Thomas Hampson has been the most high-profile, eloquent exponent of American song in recent times. It's difficult to think of any other singer who could pack out the Royal Opera House with a programme half-full of songs, and in some cases composers, that are little known this side of the Atlantic.
Hampson is a charismatic performer, even if the veneer at times can seem a bit too carefully polished. He is also one of the few singers able to make the vast interior of the Opera House seem an intimate recital venue. His singing came across the auditorium directly and easily, his words clear in both German and English.
The novelties were left for the second half, the first being made up of songs by Schubert and Mahler - staple recital fare, yet well chosen, as the pervading themes of war and nostalgia in these well-worn miniatures revealed something of where the American songs had grown from.
The first six were selected from Schubert's Schwanengesang. After the focused, arresting anger of Der Atlas, pianist Wolfram Rieger changed the mood to one of absolute stillness for Ihr Bild, while in Das Fischermädchen Hampson proved, with his agile and surprisingly delicate ornamentation, that his voice is not too cumbersome an instrument for Schubert's lighter Lieder. That done, the final song of the group, Der Doppelganger, was an apt opportunity to demonstrate the kind of sustained power that he uses so effectively.
It was a more animated Hampson who returned for five songs from Mahler's Das Knaben Wunderhorn, two of them tongue-in-cheek, all but one with a martial theme. Rieger, always a sensitive accompanist, played out the fanfares snappily, his bright piano interludes adding colour to the last song, the epic Revelge.
Hampson is seemingly happiest when charming the audience in their own language, and he relaxed into his native repertoire after the interval. He began with five settings of poetry by Walt Whitman. The martial piano music of Henry T Burleigh's Ethiopia, saluting the colours, took us briefly back to the world of the more substantial Mahler songs. But the most effective setting was not by a native American; Hindemith's version of Sing On There in the Swamp, with its atmospheric, chiming accompaniment and sinuous vocal lines, was written after he emigrated from war-torn Germany.
The art and folk songs that finished the concert were more pared down, with the exception of Stephen White's overblown arrangment of Shenandoah. Hampson's all-American delivery didn't seem entirely sincere when backed by the Opera House's plush velvet curtains - but still, nobody else sings this repertoire quite so persuasively.
