Thomas Hampson -- recently honored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild with the third installment of its prestigious "Met Mastersinger" series --started his summer at the Zurich Opera, where he brought "sensuality, warmth, and depth" (Die Welt) to the title role of Hindemith's Mathis der Maler. Next the baritone joins the Prague Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of Sylvia Bodorová's orchestral song cycle Linqua Angelorum ("The Language of Angels"), before performing Bloch, Mahler, and Noam Sheriff on multiple dates in Israel and at the Salzburg Festival with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic; portraying Puccini's Scarpia in Tosca at the Santa Fe Opera; and singing Charles Ives with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Kent Nagano in Berlin. Hampson also appears in recital with pianist Wolfram Rieger in Austria, singing lieder by Schumann, Mahler, and Dvorák at the Salzburg Festival and songs by Barber and Schumann in Grafenegg.