Samuel Ramey Non piu andrai from Mozart's Nozze di Figaro

[elicottero]

Besides his artistic value, Samuel Ramey has a splendid Italian diction, frankly I cannot catch any American inflexion.

[LordHettrick]

Slow, isn't it?

[spyridon77]

whats that high note around 2:51 ?

[bigvideos23]

@spyridon77 ... sounds like a E Natural, MAYBE an F Natural, nothing higher than that!

[spyridon77]

kk, thanks for replying!

[figaro0606]

@spyridon77 It's an f natural.

[Agorante]

The secret is out! Muti won't let tenors add extra high notes but it's Ok if you are a bass. I'm feeling better about him already.

[tenore23]

LOL! Muti was an idiot who thought himself Toscanini.

I am happy that finally his ideas have been discredited. Too bad he left a string of recordings that prove that he once existed.

[blichilde]

Chiunque dia dell'idiota a Riccardo Muti si qualifica per quello che è. E non voglio specificare perché non amo il turpiloquio.

[thesafekind]

@Agorante Technically Mozart's scores are more open to extra notes since he wrote them expecting singers to add appoggiaturas, cadenzas, etc. I guess Muti knows that.

Muti's mistake in Verdi et al was not realizing that these composers were still operating in that tradition, and they expected singers to add notes and cadenzas to suit their talents.

I do agree with Muti that the Manrico high C in Trovatore is kind of pointless (unless you have a tenor who is really good at it).

[thesafekind]

Also the mistake Muti made with Verdi & Donizetti was, ironically, the same mistake older conductors made with Mozart. Conductors like Erich Kleiber banned all added notes and cadenzas from Mozart because they wanted to be "faithful to the score." Not realizing that singing Mozart exactly as written is being totally _unfaithful_ to what Mozart wanted.

[deja2049]

yes ramey is great

[Chiliarches]

What I really admire is how he can sustain each note for its FULL length...no cheating at all, no unnecessarily aggressive attacks...he makes it sound much easier than it is.

[zegermans750]

if you check out the video of him and kurt moll in don giovanni, moll absolutely dwarfs him

[Jonnybrams]

Are you all deluded? Ramey is 6 foot even. How else would he make the perfect Mephistopheles? Kurt Moll happens to be 6 foot, 7 inches--he'd dwarf anybody!

[Agorante]

He wouldn't dwarf Martii Talvela who was 6'9". Talvela and Moll were direct competitors - the two best Osmins of their time.

I don't think Moll was 6'7". Robert LLoyd and Gwynne Howell are about 6'4". This is a common size for operatic basses. I'm rehearsing Bartolo now (I'm 6'4"). Our Figaro is 6'5". Average for basses.

Ramey is probably five eleven or six feet. So he's a bit shorter than most basses but he looks tall on stage. Sings tall too.

[LifeJuice90]

Ferruccio Furlanetto isn't very tall either. 5'10 tops. But he makes himself a giant on the stage.

[Agorante]

Basses are basses because they have long vocal cords. Basses tend to be tall because it's easier to have a big vocal tract in a big body but...

A man's voice drops late in puberty when the testosterone surge hits. The vocal folds themselves have androgen receptors so testosterone supplements will lower your pitch.

To get taller you need Human Growth Hormone (HGH).

In normal development a boy gets both T and HGH about the same time.

[adamskyb]

@Agorante have you done this w/testosterone supplements to lower you voice???

[Agorante]

No, quite the contrary. I had my testosterone checked a couple months ago but it was solidly in the middle of the normal range. My voice has been going up a little. The lowest notes (Cs and Ds) are harder now but the highest notes (Fs and F#s) are a little easier. Many basses like Tozzi and Plishka move up in their late sixties. OTH Domingo and Vinay moved down. Maybe if everyone lives long enough he will be a baritone.

[adamskyb]

@Agorante I wasn't aware that it could get higher after it had changed...Well I suppose you know what I'm going to ask next...lol, Do you know any supplements? I don't mean replacement...just something that will naturally give you more. I dont want to have to take it forever though...

[Agorante]

Consider John Wayne's nose. In his early movies he had a knife thin nose. By the time he made True Grit he had a nose like a potato. That's because cartilage grows throughout life. Next consider that your voice box is mostly cartilage. Other soft tissue like the uvula and the velum also grow and reform as you age. Voices tend to get darker, bigger and richer as you get older until at some point the tissues thin and so does your voice. If you're a tenor you get cast as Altoum.

[bassfanne45]

@LifeJuice90 He sure does. I've heard him live a number of times, and he has stage presence that won't quit. Brilliant performer...and that marvelous voice!

[arpeggio1358]

@LifeJuice90 Mr. Furlanetto is an incredible bass. He sings often in my hometown of San Diego.

[Belcore14]

I met Ramey a couple days ago and he's no more than 5 foot nine, five foot ten at the most.

[Agorante]

The last opera I was in I sang Bartolo in Le Nozze. I'm 6'4" (barefoot) our Figaro was 6'5". Neither of the two tenors was over 5'5". This is fairly common.

Cellos are bigger than violins.

[regulargonzalez]

5'7" here and I'm strictly in the baritone range. Granted, my tessitura is roughly A3-B3 ... but such is life.

[BassoCantante19]

@Agorante I just discovered that I'm as tall as Ramey and Furlanetto, between 5'10'' and 6'. I've always felt dwarfed by the other basses.

[bassfanne45]

@Chiliarches Who cares how tall the man is. His beautiful voice ias what matters. Ramey would have been a success if he had been stoop shouldered, knock-kneed, short, bald, buck toothed, cross-eyed, pigeon-toed, and fat.

[arpeggio1358]

@Chiliarches I've met Samuel Ramey and he was several inches taller than I am (I'm 5 ft. 8 in. in heels). Of course, he was wearing cowboy boots. :-)

[tjb286]

Oh MY GOD! Look at how young he is in this video! And he sounds glorious!

[Chiliarches]

Much lighter than what I'm used to from him...young indeed.

[blichilde]

He was born in 1942, so he was 40 here.

[qbastrzem]

yes His Figaro is great, but to be honest I more prefer Furlanetto in this role ;)

[liric01994]

molto bello

[dtpac]

Mr. Ramey sings this aria better than all others before or since. But his stage performing is, well...Von Karajan said it best, "I don't know what his problem is."

[EmilyGreene1984]

Its nice to see Samuel Ramey in something other than the villian roles. I love his Figaro, he's at his vocal best here. :)

[Arashi110]

THANK YOU!!! I knew, I knew there had to be a video of Sam Ramey as Figaro somewhere! ;) He's absolutely superb.

[arpeggio1358]

@Arashi110 I wish the entire video were available.

[wotancb]

Wow!! This is a great figaro!!!