I began to discover the great eighteenth-century French composer in the late 1970s and Reinhart was right at the forefront of the great rise in attention given to Rameau that began with his tricentenary in 1983. His rich, agile bass was ideal for the composer’s colorful music, and Reinhart appeared in a number of important Rameau recordings: his deliciously villainous Abramane is a particular highlight of the magical Zoroastre conducted by Sigiwald Kuijken.

I particularly noticed how much I missed Reinhart when two new recordings of Rameau’s La Temple de la Gloire (to a libretto by Voltaire) were released in the mid-2010s. The score’s striking first number belongs to L’Envie and its singer in both new versions left me flat. Then I pulled out the recording conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire and Reinhart’s imposing L’Envie had everything (and more) that the others lacked.

Unfortunately, the Malgoire Temple has never been issued on CD. Their Les Paladins was, though it’s now out-of-print.

Reinhart participated in a 1984 recording of Rameau’s six Cantates Profanes. I owned them on LP but only four were issued on a single CD. Among them was the delightfully rollicking “Les Amants Trahis,” a duo-work sometimes performed by soprano and bass, but Reinhart’s partner is the smashing English tenor John Elwes, another Rameau specialist and the hero of the aforementioned Zoroastre.

Happily, a video exists of Reinhart’s commanding Huascar in a section of the Les Incas de Pérou entrée of Les Indes Galantes.

Just the other day I was sad to discover that I might have missed the chance to see Reinhart in one of his great baroque roles: he performed Claudio in New York City Opera’s first production of Handel’s Agrippina in 2002. Unfortunately, I opted to wait until its later revival in 2007 (with a different bass) when a nervous Nelly Miricioiu replaced the originally announced Ruth Ann Swenson in the title role.

However, I discovered that I did hear Reinhart once—in his only Met role as one of the guards in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte which he sang eighteen times between 2006 and 2007.

Reinhart (born in 1950) remains best known for his early specialization in baroque music—he recorded Handel’s Tamerlano, Messiah and Saul, participated in a number of Les Arts Florissants projects, and is Seneca in two versions on CD of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea–he sang a very wide variety of roles as can discovered in perusing his fascinating personal website.

It also showcases many examples of his exceptional writing which he continues in retirement with his partner/husband in Paris.