Samuel Ramey (United States)

Bass — The Grand Inquisitor

HGO Performances: Mephistopheles in Faust (2007), title role in Boris Godunov (2005), Philip II in Don Carlos (2001), Zaccaria in Nabucco (2000), title role in Mefistofele (1999, 1992), Olin Blitch in Susannah (1995 – 96), title role in Attila (1995), Argante in Rinaldo (1975).

About the Artist: For over three decades, Ramey has reigned as one of the music world’s foremost interpreters of bass and bass-baritone operatic and concert repertoire. He has portrayed a wide variety of characters in productions including Le nozze di Figaro, Don Carlos, Attila, Boris Godunov, Don Giovanni, Susannah, War and Peace, Gianni Schicchi, I Puritani, Lucia di Lammermoor, Faust, Mefistofele, and La damnation de Faust. In addition to his return to HGO as The Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, Ramey returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Don Basilio in Il barbiere Di Siviglia and sings the role of the Pope in a new production of Attila at San Francisco Opera this season. He will also debut with Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Timur in Turandot for the inauguration of the new Kaufmann Performing Arts Center and sing Mephistopheles in La Damnation de Faust at Opera de Nice. Ramey has appeared on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House, Vienna Staatsoper, Opéra de Paris, Arena di Verona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and the operas of Munich, Hamburg, Geneva, Florence, Zürich, and Amsterdam, among others. In concert, he has performed with the London Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, La Scala, and National Symphony orchestras; the New York, Berlin, and Vienna philharmonics; and the symphonies of Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and San Francisco. Throughout his career, Ramey has worked with every major conductor including Claudio Abbado, the late Leonard Bernstein, James Conlon, Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, the late Sir Georg Solti, and the late Herbert von Karajan. Ramey holds the distinction of being the most recorded bass in history, with albums on every major label. His recordings have garnered nearly every major award including three Grammy® Awards, Gran Prix du Disc Awards, and “Best of the Year” citations from Stereo Review and Opera News, among others. A native of Colby, Kansas, Ramey was named “Kansan of the Year” in 1995, and the French Ministry of Culture awarded him the rank of Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters in 1998. He now makes his home in Chicago and maintains a schedule of more than 70 performances each season.