Ecco il Leone
La Cieca just received an email from Samuel Ramey confirming, “Yes, the comment is from me. Had no idea it would cause such a discussion.”
(Photo: Ken Howard, Metropolitan Opera)
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Most polyps are benign, but some are cancerous. If the cancer involves only the surface of the polyp and not the stock, the outlook is very good. Ramey is not intellectually honest. If he were, he should have walked out of the perfomance or refund his fees. His cretibility zero. How can you bite the hand that feeds you?
I am sorry I disagree. Having had a career for several decades, most of the time you swallow it and go on and sometimes you cannot. If the pillars of the opera world like Ramey are signaling that there is something going on that isn’t right, we a s a public need to listen. If Ramey is being attacked on a board, he should have the right to defend himself. And, I agreed with Marcelo Alvarez’s right to speak out against the Tosca. Not everyone in the opera world is financially solvent enough to stand by their morals.
Having seen the Attila twice now, I can honestly say that Ramey gives a performance that is head and shoulders above the others. His 6 minutes on stage brings more import and weight than all the other principles put together. He is a star and for a good reason. He did not let any of his obvious bias against the production have any bearing on his performance. That is the true testament to being a team player. MUTI as well was not a fan but every night gives a fresh, breathtaking account of the score. As well, Ramey and MUTI showed up to all the rehearsals and did their jobs.
Mr. Papas, you find “his credibility zero.” Do you find it easier to believe the pronouncements of recognized team players such as Peter Gelb: “I stand behind Luc Bondy 100 per cent.” Or Natalie Dessay who presistently extolled the vision behind the recent “La Sonnambula.” I used to hate the feeling of pity that would sweep over me when I would witness a respected performer diligently following direction in front of an audience of people who all knew it was awful.
Citing another example. In the 1950s, an obvious dictate came down that on the broadcasts, all operas were to be referred to as “masterpieces.” Even as a teenager I noticed it and began to wait for it with a “Huh?” (We didn’t use WTF in those days.) I can still hear and sense the shame in Milton Cross’ voice as he announced “Johann Strauss Jr.’s towering masterpiece, Die Zigeunerbaron.” He knew his credibility had become zip. Happily, the practice ceased after that broadcast, and I have ever since regretted not being the proverbial fly on the wall for that particular conversation.
I’ll cite another example. Another bass (my particular favorite) Jerome Hines was in a production of “Simon Boccanegra” at the Long Beach Opera. It was one of those “hurry-up-and-stand-still” productions that enjoyed a brief vogue a decade or so ago. Hines gave an interview before the production opened in which he said, to the effect, “I don’t understand it but I do it, even if it makes me feel silly.” (He was much more scathing when I had a chance to talk with him some years later.)
I guess my point in all this is that I know by experience that actors are whores who will do almost anything for the chance to perform. But every so once in a while, like Violetta, one of them will fall in love for real. I think we are witnessing Sam Ramey remembering what ‘Vissi d’arte’ is all about.
What kind of muffin did Jerome Hines have?
BTW, I’m even more impressed with Mr. Ramey now that Gianni B reports he gives his all every night in Attila despite his voiced true feelings on the production.
(In tone of high umbrage) He did NOT show me his muffin !
Ah, ‘actors are whores’. My old clichéd, insulting, lazy, belittling three word friend. How tediously predictable of you to crop up again.
It might seem to be belittling, but I have a great admiration for “the oldest profession.” At its most elemental, it is the purest economic principle: “Value given for value received.” We need more whores and fewer pimps.
Where’s Our Own Oncologist when we need him??
I am happy Ramey said what he said when he said it. It is nice to have an important singer voice the opinions of the majority of the dissatisfied opera loving audience. It would have been worse had he said he could not wait for the Vuitton ‘Ballo’ and the Ferragamo ‘Forza’.
I love how the opinions expressed somehow have become “an important singer voic(ing)the opinions of the majority of the dissatisfied opera loving audience.”
However, when we disagree with a singer (Dessay) who voices an opinion (on Sonnambula) we omit the “important” and it’s NOT the opinion of the “majority.”
Whether you like her singing or not (I’m 50/50 on it), or agree with her opinion, she’s still probably, at this point, more important than Ramey. And, I still see no “proof” that the majority of the audience agrees….just that people on here do.
(I’ve seen the Sonnambula – didn’t like it, but I’ve not seen Atilla, so I’m not voicing any opinion here, just amused by how the descriptions become rapturous when they agree and vituperative when they don’t – but that’s usually the case on here!)
No accuracy in the implied ‘survey’, just ball park statistics from the sounds of the boos. Dessay is entitled to her opinions too, I just hope she does not come up with a mambo Masnadieri, and wish her the best.
I think a lot of people share your feeling. The frosting on the cake would be if he took off the shoes and left them on the stage after the curtain call of last performance!
Sorry “the” last performance, I know better.
That makes me think. Now Tom Ford has done his movie, perhaps he’ll want to do an opera. Cosi fan Gucci?
ITomeneo?
And, Gianni, I don’t need you to imply that your long career somehow trumps other opinions. I’ve been in almost 100 productions (both musical theater and opera) in the past 20+ years….and I usually considered it the better part of valor to not bash the production until it closed. So, we can agree to disagree.
figaroindy; I get the faint impression that you were willing to accept selling ‘dogs’ of productions you were appearing in, to the public. Yet not brave enough to do something about it.Some no doubt you would have had to know the end result, long before signing on. Surely you were not dumb, each and every time. What’s noble about that? I am rather puzzled.
Not in the least – I didn’t always agree with the direction, but I did what I could with what I’d been given….and refrained from sharing my opinions until after the production – after all, my opinions aren’t necessarily those of the entire public. It’s quite possible some people might really like a concept or idea that I don’t like….and to voice my opinion and cause them not to see it themselves is the height of egotism. I say, do what you’re required to do and do it as well as you can. I DO believe that doing what you agreed to do, even if it becomes something other than you were expecting, and not bailing on it, or causing ructions, is a noble thing, and I am proud of that.
Very admirable, Figaroindy. (Notice the complete lack of sarcasm.) But it used to be different, and I think better. I suspect Iltenoredigrazia remembers this too, but I can’t be sure. In the thirties, forties, and fifties, the earlest of which I have experience, acting was both a craft and a profession. Certain things were expected of the actor and the actor was respected because he and only he could and would do those things. And yes, Whatever, the director and designers were part of The Team, given equal respect for what they could do; not more, equal. (God, this is starting to sound like Arthur’s last scene in “Camelot.”)
But something happened. I personally think it was when Suzy Parker was signed to a movie contract. Actors began to feel that if they photographed well, the director would tell them what to do and make them look good. In short, they became lazy, and since nature abhors a vacuum, the directors were more than willing to assume the extra power that the actors had abdicated. Designers weren’t far behind in bailing on “The Team” in asserting their dominant authority. (I don’t feel that particular skirmish has been settled yet.) So what we have now is a highly adversarial relationship in which the Actor has become a mere pawn.
I have lots more to say on this subject, but I will cut it mercifully short, mainly because I despise pissing contests. In other words, if what I say makes sense, fine and good. If not, please attack me and we’ll discuss it if it is of general interest.
It seems that “AttMeph@aol.com” has continued to comment in the Dallas Newspaper. In response to a question about a baritone who cracked a note in a 1985 “Attila” at NYCO, he had this to offer:
“Had no idea my comments would result in such a discussion. I was only defending my fellow cast members. Sorry about the wobble (I prefer “slow
vibrato”), but I am old. This is my last season at the Met, so what do I have to lose.”
Seems as if I was right in the original posting that Sam is making his Met farewell with this “Attila” cameo. If Sam is on the roster next year, maybe only as a cover?
If this is indeed Ramey’s last season at the Met, I’m surprised that there hasn’t been an announcement of any kind of celebration. I’m assuming he’s appearing in another production before season’s end?
Oh I wouldn’t assume anything of the kind, Kashania. I was at the “Turandot” that was the farewell of 80 year-old Charles Anthony. That man has been singing at the Met since 1954 and has the most performances of any Met singer.
At his farewell was there an onstage presentation? Did Gelb come out and give him a plaque? If he was too busy or disinclined to do so, did he send an emissary like the head of the board, or Placido or someone to present it to him? No, he just took his curtain call and left.
Gelb isn’t about old Met nostalgia. He is about hyping and promoting his new Met, not the old Met. Ramey is old Met not the hot, young, camera-ready new Met.
That was indeed a disgrace. Not just a disgrace, but unbelievably bad manners. Up until then, I had been looking for the good in Gelb, but that night I decided I had found all there was to find.
Oh, I thought they did do something for Charles Anthony. Wow! Not to mention that Ramey is one of the great bassos of the 20th century. Can’t they raise the curtain at the end and bring out a cake or someting?
They had a backstage party for him and named a dressing room after him. (I don’t know if Gelb was in attendance.) But I would say 90 per cent of the audience was there that night to pay tribute. The audience, I say. The audience, the third part of the performance trilogy, was sort of left hanging. Talk about coitus interruptus !
Oh all right, nobody was talking about coitus interruptus. Sue me!
“Trinity,” not “trilogy.” Aw screw it, I’m going back to bed.
My question, though, is when was the last time a singer was given a plaque (or whatever object) at a farewell? Anniversaries, yes, I remember some of those, and there was some sort of celebration on the BOHEME set for Zeffirelli a couple years ago.
A search for “last performance” in the Met database over the past 20 years yields mostly (sadly) dead people like Jerry Hadley and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. So who’s the last “retiree” who got an onstage presentation? Is it someone comparable to Charles Anthony (e.g., Lucine Amara) or a Weltstar like Pavarotti?*
I was at Paul Franke’s last Met performance (which also happened to be Regine Crespin’s farewell) and there certainly was no onstage ceremony for either of these artists.
* In fact, there was no onstage ceremony for Pavarotti’s farewell:
I attended all four of the Mattei “Giovanni’s” last season in which Sam sang Leporello. I can’t remember if it was the third or last performance but the Met celebrated his 25 years with the company between Acts I and II. Gelb came out and presented Sam with a original “Giovanni” score and a framed piece of the Met curtain. Gelb was effusive in his comments regarding Sam’s tenure with the Met. So he has not been ignored.
April 24, 2009
Yeah! Old bassos are never feted, they just fade away.
I think Mr. Ramey should come to SF. I’d love to see him in a comedy. (I’ve only seen him once, in last season’s Boris). With Ramey so much in the news now, I’m contemplating attending the WNO Hamlet in May.
Apparently Ramey is not on the roster next season – the commenter who made that statement has retracted it.
Charles Anthony was “honored for record number of Metropolitan Opera performances” on 2/17/92 (as Borsa in Rigoletto).
“Presentation
Joseph Volpe
The onstage ceremony, which followed Act II, honored Charles Anthony on the occasion of his 2,397th performance with the Metropolitan Opera, breaking the record of George Cehanovsky for most appearances by an artist at the Met.”
What is most relevent is not that this
2nd, rate organ grinder opera with a false historical ending was on the boards of the Met but that a” stellar” “artist” supposedly part of the proceedings found it deplorable as
a presentation but nevertheless was
not above appearing in it – comprimising his dignity as a man
never mind
his honesty to his audience , if he ever had any .The gentlemanly
procedure would have required him to withdraw citing his differences
with the production and his artistic
standards,but no -he appears in the
work he derides,he is willing to
take the hard earned cash of ticket
buyers for a production he considers
deplorable at best . Singers are found a dime a dozen it seems , but
a singer with artistic integrity not
so much -one can hope the story
is not true for his sake .
…”nevertheless was
not above appearing in it – comprimising his dignity as a man
never mind
his honesty to his audience , if he ever had any .”
Not necessarily. He had a contractual obligation to appear in those performances. The public bought tickets for performances that listed him as part of the cast. He did not fake illness in order to cancel. He appeared and sang as well as he could. For all we know he also did onstage everything he was asked to do by the director. How more professional than that can you be?
And how more honest can he be than to let the public know that he did not endorse the production concept?
I’m doing what I agree to do but I don’t like it. Perfectly honest and honorable attitude to me as long as he’s not abetting a crime. A real crime, that is. Hasn’t anyone ever told his/her boss, hey I disagree but I’ll do what you tell me to do?
ilteenor. In the scheme of things
you are correct it is not a crime,
and the singer is already past history and in time a barely remembered name. But he had a
choice ,it was not that he was
starving or at the mercy of some
evil boss-he had every right to comment ,but he did it as a coward ,for which he got paid
and a trusting audience got screwed ,and if the conductor
did the same knowing it was a
flawed presentation is he any better,no matter how well the orchestra played . When you fork
out some $200 bucks for a ticket
you could a least expect a$1.50
of honesty from the performers .
Come on, guys, Ramey just posted a negative comment concerning the production; Muti dind’t hide his disdain for it, either. And there are actors ready to do much more to express their opinion; just a few days ago, one of our famous actresses, who apparently had an artistic conflict with the equally famous director, showed, during the performance, her naked buttocks to the somewhat stunned public, with an appropriate comment. As it seems, she wanted to express her opinion about the production she was currently in. In comparison, Ramey seems really very moderate
.
what? buttocks? on stage? I would google it, but I am afraid of what the necessary search terms might uncover. Thanks Liana – this thread needed the laugh, as well as the reminder that “inappropriate” is in the eye of the beholder.
Okay, I’ll bite. Which of “our famous actresses?” (Though I must say this just screams Judi Dench!)
I’m sorry to disappoint you, by “our” I meant Polish, and it’s why I didn’t give the name – she’s a national celebrity only. The whole thing took place in Warsaw, during the opening night of a production by Krystian Lupa, renowned mainly as theatre director, although he tried opera once, was booed in Wien and has been hating opera ever since. Anyway, the story didn’t end like this, of course. The lady got fired, with the reason that “she dind’t fit into the team”. She, in turn, got offended and said it, since she thought she should be fired because of the buttocks; otherwise, she is convinced she fitted into the team very well. But what followed was a national debate on artistic freedom and the limits of “Regie” in the theatre, still ongoing. The actress herself said later that she wanted to draw attention to the problem of extreme directorial experiments in state-subsidized institutions. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Oh, and she also explained the naked buttocks: she wanted to show that the director was not sincere while saying that he was a supporter of artistic provocation, since it has become crystal-clear now that the only kind of provocation he accepts is his own
.
Where was this buttock thing going on? details?
Liana -All she succeeded in doing
was to make an ass of herself.Comparing a vulgarity with
artistic integrity is not quite the same thing .If artistic integrity
means nothing and the vulgar rule
the day then that audience
gets what it deserves-just read what our youngsters are doing to
each other following the grown up examples -and tell me integrity
can be “moderate” it is saying
one is slightly pregnant . If it is
true- this so called artist is taking
our money for something he doesn’t belive in ,there are other words you can use instead of “taking”, the worst often believe in
what they do and for that alone
you excuse the results however bad -but to believe something
is the pits and still take part in it
shows one lacks any moral fibre .never mind the artistic .
Samuel Ramey is pretty much the definition of an artistic professional, and I’ve watched him at the San Francisco Opera over the decades put up with all kinds of directorial nonsense while still giving it his all. “Attila” sounded great musically on the radio broadcast the other Saturday, but if Ramey says the production itself was stupid, I can’t think of a more honest and convincing criticism. He OWNED this role, people, for quite a number of years when hardly anybody else in the world was reviving it. Everybody else in their reviews were tippie-toeing around the fact that the production sucked, but it’s interesting (and News!) that the entire cast basically hated it. Thank you, Mr. Ramey, for your honesty.
And fellow parterre commenters, “mefisto” in these threads is probably Samuel himself. You may be in a crazy internet thread with an authentic operatic legend commenting sanely in the middle of it.
It is the deplorable cowardly
lack of artistic integrity
that is at issue and nothing else.
wtf? Has Savonarola been reborn in the name of artistic integrity?
Ye’re new to these parts, ain’cha, pardner? Mike, Wladek. Wladek, Mike.
The picture of the gentleman
wearing and holding the cross
says it all in the matter of integrity- don;t need Savonarola
to expose the dichotomy.
To cruzSF: To see Mr. Ramey in a comedy, watch the HD broadcast of the Met’s current Barbiere from its first season, in which SR plays Don Basilio. Yes, there’s a wide vibrato in his voice now, but he makes a very funny and oily music teacher, and the performance is to be cherished. (I was there on several occasions, including the prima, and loved it.)
To mephisto: If that really is you, Mr. Ramey, I agree with you completely about this misbegotten Attila, and that you are entitled to speak your mind. (Recall, also, that Juan Diego voiced his dislike of last season’s Sonnambula, and at a Met-sponsored conversation a few years back, with Sonia Ganassi, he expressed his clear preference for traditional productions.)
And your choice of roles at this point in your career is very smart: in particular, your Grand Inquisitor was chilling. (Although I’d leave Leporello to the youngsters now, such as Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, who made him into a hapless bumpkin, or our Attila-of-the-moment, Ildar, who was charming in the part; but how well and pleasantly I recall you and Justino Diaz trading off Giovanni and his servant at NYCO back when!) Onward, Mr. Ramey!
Almavivante @ 185: thanks for the heads-up. I missed the first season of HD ‘casts and didn’t know the Barbiere was included in that set.
wladek: ..” the singer is already past history and in time a barely remembered name.
Are you referring to Ramey? You gotta be kidding. He may be past his prime but he’s certainly not “past history.” As to history, his place in Met Opera history is assured along other star basses such as Chaliapin, Pinza and Siepi. Ramey is also featured in quite a few opera recordings. People will be buying those records and hearing his voice well after you and he are gone.