The Devil’s Praises Are His to Sing

This devil wears a diamond stud in one ear and a brown polka-dot shirt. He is leonine, charismatic and possessed of a voice so deep and mellifluous that it seems capable of seducing any mere mortal within reach, even in a setting as unbefitting the Prince of Darkness as a Dorothy Chandler Pavilion boardroom on a bright winter morning.

Still, he doesn’t seem like evil incarnate, but that’s part of the package, right? Then again, this devil is also Samuel Ramey, distinguished bass. A guy from Kansas.

There’s potential for confusion. Ramey, after all, has made a specialty of playing devils and sundry other operatic bad guys. He’s in town to sing his most performed role, that of Mephistopheles in Guonod’s “Faust,” opening at Los Angeles Opera on Wednesday.

It’s not that there’s anything about Ramey that’s inherently satanic. But when you’re a bass, your options are limited. Most of the great heroic roles in grand opera are written for tenors, and the lower reaches, vocally speaking, tend to be synonymous with the lower reaches, morally speaking.

Yet bad guys make for good, if not starring, roles. The devil, after all, is often an interesting, meaty, musically rich character. “You can have a career not playing bad guys--lots of basses do--singing the parts of the priests and the fathers, the parts that we call ‘stand and sing’ parts,” says the gentlemanly Ramey. “I’ve just preferred the more interesting dramatic parts all my career.”

Ramey is a singing actor who’s wanted to do more than “park and bark,” as they say. Indeed, he has assayed an extraordinarily wide range of material in a career that’s spanned more than three decades and taken him to the opera world’s most prestigious venues, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera and Covent Garden, to name a few. He has made some 80 recordings and is billed as the most recorded bass ever, a claim that’s difficult to prove or dispute, but one that could easily be true.

“Fortunately, my vocal gifts have allowed me to do quite a varied style of repertoire,” he says. “I sang a lot of Rossini in the ‘80s. And I have this ability to sing coloratura [an ornate style of singing usually associated with sopranos], so I’ve done a lot of that, and some of the more standard repertoire. And my devil parts. I would say, not to be bragging or anything, but I don’t think there’s ever been a bass who has done as wide a variety of repertoire.”

“Ramey’s greatest gift is his versatility,” confirmed a 1998 Opera News article about the singer. “On the one hand, he fulfills the criteria of the Handel-Mozart-Rossini repertory--speed, flexibility and range. On the other hand, he can meet the dramatic demands of the later 19th century in Verdi, Mussorgsky and Puccini--the powerful ability to rise above heavier orchestrations and project in huge auditoriums.”

*

The Midwest might not seem a likely breeding ground for devils, let alone opera stars, but it can claim credit for at least one. Born in Colby, Kan., (population 5,000), Ramey, 57, attended Wichita State University and training programs at Central City Opera in Colorado and Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico. He made his debut with New York City Opera in 1972 and quickly became one of that company’s major draws.

Now based in Chicago, he regularly sings more than 40 roles, including such rarely seen works as Verdi’s “Attila,” Rossini’s “Maometto II” and Massenet’s “Don Quichotte.” He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1984 in Handel’s “Rinaldo” and has also performed Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and “The Marriage of Figaro” to acclaim.

Yet it is the devils that have become his signature. In addition to the Guonod and the title role in Boito’s “Mefistofele,” he’s done Berlioz’s “Damnation of Faust,” the devilish Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress” and the quartet of villains in Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann.” Ramey also has a solo show, “Date With the Devil,” in which he sings 14 of the arias from this repertory.

Ramey began performing both the Guonod and the Boito in the 1970s and has sung each about 200 times. And yet, he says, “I could keep on doing it forever, I love them both so much.”

The 1859 Guonod opera, based on Goethe’s play, tells the story of an aging philosopher who makes a pact with the devil to be young again and court the lovely Marguerite. “I find the Mephistopheles in the Guonod ‘Faust’ a very easy piece to play because he’s very lighthearted,” he says. “He’s not a mean devil. He’s the devil in disguise: this sort of fun-loving, bon vivant, gentleman type.”

“Mefistofele” is a much less popular opera and probably would not be performed even as often as it is were if not for Ramey.

“The Boito is very challenging,” says the singer. “The orchestration is very heavy all the time, and there’s a lot of loud, forceful, dramatic singing. It’s not a very subtle part. The Guonod is much more multifaceted, both dramatically and musically.”

Ramey has been a champion of the lesser-known Boito opera, and other seldom seen pieces, for many years. In fact, one of the keys to his success is the active role he takes in seeking new music for himself. “There’s a lot of repertoire that I’ve been interested in for a long time and haven’t had the opportunity to do, that I’m finding now that I’m getting the opportunity to come into,” he says.

What’s more, for all Ramey’s commitment to his dark-side repertory, he continues to search for new challenges. “I’ve been interested for a long time in getting involved in a new piece,” he says. “I think it would be really interesting to work with a composer. It’s something I would really like to do, but it just hasn’t worked out.”

Until it does, Ramey will keep busy with a variety of assignments, including return visits to L.A. “I have some very nice plans for coming back to L.A. Opera after Placido [Domingo] takes over, a number of projects, although I can’t talk specifics,” he says. “I’m only really happy when I’m working. I like being busy.”

*

* “Faust,” Los Angeles Opera, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Wednesday, next Tuesday, Jan. 28, 30 and Feb. 2 and 5, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 1 p.m. $27 to $146. (213) 365-3500.