Faust trio. Samuel Ramey, Renee Fleming, Richard Leech (Live) 1997

[MaestroAlber]

Magnificent! So much emotional power.

[Richiesutherland]

Glorious! It reminds one how direct and heartwarming and thrilling Fleming's artistry was at this time. I know that Leech by then had a sort of Russian tenor wobble in the middle, but his top was thrilling, and Ramey is simply magnificent. The Valentin of this performance was Dwayne Croft at his very, very best. It was a great afternoon of opera!

[SHICOFF1]

Love Ramey! Heard him do it with an excellent Faust in Chicago, Neil Shicoff and Nancy Gustafson back in  1987.

[OperaMystery80]

This was when Fleming still held charm for me. She was terrific in lyric French roles like Marguerite, Manon, Juliette, Thais. But in the 2000's she went totally nuts with bel canto and excessive ornamentations. Her strength as a singer was in the purity of the line, and her Mozart was brilliant. I miss Fleming from the 90's. 

[raigekimaru]

@OperaMystery80

my thoughts exactly

[rojp08]

I saw this performance at The MET. It was glorious! I've always thought Ramey never got the credit he deserved during his MET tenure. He was awesome in every single NYC performance I saw of him. Name it, Boito's, Nick Shadow, Boris, Blich...no one came close and no one has since. Thanks so much for sharing this great piece. I also have it on cassette tape, live from the MET!

[ILLDEGREE]

Could have been the dream cast though another tenor would have been better

[pucciniverdi777]

@ILLDEGREE Leech's voice was spectacular when he first started out. i can only guess that he misused his voice because by the late 1990's his voice had developed a harsh, unpleasant quality, and a tendency to wobble.

Sadly, that deminished quality is quite apparent here.