Fox’s leading man

Thomas Hampson has what he calls a “very romantic relationship” with the old Fox Theater.

“There was an awful lot of fumbling going on in the last row of the Fox Theater as a 13- or 14-year-old, hearing Mozart played by an orchestra for the first time,” the renowned baritone said by phone from New York.

Oh, that kind of romantic?

Well, actually, it was mostly of the musical and intellectual kind.

“My first intimate relationship to orchestral playing and the orchestral repertoire was developed certainly in the Fox Theater, with the Spokane Symphony and (conductor) Donald Thulean,” said Hampson.

He was raised in Walla Walla, attended high school at the Upper Columbia Academy in Spangle and graduated from both Eastern Washington University in Cheney and the old Fort Wright College in Spokane.

Hampson admits to seeing the Fox “through halcyon glasses,” which is one reason he is lending his prodigious star power to Monday’s “Light Up the Fox Gala.” It’s a benefit for the project to restore the theater as a performance hall for the symphony and other groups.

He is the reason the top ticket price can be set at $500 – although most tickets will sell for a more earthbound $100 and $50.

Make no mistake – Hampson’s star power is immense. He is “the classical world’s equivalent of a cult hero,” said the Associated Press. A New York Times Magazine profile carried this headline: “The Don Juan from Spokane.”

He’s a household name in opera-mad Europe. He has a fan club in Japan. In America, he’s not a mass-market celebrity, but he is certainly a superstar among those who follow opera; he routinely sings leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala and other high temples of opera.

Hampson also is familiar to PBS viewers. He has appeared on “Live at Lincoln Center” many times and his series “Thomas Hampson: I Hear America Singing” was broadcast on “Great Performances” in 1997.

He believes in “shamelessly using” his celebrity for good causes.

“My commitment to Spokane and the Spokane area is really long-term,” Hampson said. “I think this theater is not just good for the symphony – it’s good for the community and I think it’s good for the liberal arts.”

His enthusiasm for the Fox stems not only from nostalgia. He truly believes that the art deco-style theater, which opened in 1931, has the potential to be a great hall from a musical standpoint.

“My goodness, if you stand on that stage and whisper, or clap your hands, or sing a couple of notes, (you know) that this hall is about making music,” said Hampson.

He is aware that it was originally built as a movie palace, not a performance hall. But somehow, the place is ideally suited to live music.

“It was built in a rectangular semi-fan shape,” said Hampson. “You see that in all of the successful modern halls. … Whether by dumb luck or design, that is this hall.”

He also believes that a new refurbishing of an old hall offers the chance to combine completely up-to-date technological innovations.

“We have to think outside of the box,” said Hampson. “We can do live Internet concerts out of the Fox. The neat thing about this new technology is that it isn’t that expensive.”

For his recital Monday, he plans to mix in elements from the various genres he has championed. He will sing a number of pieces from his current Library of Congress “Song in America” recital tour, which features American art songs and folk songs from composers ranging from Stephen Foster to Samuel Barber.

“But because people (in Spokane) haven’t heard me in a while, and some students will be there, I’m probably also going to do some German songs, some Schumann and some Mahler,” he said.

Then he’ll blast back off to Vienna for a pair of “Christmas in Vienna” concerts and the lead role in “Falstaff” at the Vienna State Opera.

“My European residence is officially Vienna, and my American residence is Walla Walla, Washington – so I have air miles to kill,” said Hampson.

“I love having to pull over for whatever (traffic) control and pulling out my Vienna vehicle registration with my Walla Walla driver’s license. I feel very good about that.”