{"id":60272,"date":"2019-05-01T15:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=60272"},"modified":"2019-05-01T21:47:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T01:47:01","slug":"scrutiny-pisaroni-and-hampson-ham-it-up-in-no-tenors-allowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2019\/05\/01\/scrutiny-pisaroni-and-hampson-ham-it-up-in-no-tenors-allowed\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Pisaroni And Hampson Ham It Up In \u2018No Tenors Allowed\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Luca
Baritones Luca Pisaroni and Thomas Hampson may have oodles of talent and sing like angels, but ‘No Tenors Allowed’ shows they know also how to have fun. (Photo: Lisa Sakulensky)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arias by Mozart, Bellini, and Verdi; Songs by Staislao Gastaldon, Cole Porter, Franz Lehar, George Forrest, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Haydn Wood, and Irving Berlin.<\/em> Luca Pisaroni, baritone; Thomas Hampson, baritone; Vlad Iftinca, piano. Koerner Hall, April 30, 2019.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Who says classical music\/opera is stuffy?\u00a0 These musicians may have oodles of talent and sing like angels, they are also not immune to having some fun. With a concert titled \u201cNo Tenors Allowed,\u201d you just know that you\u2019re in for an evening of watching\/hearing two guys having fun and hamming it up. If you are a fan of American TV shows from the \u201950s, there was the occasional comic classical music\/opera program not unlike old-style vaudeville, not meant to be taken too seriously.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what the audience got last evening at Koerner Hall. Two internationally famous baritones letting their collective hair down \u2014 and Mr. Hampson, who turns 64 in a month, still has plenty of hair, thank you very much.\u00a0 Given both are baritones and sharing essentially the same repertoire, they rarely appear in operas together. But they are connected offstage, as Pisaroni is Hampson\u2019s son-in-law. How\u2019s that for keeping it in the family?<\/p>\n

Hampson\u2019s \u201cNo Tenors Allowed\u201d show has been heard far and wide for some years now. It originally featured him and bass Samuel Ramey, and later replaced by Pisaroni. The concept has remained the same, a mix of \u201cserious\u201d repertoire with lighter stuff, plus plenty of horsing around. The duo performed earlier this season in Boston, and after the Toronto date they are due to repeat it in Santa Fe, New Mexico on May 2.<\/p>\n

\"Luca
Luca Pisaroni & Thomas Hampson (Photo: Lisa Sakulensky)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An insert was included in last evening\u2019s program detailing several changes \u2013 Macbeth<\/em> and Maometto secondo<\/em> replaced by I puritani<\/em> and Don Carlo<\/em>.\u00a0 In the second half, Grafin Maritza<\/em>, On the Town<\/em>, South Pacific<\/em> and Land of Smiles<\/em> gone, in their place were Cole Porter, Stanislao Gastaldon, and Kismet<\/em>. No explanations given nor expected, as these changes are fairly commonplace.<\/p>\n

The two took turns singing the opera arias basically \u201cstraight,\u201d with a surfeit of onstage antics notwithstanding. Side by side in the Puritani<\/em> duet, their timbres are quite similar. Tempo-wise the show overall was fast, with a rather rushed feel to it. The first half came in at under 45 minutes. Hampson, a fine Hadrian last season, sounded a bit dry and occasionally unsteady on this occasion, although his surefire theatricality was undiminished. Pisaroni, a good twenty years younger and in his prime, was in fresher voice.<\/p>\n

\"Luca
Luca Pisaroni & Thomas Hampson (Photo: Lisa Sakulensky)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second half was devoted to lighter material.\u00a0 In the mix, we got Italian salon music, Gastaldon\u2019s \u201cMusica proibita,\u201d mellifluously sung by Pisaroni. Danilo\u2019s \u201cO Vaterland\u2026\u201d in Die lustige Witwe<\/em> was given the macho swagger treatment by Hampson. There were Cole Porter and Ira Gershwin as well, all dispatched with a sugary dose of charm and flair. Hampson, ever the showman, pulled out all the stops in Kiss Me Kate<\/em> and got a rousing ovation.<\/p>\n

The final scheduled piece was \u201cAnything You Can Do\u201d from Annie Get Your Gun<\/em> by Irving Berlin. To those used to Ethel Mermen or Betty Hutton, it\u2019s simply weird to hear two macho guys doing this number. Frankly, I prefer the mixed-sex version. One funny moment was provided by the pianist Vlad Iftinca, the terrific Met repetiteur and marvellous pianist who incidentally didn\u2019t even need a page-turner. When Hampson and Pisaroni were fighting over who could sing higher, Iftinca cut in with a shrill top note worthy of Brunnhilde\u2019s Battle Cry.<\/p>\n

\"Luca
Luca Pisaroni & Thomas Hampson (Photo: Lisa Sakulensky)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No, this concert wasn\u2019t exactly heilige Kunst,<\/em> but a musical bon-bon, a mix of Yankee vaudeville and high brow opera arias. \u00a0If you like your musical equivalent of chocolate blackout cake\/caramel sticky bun, you would have adored it. The vast majority of the audience certainly did, giving the three guys an obligatory standing ovation. If you hadn\u2019t had your fill \u2014 hey, fly immediately to Santa Fe. They are appearing tomorrow (May 2) in the Lensic Performing Arts Centre!<\/p>\n

LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i>
\n<\/b><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/span>,<\/i><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Instagram<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pisaroni And Hampson may have oodles of talent and sing like angels, but ‘No Tenors Allowed’ shows they know also how to have fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":60275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25164,52,63],"tags":[1876,2013,28835,5017],"yst_prominent_words":[28771,28834,28830,28823,28817,28831,28827,28824,28818,13943,13893,28832,28828,28825,28819,28808,13616,28833,28829,28826],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/No-Tenors-Allowed.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-fG8","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60272"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60292,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60272\/revisions\/60292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60272"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=60272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}