that's proven in the past could work.... with the RIGHT LEADERSHIP.
+tonshaad1230 I can't exactly attest to what you're saying because of my relative youth to the whole spiel, but being a Jerome Hines devotee, I agree that scouring live performances and recordings of the last 5-6 years, you can say that you'll find tenors with more heft by just setting the tessitura bar slightly lower in the tenor-baritone scale, (just call baritones "tenors" BOOM!) but fewer just stand and bark and it's the hounds of hell true-to-form basses.
Wow, didn't notice it was French until 5 mins in, was convinced he was singing Italian. Nevertheless such a beautiful voice! Our language is very difficult even for natives, keep up the efforts :)) I think it's the vowels that are difficult, also the necessity to roll the "r"s in singing that is not done in spoken French that can make it harder to understand when it's sung
I like Seokjong Baek but I still believe Thomas Hampson was right about his voice? Tenor roles he sings lack squillo and timber of true tenors, just as Domingo's and Kaufmann's.
Los dos chicos están muy guapos y el barítono tiene UNA BELLA VOZ, me encanto el pianista, es hermosamente personal y le saca al piano un excelente sonido....BRAVO los dos....que no fastidie tanto el viejo...jajaja.. el viejo es simpático también por que no 😼
Обоє співають дуже заглибленим звуком, та якщо в учня звук рівний, то у вчителя всі звуки в різних позиціях, ще й постийно мігрує діафрагма. А суть академічного співу в додержанні єдиної позиції. Both sing with a very deep sound, and if the student's sound is even, then the teacher's sounds are in different positions, and the diaphragm constantly migrates. And the essence of academic singing is to maintain a single position.
Hampson é corretto nel'insegnamento... la domanda é, perché non ha applicato anche a sè stesso queste regole visto che il suo canto ha parecchie pecche tecniche ???
Intelligent? Try pretentious such as his comment to the pianist "do you know what inertia means?" Asking questions or making insufficient comments that adds absolutely NOTHING to the singer nor interpretation that the singer has done. It's Hampson being Hampson, through and through, the consummate and pretentious wannabe.
The student is trying his best to understand, and that is what matters. I can see this is such a intimidating situation for a student but I think the student handled the difficult situation very well throughout despite his limited language. Hampton is so passionate yet funny and the student is so respectful. It is hilarious to watch these two together!
I do think Hampson's eloquence is more suited to people whose English skills are excellent. I think he could have simplified his language and sentences to make it more understandable to a non-English speaker. As you say, the student showed grace.
+Shahrdad I think he understood perfectly what Hampson was trying to teach. You only have to listen to the beginning and then to the end of this clip to hear the difference.
Legato! That is the point of your singing Thomas! Yes, I like it....not many singer do not think and understand this way of singing! Great! That is phraseology! Thanks!
