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A Devil of a Career

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With more than 80 recordings to his credit, Samuel Ramey is the most recorded bass in history. His performances range from the title role in Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele to 1930’s Americana. But like many a low male voice, his has become most associated with satanic villians and, like the devils he plays, his spactcular creer seems to have materialized from thin air.

Ramey was born in Colby, a farming town of 6,000 in the wheat country of northwestern Kansas known as “the oasis on the plains.” His musical talent probably came from his mother, who had a pleasant singing voice. His father, a meat cutter, didn’t see a great future in Ramey’s musical inclinations, but was glad to see the young man go to a local college with the intention of becoming a teacher.

Ramey’s college voice teacher suggested that he study Figaro’s mocking aria “Non piuú andrai” in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, so Ramey bought a vintage recording of bass Ezio Pinza singing that and other arias and became intrigued.

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A few years later he heard about a summer festival program at Central City Opera in Colorado, and, on a whim, Ramey went to a radio station, recorded some arias, and sent in the tape with his application. “Lo and behold, they accepted me,” Ramey said later. The production was Don Giovanni with Norman Treigle in the title role, who influenced Ramey “tremendously.”

Ramey transferred to Wichita State University, which had a strong music program, and, after graduation, went to New York, where he wrote advertising copy for a book publishing company, all the while auditioning for agents and opera companies. After a few auditions, the City Opera hired him; he had his debut as the officer Zuniga in Carmen in 1972 and, within a year, had become one of the company’s top celebrities.

He went on to become one of the best known opera singers worldwide, even though, as Ramey noted of his Colorado debut: “I had never seen an opera before I was involved in one that summer.”

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