A favorite bass performance from Bel Raggio

No one in my experience both live and on records could swagger, spin out roulades, and ripple through Rossini and Handel like Samuel Ramey.

Whatever his many triumphs, roles like Assur, Maometto, Mustafà, and Argante make him one for the history books. His only recorded equal would be Pol Plancon, but even the great Plancon lacked the rolling sumptuousness of the Ramey sound.

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