Hello All,
Typically I pick a particular aspect of diction and write
the point to death but this week I’m doing something a little different. I’m sending you two videos of arias from
Carlisle Floyd’s opera Susannah. Carlisle, who is still alive at 91 wrote the
opera when he was a faculty member at Florida State University in 1955 and
after Porgy and Bess it’s the most
performed American opera ever written. In
every generation there seems to be a soprano and a bass who are known as the
quintessential Susannah and Blitch of their day. Until recently the two singers were Renee
Fleming and Sam Ramey.
You probably know who Renee Fleming is. The video I’m sending is from 1995 when Renee
was really something – before real stardom and the mannerisms set in. She sings the big aria “Ain’t it a pretty
night” a bit grand for my taste but her control is, as always amazing. It’s also astonishing for her relative stillness
with all of the big singing she does. The
opera is written in a sort of “Appalachian dialect” but notice how she seems to
always be concerned with making sure the language is understood.
Sam Ramey is a force of nature. His voice shows some wear and tear these days
but he’s still out there getting it done and now teaches in Kansas.
From the mid 70s through the 90s however, Sam was the gold standard of
bel canto basses. In fact, when I was
coming up, all bass baritones even styled their hair after Sam. I’ll never forget the first time I heard Sam
live. His extreme low was as loud as his
extreme high. And all of this sound came
from a skinny Kansas cuss. I have a few
funny stories about Sam but my favorite is as follows. One night in NYC a group of us went to see a
movie on the upper west side. The
theater was crowded so we couldn’t all sit on one row. Sam ended up sitting behind me and my friend
Eric Owens who some of you might remember from doing a master class for us a
few years ago. At one point in the
movie something quiet was going on and Sam cleared his throat. He wasn’t doing anything unusual; he was just
clearing his throat. But the sound was a
Sam Ramey sound and it was so impressive that Eric stood up, turned around, and
gave Sam a standing ovation in the middle of the movie theater. I’m sure the audience was annoyed but I
couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the night.
But I digress. In
the video Sam sings Blitch’s big camp meeting scene. And I think you’ll agree that it’s an amazing
performance. Sam does move around and
gesture but in a very confined space and still manages to really take charge of
the stage. I’ve talked to you about how
everything counts when you’re on stage – breathing, walking, looking, facial
expressions – all of it. Notice how Sam
never, even for a second, does anything that isn’t at the service of the text
and the music and the character. I would
say that his English and dialect are even more idiomatic than Renee’s but it’s
always sung and always understandable. You
can tell that these are two singers who have complete control of their vocalism
and use it to get the character and the language across. Isn’t this what it’s all about?
Enjoy,
R
Renee
Sam
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