@@foropera Perfect. Handel rocks, except the castrato stuff. Thank you. :-) Achieving the Ramey coloratura bass one needs every bit of help! There is one other coloratura bass I know of, very tall beanpole British guy sang in the Pirates of Penzance movie with Ronstadt. Equal polish, but I think a basso profundo of likewise light weight. Nothing like the Ramey "regal" high bass.
@@creatioexnihilo6599Ramey was not a high bass but that of a Bass-Baritone. He had high As and went as low as an E but his repertoire consisted of him singing characters that always resounded their best in the middle and upper-middle portions of the voice.
@@tonshaad1230I'd say both labels are applicable. He dominated both basso and bass-baritone rep - the former ofc characterised by that great dark basso tone and strength right down through F and E, which he had. Quite a few of the really great voices can crush a couple of neighbouring fachs, especially where passaggi may differ only by a semitone - they are really names for a category of rep, after all. I think we suffer some confusion in anglophone countries with the popular term "true bass," when we're typically talking about are bassi profondi, which might be more useful terminology... and for whom there are not that many bespoke roles in opera. (As a sidenote - as you may well know, the wagnerian parts now considered quintessentially bass-baritone were labelled by Wagner as being for "high bass"...)
@@caeruleusbritannus Wagnerian roles are built on that old schooling of Bel Canto and classifying the lower voices as "Höher Bass" which literally translates into High Bass. Today, we can look at those scores and identify those voices types who originated those roles as either -- Bass-Baritones or just pure Baritones. A role such as Wolfram would've been sung by "höher basses" at the time but naturally , had the ranges of a conventional baritone today. Samuel Ramey, when compared to other similar voices like his such as Ghiarouv, London, Hotter, Ramey's was extremely on the lighter end which a few exceptions (some over darkening at the bottom for effect in roles such as Bertram or Arogante).
For me, his voice isn’t really flowing like it could be. Almost like he has slightly differing positions for different vowels. According to lore, he was thrust into a career with the untimely passing of Treigle so maybe he wasn’t as ready as he could’ve been. His voice suffered badly by the end while a bass should be able to sing on and on for decades.
@@jennetal.984 Well he wasn't a natural bass but other than that, I don't agree with the statement that his career tapered off. By 2006, he was still singing and singing Gianni Schicchi (with several high Gs).
Excellent!
Heaven on Earth!
Superb: timbre , musicality, details! Thanks for posting! ❤
A perfect vocal technique.
Grandissimo sempre
Beautiful!!!!!!!! Thank you for uploading.
Grand Maestro.
Magnifico!
Amazing
So beautiful 💙
This is singing in the Highest rank!!!
Anyone reference the piece for me? Thank you.
Ariodante, (2 first). Rinaldo.
@@foropera Perfect. Handel rocks, except the castrato stuff. Thank you. :-) Achieving the Ramey coloratura bass one needs every bit of help! There is one other coloratura bass I know of, very tall beanpole
British guy sang in the Pirates of Penzance movie with Ronstadt. Equal polish, but I think a basso profundo of likewise light weight. Nothing like the Ramey "regal" high bass.
@@creatioexnihilo6599Ramey was not a high bass but that of a Bass-Baritone. He had high As and went as low as an E but his repertoire consisted of him singing characters that always resounded their best in the middle and upper-middle portions of the voice.
@@tonshaad1230I'd say both labels are applicable. He dominated both basso and bass-baritone rep - the former ofc characterised by that great dark basso tone and strength right down through F and E, which he had. Quite a few of the really great voices can crush a couple of neighbouring fachs, especially where passaggi may differ only by a semitone - they are really names for a category of rep, after all.
I think we suffer some confusion in anglophone countries with the popular term "true bass," when we're typically talking about are bassi profondi, which might be more useful terminology... and for whom there are not that many bespoke roles in opera.
(As a sidenote - as you may well know, the wagnerian parts now considered quintessentially bass-baritone were labelled by Wagner as being for "high bass"...)
@@caeruleusbritannus Wagnerian roles are built on that old schooling of Bel Canto and classifying the lower voices as "Höher Bass" which literally translates into High Bass. Today, we can look at those scores and identify those voices types who originated those roles as either -- Bass-Baritones or just pure Baritones. A role such as Wolfram would've been sung by "höher basses" at the time but naturally , had the ranges of a conventional baritone today.
Samuel Ramey, when compared to other similar voices like his such as Ghiarouv, London, Hotter, Ramey's was extremely on the lighter end which a few exceptions (some over darkening at the bottom for effect in roles such as Bertram or Arogante).
Always sounds stiff to me. My favorite thing he did was the Semiramide with Caballé.
In what way do you mean "stiff"?
For me, his voice isn’t really flowing like it could be. Almost like he has slightly differing positions for different vowels. According to lore, he was thrust into a career with the untimely passing of Treigle so maybe he wasn’t as ready as he could’ve been. His voice suffered badly by the end while a bass should be able to sing on and on for decades.
@@jennetal.984 Well he wasn't a natural bass but other than that, I don't agree with the statement that his career tapered off. By 2006, he was still singing and singing Gianni Schicchi (with several high Gs).