Samuel Ramey

Samuel Ramey (born March 28, 1942) is an American operatic bass. At the height of his career, he was greatly admired for his range and versatility, having possessed a sufficiently accomplished bel canto technique which enabled him to sing the music of Handel, Mozart and Rossini but with enough vocal power to handle the more overtly dramatic roles in Verdi, Puccini, and Meyerbeer operas. Ramey graduated from Colby High School in Colby, Kansas in 1960. He studied music in high school and in college at Kansas State University, as well as at Wichita State with Arthur Newman. At Kansas State, he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. Ramey was in the chorus of Don Giovanni in 1963, with Norman Treigle in the title role, while studying with the Central City Opera in Central City, Colorado. After being an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he worked for an academic publisher in New York City before he had his first breakthrough while at the New York City Opera debuting on March 11, 1973, as Zuniga in the 1875 Bizet opera Carmen. He took over that role as well as the Faustian devils in Gounod's Faust and Boito's Mefistofele, which was vacated by the early death of Treigle. As his repertoire expanded he worked extensively in European theaters notably in Berlin, Hamburg, London, Paris, Milan, and Vienna in addition to summer festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne, Pesaro, and Salzburg. In January 1984, Ramey made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Handel's Rinaldo. He became a fixture at the Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (Attila, The Rake's Progress, Mefistofele) since then. In July 1985 he was cast as Bertram in the historic revival in Paris of Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le diable. Ramey has sung in Mozart's Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro and, in the bel canto repertoire, in Rossini's Semiramide, The Barber of Seville, Il Turco in Italia, L'italiana in Algeri, and La Gazza Ladra; 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 dramatic legend Damnation of Faust. Other dramatic roles of his have included Verdi's Nabucco, Don Carlo, I masnadieri, I Lombardi and Jérusalem, as well as Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (he portrayed all four villains). ... Source: Article "Samuel Ramey" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Samuel Edward Ramey est un chanteur d'opéra américain né le 28 mars 1942 à Colby, au Kansas. Admiré pour son registre et sa polyvalence, il est considéré comme l'une des meilleures basses de sa génération. Sa technique vocale lui permet de chanter Haendel, Mozart et Rossini, aussi bien que Verdi et Puccini. Il étudie la musique à l'Université du Kansas et à l'Université d'État de Wichita. Après avoir été élève à l'Opéra de Santa Fé, il va à New York où il débute au New York City Opera. Plus son répertoire s'agrandit, plus il passe de temps en Europe, à Berlin, Londres, Paris, Vienne, Glyndebourne, etc. Il fait ses débuts au Metropolitan Opera en 1984 dans Rinaldo de Haendel. Depuis, il s'est produit dans les salles les plus prestigieuses, dont La Scala, Covent Garden, l'Opéra d'État de Vienne, l'Opéra de Paris, l'Opéra lyrique de Chicago, le New York City Opera, et au San Francisco Opera. Samuel Ramey a notamment excellé dans Don Giovanni et Les Noces de Figaro de Mozart; et dans le répertoire du bel canto, dans Semiramide, Le Barbier de Séville, Le Turc en Italie, L'Italienne à Alger, Maometto Secondo de Rossini, Anna Bolena et Lucia di Lammermoor de Donizetti et Les Puritains de Bellini. Il participe du renouveau de Rossini et chante à plusieurs reprises au festival Pesaro. Il a triomphé dans les trois grands Méphistophélès du répertoire, ceux de Mefistofele de Boito, de Faust de Gounod et de La Damnation de Faust de Berlioz. Il a incarné Le Philosophe de Chérubin de Massenet, Barbe-Bleue dans Le Château de Barbe-Bleue de Bartok. Il s'est aussi distingué dans Nabucco, Don Carlos, I Lombardi,Attila et Jérusalem de Verdi, dans Les Contes d'Hoffmann d'Offenbach et dans Boris Godounov de Moussorgski. Source: Article "Samuel Ramey" de Wikipédia en français, soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA.