Samuel Edward Ramey
(born March 28, 1942 in Colby, Kansas) is an American opera singer and considered by many to be one of the finest basso cantante singers of his generation. He is greatly admired for his range and versatility, having both the bel canto technique to sing Handel, Mozart, Rossini, as well as the power to handle the dramatic roles of Verdi and Puccini. He is married to soprano Lindsey Larsen since June 29, 2002.
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Early life
Samuel Ramey is a 1960 graduate of
Colby High School in
Colby, Kansas. He studied music in high school and in college at
Kansas State University and at
Wichita State with
Arthur Newman. In College at Kansas State, Ramey was a member of the
Kappa Sigma Fraternity. After further study in Central City (where he was in the chorus of
Don Giovanni
in 1963, with
Norman Treigle in the name part) and as an apprentice with the
Santa Fe Opera, he went to
New York where he worked for an academic publisher before he had his first breakthrough
at the
New York City Opera, debuting on March 11, 1973 singing the role of Zuniga in the 1875 Bizet opera
Carmen
, after which, among other roles, he took over the Faustian devils in Gounod's
Faust
and Boito's
Mefistofele
left empty by the death of Norman Treigle.
As his repertoire expanded, he spent more and more time in the theatres of Europe, notably in
Berlin,
Hamburg,
London,
Paris,
Vienna, and the summer festivals in
Aix-en-Provence,
Glyndebourne,
Pesaro, and
Salzburg.
Later career
In January 1984, Ramey made his debut at the
Metropolitan Opera in Handel's
Rinaldo
. He has since become a fixture at the
La Scala,
Royal Opera House at
Covent Garden,
Vienna State Opera, the
Paris Opera, the
Lyric Opera of Chicago, the
New York City Opera, and the
San Francisco Opera.
In the bel canto repertoire, Ramey has excelled in Mozart's
Don Giovanni
and
The Marriage of Figaro
and in Rossini's
Semiramide
,
The Barber of Seville
,
Il Turco in Italia
,
L'Italiana in Algeri
; in
Donizetti's Anna Bolena
and
Lucia di Lammermoor
and
Bellini's I Puritani
.
In the dramatic repertoire, Ramey has been acclaimed for his "Three Devils":
Boito's Mefistofele
,
Gounod's Faust
, and
Berlioz's
The Damnation of Faust
Other dramatic roles have included Verdi's
Nabucco
,
Don Carlo
,
I Lombardi
and
Jérusalem
and
Offenbach's
Tales of Hoffmann
(all four villains).
A number of previously obscure operas with strong bass-baritone roles have been revived solely for Ramey, such as Verdi's
Attila
, Rossini's
Maometto II
, and
Massenet's Don Quichotte
.
Recordings
Ramey has made a huge number of recordings, including nearly all of his operatic roles as well as collections of arias, symphonic works, and
crossover discs of popular American music. He has also appeared on television and video
productions of the Met's
Carmen
and
Bluebeard's Castle
, San Francisco's
Mefistofele
,
Glyndebourne's
The Rake's Progress
and Salzburg's
Don Giovanni
.
In 1996, Ramey gave a concert at New York's
Avery Fisher Hall titled "A Date with the Devil" in which he sang fourteen arias representing the core of this repertoire, and he continues to tour this program throughout the world. In 2000, Ramey presented this concert at
Munich's Gasteig Concert Hall. This performance was recorded live and was released on compact disc in summer 2002.
Current activities
Ramey lives in
Chicago and participates in some seventy performances a year.
He is on faculty at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts.