Bass  Samuel  Ramey

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie



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For almost three decades, Samuel Ramey (born March 28, 1942) has reigned as one of the music world’s foremost interpreters of bass and bass-baritone operatic and concert repertoire. With astounding versatility, he commands an impressive breadth of repertoire encompassing virtually every musical style from the fioritura of Argante in Handel’s Rinaldo, which was the vehicle of his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 1984, to the dramatic proclamations of the title role in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, which he sang in a new production at the Metropolitan Opera televised by PBS. Mr. Ramey’s interpretations embrace the bel canto of Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti, the lyric and dramatic roles of Mozart and Verdi, and the heroic roles of the Russian and French repertoire.

Ramey continues to perform at the world’s most important opera houses and concert stages. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Timur in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Turandot. Further performances included a revival of Duke Bluebeard in Bluebeard’s Castle, and his debut as Sarastro in The Magic Flute. Other engagements included Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rambaldo in La Rondine, Claudius in Hamlet with Washington National Opera, Scarpia in Tosca at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Méphistophélès in Nice; the Grand Inquisitore in Don Carlos with Houston Grand Opera, and Benoit/Alcindoro at The Dallas Opera.

ramey The combination of Samuel Ramey’s commanding vocalism, exceptional musicianship, elegant stage presence, and uncommon theatrical abilities has enabled him to portray a wide variety of characters, from the sharp-witted protagonist of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro to the somber, tortured King Philip II of Verdi’s Don Carlos; from the terrorizing Hun of Verdi’s Attila to the terrorized Tsar of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov; from the capricious libertine of Mozart’s Don Giovanni to the troubled preacher Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah; from the sober and profound Field Marshal Kutuzov in Prokofiev’s War and Peace to the comedic title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi; from the benevolent Giorgio in I Puritani and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor to the sinister incarnations of the devil in Gounod’s Faust, Boito’s Mefistofele, and Berlioz’ La damnation de Faust.

[Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left, see my interviews with Jerry Hadley, Cecilia Gasdia, Susanne Mentzer, Alexandru Agache, Brigitte Fassbaender, and Carlo Rizzi.]

The unique expressiveness of the bass voice has inspired many composers to assign them the portrayal of devils and villains, and it is in this repertoire that Ramey has established a reputation unequaled in the musical world. Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust has become his most-performed role with over 200 performances in more than twenty productions, as well as the recording shown at left. He is equally well-known in opera houses and concert halls throughout the world for his performances of Boito’s Mefistofele, including over 70 performances in the Robert Carsen production of this work specifically created for Ramey. He has recorded the Boito opera twice, as shown just below this box. Other devils include Berlioz’ in La damnation de Faust, the sinister Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, and the tour de force of all four villains in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann. In 1996 Ramey presented a sold-out 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, which was recorded live by Naxos Records and was released on compact disc in the summer of 2002.

Ramey’s unique talents have afforded the world’s leading theaters an opportunity to expand their repertoire and present works such as Verdi’s Attila, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re, Rossini’s Maometto II, and Massenet’s Don Quichotte. His repertoire of more than fifty roles also encompasses the more standard repertoire. He has appeared on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, Opéra de Paris, Arena di Verona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Teatro la Fenice, Teatro Colon, and the operas of Munich, Hamburg, Geneva, Florence, Zürich and Amsterdam, among others. In concert, he has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, La Scala Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, and the symphonies of Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and San Francisco.  [A complete listing of his Chicago appearances is shown in the box at the bottom of this webpage.]

Throughout his career, Mr. Ramey has worked with every major conductor including Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, James Conlon, Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Julius Rudel, Sir Georg Solti, and Herbert von Karajan.

Ramey holds the distinction of being the most recorded bass in history. His more than eighty recordings include complete operas, recordings of arias, symphonic works, solo recital programs, and popular crossover albums on several major labels. His recordings have garnered nearly every major award including three Grammy Awards, Gran Prix du Disc Awards, and “Best of the Year” citations from journals including Stereo Review and Opera News. His exposure on television and video is no less impressive, with video recordings of the Metropolitan Opera’s Don Giovanni, Carmen, Bluebeard’s Castle, Semiramide, Nabucco, I Lombardi, and the compilation “The Met Celebrates Verdi;” San Francisco Opera’s Mefistofele; The Rake’s Progress from the Glyndebourne Festival; Attila and Don Carlo from La Scala; and the Salzburg Festival’s Don Giovanni.

A native of Colby, Kansas, Samuel Ramey was active in music throughout high school and college. In 1995 he was named “Kansan of the Year,” and in 1998 the French Ministry of Culture awarded him the rank of Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters. He formerly served as a member of the faculty at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, and is a Distinguished Professor of Opera at Wichita State University's School of Music.


==  Text of biography (slightly edited) is mostly from the agent’s website.  
==  Names which are links in this box and below refer to my interviews elsewhere on my website.  
==  Note that links are only shown at the first appearance of the artist’s name, even though they appear again later.  
==  Ramey made many recordings, and just a few appropriate ones are shown on this webpage.  BD  




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See my interviews with Eva Marton

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In the fall of 1987, Samuel Ramey was back in Chicago for Faust.  Between performances he graciously met with me for an interview.  Our conversation ranged through a number of his roles, and he provided insight into his ideas and methods for bringing these characters to life on the stage.

As we were setting up to record, our chit-chat centered around Don Quichotte of Massenet, which he would sing at Lyric in a future season.


 Bruce Duffie:   Are you at all a Don Quichotte character?

Samuel Ramey:   I don’t know.  I never felt myself tilting at windmills!  [Laughter]

BD:   Did Massenet know how to write well for the bass voice?

Ramey:   Yes, judging from that opera.  It certainly is beautifully written for both the basses in the opera.  He wrote wonderful parts for both Don Quichotte and Sancho.

BD:   Is it good to have two basses in an opera which are both really principal roles?

Ramey:   Sure.  We get very little chance, you know!  [Both laugh]

BD:   Do you like being a bass?  [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at right, see my interviews with Thomas Hampson, and Miguel Gómez-Martínez.]

Ramey:   Oh, yes.  I wanted to be a bass when I was a kid.  I have sung for as long as I can remember, but for some reason, when my voice change became imminent, I always hoped I would be a bass.  I don’t know why, but I was always fascinated by singing low notes.

BD:   You’re a bass because your voice says that you’re a bass.  Do you like the characters that are imposed upon that repertoire?

Ramey:   Yes, I enjoy them, especially my nasty parts, my Devil parts.  They are by far the most interesting dramatically.  Granted, we don’t always get the chance to be the hero, or the romantic lead as much as a tenor, but still, I enjoy all my repertoire.

BD:   Is the Devil a heroic part in any respect?

Ramey:   [Thinks a moment]  In the Boito opera he is.  He comes off actually as a rather sympathetic character.

BD:   You’ve sung both the Boito and the Gounod.  What are the differences between those two roles?

Ramey:   For one thing, Boito attempted to set more of the Goethe’s Faust legend.  The Gounod really deals only with one short chapter, the Marguerite [Gretchen] chapter.  Hence it’s oftentimes called Marguerite.  Out of all the various settings of Faust, I think Boito attempted to set more of the story to music than anybody else.  As far as the characters are concerned, in the Boito you see the Devil more as himself, whereas in the Gounod he is always in disguise.  He never really appears as himself.  Vocally they’re very much different.  The Boito is a much more demanding part.  It has much more dramatic vocal writing, whereas the Gounod is very elegantly written.  Also, the French tends to be a more elegant language than Italian.

BD:   Is it easier or better to sing?

Ramey:   The Gounod is easier to sing simply because it’s less demanding vocally than the Boito.  Also, it’s not as long a part as the Boito.  The Boito is almost Wagnerian in demand because of the heavy orchestration, and also because of the tessitura in the vocal range.

BD:   It’s both higher and lower?

Ramey:   It’s higher, and just in the demand of the vocal output.  Most of the time it’s really very full orchestration, which needs full-voice singing.  There’s not much time for vocal relaxation in the Boito.

BD:   I would think that would be a pleasure, since many of the parts for bass are comparatively short.

Ramey:   For me, it’s one of the most rewarding parts in my repertoire.
*     *     *     *     *

BD:   How do you decide which roles you will sing and which roles you will decline?

Ramey:   There are a lot of great bass parts.  For instance, Verdi wrote a lot of wonderful bass music, but a lot of his characters are what we call in German Steh-Bass parts.  They’re really just stand-and-sing roles.  For instance, Padre Guardiano in La Forza del Destino, or Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra.  They are wonderful singing parts and the music is great, but when you look at the cast list, the bass in a lot of these operas comes in fourth or fifth!  [Both laugh]  So, that has a lot to do with making my selection.  Right now I’m at my vocal prime, and I should concentrate on as many star-vehicle parts as I can find, like Don Quichotte, the Boito Mefistofele, or Verdi’s Attila, and the four villains in The Tales of Hoffmann.  There is time later in my career to do those other bass parts.
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BD:   You’ll also be doing Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro this season at Lyric Opera.  Have you sung either Don Basilio or Bartolo in The Barber of Seville?

Ramey:   I’ve sung Basilio a lot.  [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left, I find it interesting that despite the fact that Marilyn Horne and Leo Nucci (as Rosina and Figaro) are major international names, Ramey (as Basilio) would get top billing!  Also, see my interview with Riccardo Chailly.]

BD:   Is it hard, in what is essentially the same drama, to shift from one part to another?

Ramey:   No, not really.  Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro has been one of the staples of my repertoire for close to fifteen years now, and certainly it is one of my favorite roles.  It’s probably the role of which I’ve done more performances than any other.  To do Basilio in The Barber of Seville is a lot of fun.  Basilio is a wonderful character, and gives me a chance to be sort of slimy and oily.  [Both laugh]

BD:   How do you know when you’re going to cross the line and make it a buffoon?

Ramey:   [Thinks a moment]  That’s a good question!  I don’t really know.  I have never done it in an exaggerated style in any way.  I’ve stayed away from the usual slapstick things, and I’ve done it with producers who have done it correctly.  Whereas it can be very entertaining to see Basilio and Bartolo carrying on, I really feel that one should stick to what’s in the score.  [Both laugh]

BD:   Do you do much research in this part, or any part, as far as the background of the character, and getting to know this character inside out more than just what’s in the music and the libretto?

Ramey:   I try to in many of the historical parts that I’ve done.  When I first was going to do Henry VIII in Anna Bolena, I did quite a lot of reading of stories of the period, and stories of Henry VIII and his relationship to his many wives.  I tried to do as much research as I could.  [The recording features Joan Sutherland, Jerry Hadley, Susanne Mentzer, and Bernadette Manca di Nissa, conducted by Richard Bonynge.]  Also, years ago I read Goethe’s Faust.  It’s been a long time, so I should probably look at it again!  [Both laugh]

BD:   When you’re on stage, are you portraying a character or do you become that character?

Ramey:   I’m portraying a character.  I’ve heard lots of singers say they become the character, but I don’t really think that is true.  I don’t think we really get so far inside a character where you become him.  We’re always conscious of what we’re doing on stage.  I really don’t feel it’s that important that you get that deep inside a character.

BD:   It’s all fleshed out in the music?

Ramey:   I think so, yes.

BD:   In opera, where is the balance for you between the music and the drama?

Ramey:   When I was first starting out in my career, I always thought about the acting.  It’s got to be well-acted.  I used to think that there should be more emphasis on acting, but I’ve come back a little way.  If you can find a nice balance, that is the best.  The acting is important because the days of stand-and-sing opera are over.  The audiences now are much more demanding.  I’m sure it’s probably the influence of television, movies, etc.

BD:   Is it a good influence?

Ramey:   I think so.  I have seen many performances of stand-and-sing opera, and I find it very boring.  At the same time, what the composer has put down in the score has to be served.  But it’s important to find a good balance of acting and singing.

BD:   You don’t find a stand-and-sing recital boring, do you?

Ramey:   No, it’s not the same thing.

BD:   Do you do much recital and oratorio work?
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Ramey:   I’ve only started doing recital work in the past year.  I did my first recitals just about a year ago.  I did a small recital tour in America, culminating with my first New York recital in Carnegie Hall last January.  Then I did my first European recitals this past spring.

BD:   Were they well received?  [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at right (where he sings the title role but is not listed first), see my interviews with June Anderson, and Laurence Dale.  Ramey also sings the title role (and gets top billing) in a recording of Il Turco in Italia.]

Ramey:   Very well received, yes.  I did a series of recitals throughout Italy, and then this coming spring I will do another more extensive European recital tour for about a month.
*     *     *     *     *

BD:   Tell me about singing in different houses.  Do you adjust your vocal technique from a large house to a small house?

Ramey:   No.  I’ve sung in houses of all sizes.  Probably the smallest house I’ve sung in is Pesaro in Italy, in the Rossini Festival there.  It’s a house that seats around 800.  Also, La Fenice in Venice is a small house, which seats around about the same number.  [In the very early 2000s, La Fenice was renovated, and the seating capacity was increased from 840 to 1000.]  I suppose the Metropolitan is the largest house I’ve sung in [3,850 seats], but no, I don’t really adjust my singing in any way.  I’m never really conscious of house-size.  It can be a dangerous thing if you look out there and see a big house.  You might want to push your voice, so I try to sing the same no matter where I am.

BD:   Is it hard to bring intimate drama or small details to a large audience?

Ramey:   Sure.  That’s one of the problems we have in America, as most of our opera houses are so large.

BD:   Too large?

Ramey:   Maybe.  [Both laugh]  But at the same time, we have the problem of funding.  A lot of the funds for American opera has to come from ticket sales.  Therefore, you need a large theater to sell lots of tickets, whereas in Europe they don’t have this problem because of the heavy government subsidizing.  So they don’t really have to worry that much about selling tickets.  But it’s really wonderful to do opera in a small theater, such as Pesaro or Glyndebourne.  That’s also a very small theater [originally 850 seats, but later expanded to 1,200].  Because of the intimacy with the audience, you can practically reach out to them.  I remember doing Figaro at Glyndebourne, and you could practically touch the people in the first row.  [Both laugh]

BD:   Does that put them too close to you?

Ramey:   No, I don’t think so.  You get a real involvement and interaction going.

BD:   Do you find any closer communication when you’re singing something in Italian in Pesaro, where you know that the audience is going to get every word?

Ramey:   Yes, of course!  You’re very conscious of the text there.  Little memory slips, or little mistakes make you very conscious of that.  When you’re singing Italian opera in America, most of the public is not going to know if you make a little slip of the words.  But when you’re in Italy, you know they know!  [Both laugh]

BD:   This brings up the whole thorny subject of translation.  Should opera be done in translation?

Ramey:   That’s a good question.  In my early years at the New York City Opera, we did quite a number of operas in translation.  We used to do The Marriage of Figaro in English, and then slowly but surely they came around, and now they do it in Italian.
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BD:   Is that a move in the right direction?

Ramey:   I really think it’s important to do the operas in the original language.  There’s also the problem of good translations.  Many of the operas I think are almost untranslatable, especially into English.

BD:   How much preparation do you expect on the part of the audience?  How much should they know before coming to the opera?

Ramey:   They should at least read the story of the opera, if not study the libretto, so they know basically what’s going on.

BD:   Is opera for everyone?  [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left, see my interviews with Anna Tomowa-Sintow, and Gösta Winbergh.]

Ramey:   No, I don’t think so.  Some people just can’t abide it, or don’t have the patience to educate themselves.  It just doesn’t have to appeal to everyone.

BD:   Do you like this new gimmick of the supertitles in the theater?

Ramey:   Yes, I think it’s a very good idea.  It’s nice, during a performance, to hear the audience laugh at funny lines that they ordinarily wouldn’t if there were not supertitles.  I’ve also sat in the audience with supertitles, and I don’t find them distracting or difficult to deal with at all.

BD:   Do you think that acceptance of them in the theaters is partly due to the prevalence of them on the television screen?

Ramey:   I suppose that could be the case, although it’s a little bit more difficult in the opera because you have them generally up over the proscenium.  If you’re sitting down front on the main floor, then it becomes difficult because you have to constantly be moving your head up and down.

BD:   [Making a personal observation]  I have the perfect seats in the first row of the top balcony.

Ramey:   Yes, that’s great!

BD:   It’s like the television, although instead of the translation being on the bottom, it’s on the top.  [Both laugh]  You’ve been on a number of telecasts.  Do you think opera works well on television?

Ramey:   It can, yes.  I did a production of Don Giovanni in Salzburg, and it was done for television.  When I saw a tape of it later I felt that it was too much, because for that telecast they had eight cameras, and after a while it became distracting with all the switching.  It seemed like every four measures, it was a different shot.  But the ones I’ve seen from the Metropolitan are really well done.  They only use three or maybe four cameras.

BD:   Should this be something used by the public in addition to coming to the theater, or do you feel it will ever replace going to the opera house?

Ramey:   I don’t think it will ever replace it.  There’s still nothing like really being in the theater for an opera performance.  With television you very seldom get the overall picture of what’s happening on the stage.  Mostly there are not very many shots from far back where you see the whole stage.  I just think that being in a theater is much more exciting.  Television has done a great deal for opera, because it’s helped get performances to places where people don’t have the opportunity to attend in person.
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BD:   Another aspect of your career is recording.  Do you sing any differently in the studio than you do on stage?

Ramey:   Sometimes you do because on a recording you can use aspects of your voice that you can’t use in a theater.

BD:   More subtle colors?

Ramey:   Very subtle colors.  Extremely subtle colors which sometimes a conductor may ask for.  But I wouldn’t say it’s a general method.  Usually I wouldn’t say I sing any differently for a recording than I do in the theater.

BD:   Do you enjoy making recordings?  [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at right, see my interviews with Kiri te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Allen, Kurt Moll, and Jeffrey Tate.]

Ramey:   [Sighs]  It’s not really a very rewarding thing to do.  It’s nice to put down things for posterity, but it’s not a really enjoyable experience doing an opera recording.  It’s done in pieces, and you usually don’t get the feeling of any kind of continuity.  It’s putting something together like a puzzle.  [Both laugh]  You do an aria, and a trio, and it’s all pieced together.

BD:   Have you recorded some roles that you have not sung on stage?

Ramey:   Oh yes.  Especially when I first started doing recordings, I was doing a lot of very strange different operas.  There were things like Haydn’s Armida, and Handel’s Ariodante, and Rossini’s Otello.  So yes, I’ve recorded lots of things that I’ve not done on stage.

BD:   Are those harder because you don’t know the overall sweep in advance?

Ramey:   Exactly, and it makes it much more difficult.  My very first few recordings were operas that I’d never done.  I remember one of the first larger parts that I recorded was Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and it was so much easier because I’d done the part on stage quite a few times.  When I finally did the Figaro recording with Solti, that was a great experience because I had just come from a new production at La Scala.  That was a great experience doing a role I had done so much on stage, because I felt like I could almost give a stage performance.

BD:   Tell me about Figaro.  He is the barber of Seville, but this is Mozart, which is the second Beaumarchais drama.  Do you ‘remember’ the first drama as you’re portraying the second?

Ramey:   [Thinks a moment]  Yes, to a certain extent you do, but the first drama really was more about Almaviva and Rosina than Figaro, and Susanna didn’t even exist.

BD:   Is Figaro a good character for you to play?

Ramey:   Oh yes.  I find Figaro very easy to play because I can almost play myself.  He’s such a fun-loving, easy-going character that is very much like myself.  [Both laugh]

BD:   Is Figaro like you, or are you trying to be like Figaro?

Ramey:   It’s a good question!  [More raucous laughter]

BD:   In each new production you get different ideas.  Are you always learning new things about the character?

Ramey:   Of course.  I don’t think one ever stops learning about any given character.  If you think you’re done, and you say, “I’ve done Figaro so much that I know this character,” and you go into a new production with that attitude, it can become problematic with a producer.  Also you’d become a very boring performer if you felt that way.  You should always be looking for something new in the character, and in the music, and how they go together.

BD:   Let me ask a balance question.  Where is the balance between the artistic achievement and the entertainment value?

Ramey:   That’s a good one.  [Laughs, then thinks a moment]  One has to find a balance, because we performers can’t be out there on the stage just performing this opera to the best of our abilities.  We have to do that, but at the same time we are entertainers.  We have a public that is watching and listening, so we have to find a balance of a totally artistic performance that is also entertaining.

BD:   Do you feel that you’re part wandering minstrel?

Ramey:   [Laughs]  Sometimes!  I do do a lot of wandering.

BD:   Do you like to travel?

Ramey:   Yes, so far I’m still enjoying it.  I’m sure that one of these years down the line I’m going to want to stop some of the traveling.  I do spend most of my time away from home, so I’m sure I’ll be looking forward to the day that some of the traveling will stop! [Both laugh]
*     *     *     *     *
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BD:   Let’s talk about your recordings.  Are you pleased with the sound that you hear coming back at you?

Ramey:   Not always!  Actually, no, most of the time I’m not.

BD:   And yet everyone comes to you and saying it sounded wonderful.

Ramey:   Yes, but I’m seldom really happy or completely satisfied with my performance on recordings.  On the other hand, I’ve been fortunate that most of my favorites, or roles that I’m known for, I’ve had the opportunity to record, or will have the opportunity to record.  [He then mentions a few which he had recently done, and others he was scheduled to do, including Oroveso in Norma.]

BD:   Tell me about the character of Oroveso.  Is he something that you can put a lot of blood and guts into, or is he another stand-and-sing guy?

Ramey:   That’s another example of a role that I’ve never done on stage, but that I’ve recorded.  I would never do the role on stage at this point.

BD:   Why?

Ramey:   Because, like you said, it’s a real stand-and-sing part.

BD:   But is it grateful to sing?

Ramey:   Oh, yes!  Most things are grateful to sing, but not particularly grateful to portray on the stage.

BD:   In an evening when you do the four villains in The Tales of Hoffmann, are they four different characters, or are they really four sides of the same coin?  [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left, see my interviews with Francisco Araiza, and Felicity Palmer.]

Ramey:   I’ve always felt that they’re sides of the one coin, four facets of one character... the Devil, or whoever you want to say.

BD:   Are these guys really the Devil?

Ramey:   They are personalities of the Devil, yes.

BD:   Or are they a Devil’s henchmen?

Ramey:   It could be that.  You could say the same thing about Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress.  It could be that they’re a henchman of the Devil.  Certainly they are satanic characters of some type.

BD:   Can you draw on the same kinds of inspiration for these four characters that you do when you’re Méphistophélès?

Ramey:   Oh, sure.  I do very much so.

BD:   Where do you look to get inspiration for the Devil?

Ramey:   [Laughs]  I don’t know!

BD:   [With a wink]  You play him so well!

Ramey:   Bad guys are always more fun to play!  [More laughter]
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BD:   Are some of the guys that you play, too good, such as fathers and priests?

Ramey:   Hmmm... no, I wouldn’t say they’re too good.  I don’t know whether ‘too good’ is the right idea.  Those are the parts that I now stay away from because most of the time I really don’t find them very interesting dramatically.  This is the time in my career that I should concentrate on personality-type characters.

BD:   Is it easy to bring, what is essentially now a nineteenth century art form, and make it speak to a late twentieth-century audience?

Ramey:   I don’t know how easy it is.  Oftentimes producers go to, shall we say, extremes by modernizing opera, to try to make it appealing to our modern-day audiences.  Oftentimes I don’t go along with that.

BD:   You mentioned Nick Shadow.  Is he the most contemporary role that you play?  [Vis-à-vis the 1984 recording shown at right, see my interview with Stafford Dean.  Twelve years later, Ramey would make a second recording of this work, featuring Dawn Upshaw, Jerry Hadley, Grace Bumbry, and Robert Lloyd.]

Ramey:   Yes.  I’ve not done too much contemporary opera.  Nick Shadow and Olin Blitch in Carlysle Floyd’s Susannah are the only two twentieth-century operatic works that I’ve done.

BD:   Do you like the direction that music is going these days?

Ramey:   To tell you the truth, I haven’t heard too much.  I have heard some of Philip Glass’s work.  I’ve not heard Satyagraha, but I hear it’s wonderful.  I heard his Akhnaton which they did at the City Opera, but personally I didn’t find it very interesting.

BD:   What advice would you have for a composer who wants to write something for you?

Ramey:   It would have to be written well for the voice.  I think that’s the problem with many of the modern works.  They’re more instrumentally conceived than vocally conceived.  So it would have to be music that sings.

BD:   [With a gentle nudge]  You don’t want to be thought of as a bassoon or a cello???  [Both laugh]

Ramey:   Not particularly!  [More laughter]

BD:   What advice do you have for young singers coming along?

Ramey:   [Thinks a moment]  One of the things I’ve always said for young singers is that they should know how to say ‘no’!  A young singer can come along, and if people hear a good voice, a young singer can be offered things that they really shouldn’t do at a young age.  Saying ‘no’ is the hardest thing for young singers that are starting out.

BD:   Is it difficult for you to say no?

Ramey:   Yes, of course!  [Much laughter]  Not too long ago I was offered a recording of The Flying Dutchman.  I thought about it and I finally said no.

BD:   [Selfishly disappointed]  Why?

Ramey:   Because I didn’t feel that it was quite right for me.

BD:   Was it the Dutchman or Daland?  

Ramey:   The Dutchman, the title part, and I just didn’t feel that it was right for me.  I’ve never really been interested in Wagner, and I wondered why I should do this just to do it?

BD:   You’ve not sung any Wagner parts?

Ramey:   No, not for the moment.  Wagner has never really interested me, so I don’t think I’ll ever sing it.  Actually a few years ago, when I was in London doing a recording [shown above-right] of The Rake’s Progress, Astrid Varnay was singing a small part.  We were chatting one day during a break, and she said to me, “Young man, you have a lovely lyric bass sound.  Let me give you one word of advice... don’t ever let anyone try to get you to sing Wagner.”  I thought that was pretty good coming from one of the great Wagnerian sopranos.

BD:   She knew that your voice would last a year or two, and then it would start damaging the cantabile for other parts.

Ramey:   Yes, and it’s the same thing with Boris.  I’ve had a couple of offers to do Boris, and up to this point I’ve said no.  I definitely want to do it some time, but only at the right time.  My teacher and I have talked about it, and he says if you go back and think of a lot of the people who have sung Boris, after they sang it for a while, they were never really quite the same vocally.  That’s his feeling.  So, I’ll do it one day, but it’ll be a few years yet.
 
BD:   What roles do you find are the best for your voice?

Ramey:   [He thinks again]  I’ve done a lot of Rossini, and while being difficult, I always find it is very good because it keeps the voice light and flexible.  Mozart is the same thing.  For me, Mozart and Rossini are really the best medicine for the voice.
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BD:   What about all the coloratura in Handel?

Ramey:   Handel coloratura for me is more demanding than coloratura in Rossini, because it has to be much more exact.  In Rossini, there’s always a little bit of flexibility.  If you see a melisma of notes in Rossini, they don’t all have to be just as they appear on the page.  There’s always a little bit of give and take.  The baroque coloratura writing is much more exacting, and therefore more difficult, at least for me.

BD:   Are those baroque parts satisfying, though?

Ramey:   I haven’t done that many.  I’ve done Rinaldo, which was my Met debut, and it’s really the only baroque part I’ve done on stage.
*     *     *     *     *

BD:   What is next on the calendar for you?

Ramey:   After here I go back to New York to the Metropolitan, and I do Banco in Macbeth.

BD:   Do you like playing someone who is dead?

Ramey:   [Both laugh]  It’ll be interesting.  I’ve never appeared as a ghost before.

BD:   One of the recordings you’ve recently done is Bluebeard’s Castle (conducted by Adam Fischer, and shown at left).  Is that a good sing?

Ramey:   Yes.  It’s a short opera, but it’s a very good sing.  I enjoyed it.

BD:   Is Bluebeard another impersonation of the Devil, or is he just a screwy guy?

Ramey:   [Laughs]  I don’t think he’s the Devil.  He’s just somebody who’s gotten a little bit warped living in that castle all the time.  I get to do it on stage in a few years.  [Pauses a moment, then mentions another new role]  I don’t really know much about the work, but we’re looking at the possibility of doing an opera called The Demon by Anton Rubinstein.  I have the score, so I’m going to start looking at it.  There is a possibility of a concert performance, and then maybe somebody will be interested in doing a production if it’s successful.  We’ll see...

BD:   This was a Chaliapin role, and would be another Devil for you.

Ramey:   Right!
In a talk given at Yale in January of 1961, Chaliapin’s daughter spoke about his interpretations.  The Yale Daily News reported on the event.  “Another aspect of [her father’s] career was his three different interpretations of the devil.  In Gounod’s Faust, the Devil must be evil.  He must be conniving and shrewd.  Then in Mefistofele she described her father as the violent Devil of hatred.  Here is evil which leads to killing and wars.  But in The Demon, Chaliapin becomes the sorrowful banished spirit.  This demon is not a Devil, he is a defeated angel, a Lucifer.”

As has been noted, Ramey included several versions of the Devil in his repertoire, and eventually combined all of them into a concert and recording, which is shown below.


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BD:   Do you like being booked years ahead?  Is that a good feeling?
 
Ramey:   I’ve mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand it’s nice to know you’re going to be working in 1990 [three years hence].  But at the same time, it really has gotten a little bit out of hand.  People call you up and ask you do such and such in 1991, and it’s difficult because if you commit yourself to something, then there’s always the possibility that something else is going to come along that you would rather do.  I think it’s gotten really crazy.
 
BD:   How far ahead should you be booked?  Maybe six or eight months?

Ramey:   That would be ideal, but I don’t think we’ll ever see those days again.  [Both laugh]  We’re pretty much locked in especially if you want to work in Italy.  There’s actually a law in Italy which forbids booking more than one year in advance.

BD:   I would imagine that a company like La Scala must book more than a year in advance because they’ve got to compete with Vienna and all of the other companies.

Ramey:   In many cases they do with people like Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.  They may not draw up a contract, but they will hold the time and do whatever the theater would like.  That’s the way a lot of the Italian theaters work.

BD:   Is there any competition amongst basses?

Ramey:   I don’t know.  [Laughs]  I suppose there is, but I’ve never felt particularly competitive.  There’s enough work to go around for all of us, so I’ve never really worried much about what anybody else is doing.

BD:   You’re judging a competition here in Chicago.  What do you look for when you listen to young voices that are about to begin a career?

Ramey:   [Laughs]  It’s going to be very interesting.  I don’t really know, because it’s the first time I’ve done anything like this.  It is going to be a real experiment on my part.  On my travels I’m always having young singers come up to me to ask if they can sing for me.  So I very often listen to young singers, and I just try to listen and see that they have the basics.  If they have good basic vocal habits — a sound that is well-supported, if they know how to breathe, and have a basic tone production and placement — those are the most important things for young singers.

BD:   Do you feel that the young singers whom you hear — either in your productions, or in other productions — are coming along and are continuing the tradition of singing?

Ramey:   Well … [He thinks] most of my experience in listening has been in Europe, and I don’t feel they’re getting good training.  I don’t know why that is.  Young singers are always coming up and complaining about the fact that there are no teachers, which is unfortunately true.  For instance, in Italy a lot of the teachers left before the War or during the War, and that gap hasn’t been filled.  The best teachers are in America.  There are a couple of good teachers in England, but by and large, most of the good teaching and training is here, and the American singers are benefiting from that.  For quite a while now I have felt that America is producing the best singers.

BD:   Does that please you?

Ramey:   Oh yes, of course!  [Both laugh]

BD:   You’re one of the few that I can ask this question now because you’ve made a huge success at the New York City Opera and a huge success at the Met.  What are the differences in singing at those two houses?  Or what is the difference of philosophy between them?

Ramey:   I’ll always feel at home at City Opera.  I haven’t sung there for a couple of years, but whenever I go back, it’s really like going back to your old home town.  It’s like a family reunion because City Opera has a real family feeling about it.  In that theater you know that any singer can go upstairs and knock on Beverly Sills’s door, and she’ll chat with you whereas the Metropolitan is quite a lot more intimidating in that way.  You don’t really get the feeling that you can go up and knock on Bruce Crawford’s office any day.  Maybe you can, but you don’t get that feeling.  The working conditions are fantastic, but the atmosphere is not quite as relaxed as the City Opera.

BD:   Is singing fun?

Ramey:   Oh, yes!  I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t fun!  [Both laugh]

BD:   I hope you continue for many more years.

Ramey:   Oh, thank you.  I hope so, too... knock on wood.

BD:   Are you coming back to Chicago?

Ramey:   Yes, I’ll be back.  We have agreements for at least the next two seasons.  I’m not at liberty to say what because I’m not supposed to say until they’ve announced their season.  But I’ll be back for the next two seasons, and we’re talking about future years after that.  So Chicago will be seeing a bit of me.

 BD:   Is it nice coming to a city and singing two operas rather than just one?

Ramey:   Oh, yes.  My wife and I both enjoy Chicago very much, so it’s nice to come and be able to spend over two months here.  It’s really great.

 BD:   Thank you for being a singer, and for speaking with me this afternoon.

Ramey:   Oh, it’s my pleasure.

Samuel Ramey at Lyric Opera of Chicago


1979  La Bohème (Colline) - with Mitchell/Soviero/Niculescu, Shicoff/Prior/Moldoveanu, Romero, Zilio, Nolen/Stone, Tajo; Chailly/Schaenen, Frisell, Pizzi

1984  Rinaldo [In concert] (Argante) - with Horne, Valente, Vaness, Raffanti, Doss, Cowan; Bernardi

1987-88  Faust (Méphistophélès) - with Shicoff, Gustafson/Soviero, Raftery, White, J.H. Murray, Vozza; Fournet, Diaz, Samaritani, Tallchief
              Marriage of Figaro (Figaro) - with Ewing, Raimondi, Lott, von Stade, Korn, Benelli, Adams; Davis, Hall,

1988-89  Don Giovanni (Giovanni) - with Vaness, Desderi, Mattila, McLaughlin, Winbergh, Macurdy, Cowan; Bychkov, Ponnelle

1989-90  Don Carlo (Philip II) - with Te Kanawa, Rosenshein, Hynninen, Troyanos, Ryhänen, Runey; Conlon, Frisell

1991-92  Mefistofele (Mefistofele) - with Jóhannsson/Cupido, Millo, Johnson, Maultsby, Sandra Walker, Fowler, Denniston; Bartoletti, Carsen
                Marriage of Figaro (Figaro) - with McLaughlin/Hall, Schimmel, Lott, Mentzer/von Stade, Loup, Palmer, Benelli, P. Kraus, Futral; Davis, Hall

1993-94  Don Quichotte (Quichotte) - with Lafont, Mentzer, Perkins; Nelson, Koenig, Samaritani, Schuler, D. Palumbo, Dufford
                Susannah (Blitch) - with Fleming, Magee, Kraft, P. Kraus; Manahan, Falls, Yeargan, Schuler, D. Palumbo, Dufford

1994-95 [Opening Night]  Boris Godunov (Boris) - with Denniston, Kavrakos, Ognovenko, Jones, Shields, Gordon; Bartoletti, Winge, Wassberg
                                         Rake's Progress (Nick Shadow) - with Swenson, Hadley, Bean, Palmer; Davies, Vick, Hudson

1995-96  Faust (Méphistophélès) - with Leech, Fleming/Rambaldi/Magee, Hvorostovsky, Christin; Nelson, Corsaro, Calavecchia, Tallchief

1996-97 [Opening Night]  Don Carlo (Philip II) - with Vaness, Sylvester, Chernov, Zajick, Halfvarson, Tian; Gatti/Fagen, Frisell, Quaranta

1997-98 [Opening Night]  Nabucco (Zaccaria) - with Agache, Gulighina, Denniston, Redmon, Aceto; Bartoletti, Moshinsky, Yeargan

1998-99  Mefistofele (Mefistofele) - with Margison, Dessì/Byrne, Christin, Raven; Rath, Carsen, McClintock

1999-2000  A Date with the Devil [Concert] - with Davis

2000-01  Attila (Attila) - with Gruber, Michaels-Moore, Thompson/Smith, Vipulis; Johnson/R. Palumbo, Moshinsky/Edwards, Yeargan

2001-01  Billy Budd (Claggart) - with Gunn, Begley, Stilwell, P. Kraus, Langan, Cangelosi; Davis, McVickar, Edwards

2002-03  Susannah (Blitch) - with Radvanovsky, Griffey, Wood, Cangelosi; Rudel, Falls/Nuckton, Yeargan

2003-04  Faust (Méphistophélès) - with Haddock, Racette/Wall, Torre, McNeese, Christin; Elder, Corsaro, Perdziola

2004-05  Tosca (Scarpia) - with Dimitriu/Millo, Shicoff/Ventre, Tigges, Travis, Cangelosi; Bartoletti, Cox, Mongiardino



Samuel Ramey with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
[Chorus Master: Margaret Hillis]


March, 1981  Te Deum (Bruckner) - with Norman, Minton, Rendell; Barenboim [Recorded and issued by DG (with Symphony #1, and later Symphony #8)]

November, 1984  Boris Godunov [Original Version] (Pimen) - with Raimondi, Valentini-Terrani, Kaludov, Langridge, Welker, Shirley-Quirk, Kaasch; Abbado

November 16, 1986  Requiem (Verdi) - with M. Price, Finney, Cole; Abbado

June 23, 1989 [Ravinia Festival]  Requiem (Verdi) - with Gruber, Troyanos, Lakes; Levine

November 6, 1990 [Centennial Gala]  Ode to Joy (Finale of Beethoven Symphony #9) - with McNair, Mentzer, Lakes; Solti  [Photo]

July 8, 2000 [Ravinia Festival]  Selections by Copland, Leigh, Loewe, Mozart, Rodgers, and Verdi - with von Stade; Miguel-Harth Bedoya

July 2, 2005 [Ravinia Festival]  Chansons de Don Quichotte (Ibert) & Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (Ravel) - with Conlon

August, 2008 [Ravinia Festival]  Don Giovanni (Leporello) - with D'Arcangelo, Dehn, Isokoski, Murphy, Spence; Conlon, Apollo Chorus/Alltop
           [The Chicago Tribune review mentions Ramey’s Leporello as being a new role for local fans to enjoy.  A 2015 photo of Ramey in another ‘second’ role, as the
            Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, appears at the bottom of my interview with William Powers, who was singing Philip II, a previously favorite role of Ramey.]



Samuel Ramey with the Chicago Opera Theater

May, 2007  Bluebeard’s Castle (Bluebeard) - with Szabo; Platt



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Ramey has also performed in several of the benefit concerts for the Over the Rainbow Association at Pick-Staiger concert hall on the campus of Northwestern University,
along with Nancy Gustafson, Richard Leech, Denyce Graves, Sylvia McNair, Bo Skovhus, Jennifer Larmore, and others.


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© 1987 Bruce Duffie

This conversation was recorded in Chicago on October 22, 1987.  Portions were broadcast on WNIB in 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1997.  This transcription was made in 2024, and posted on this website at that time.  My thanks to British soprano Una Barry for her help in preparing this website presentation.

To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been transcribed and posted on this website, click here.  To read my thoughts on editing these interviews for print, as well as a few other interesting observations, click here.

*     *     *     *     *

Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001.  His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.

You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests.  He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago.  You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.