Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Christopher Lee

Samuel Ramey Turns 80 Opera’s Greatest Devil

For decades, he reigned in Hell as opera’s greatest Mefistofele. I’ll be damned if Samuel Ramey isn’t 80 years-old today. Give the devil his due.

Gaze with envy into my cabinet of curiosities as I share this one-of-a-kind collectible: a photo inscribed by Ramey to actor Christopher Lee. Lee, who possessed quite the resonant bass-baritone himself, harbored a latent desire to become a professional opera singer. As a young man, he was overheard singing in a tavern in Stockholm and praised by none other than Jussi Björling, who offered to undertake his training. But it was at a time in Lee’s life before he could afford to live in Sweden.

Of course, both men – Ramey and Lee – were renowned for playing heavies.

Here’s Ramey as Verdi’s “Attila.” Listen to that audience, at around 3:20 and again at 7:04. The adoration is such that he finally launches into an encore.

Of course, his signature role will always be Boito’s Mefistofele.

Act I, “Son lo spirito che nega” (“I am the spirt that denies”)

Act II, “Ecco il mondo”(“Behold the world”)

A concert performance of the Prologue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7l4msqaqos

Singing Cimarosa with Thomas Hampson

Ramey as Don Giovanni at the Met

And as “L” Toreador on “Sesame Street”

“L” is for my love for Samuel Ramey. Happy birthday to this four-score Mephisto!

March 28, 2022
Devil Rides Out Hammer Film Discussion

Here’s the video of last night’s show, in which Roy and I engage in a spirited discussion about “The Devil Rides Out” (1968), a.k.a. “The Devil’s Bride.”

The film starred not just one, but two singers of talent: Christopher Lee – whose experiences with opera I explore in a separate post – and Leon Greene, who sang professionally with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and the Sadler’s Wells Opera (later the English National Opera). Greene also enjoyed notable success with a couple of Sondheim musicals: as Sweeney Todd, in an acclaimed 1985 revival, and as Miles Gloriosus, both on stage and in the 1966 film incarnation of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Ironically, for whatever reason, for “The Devil Rides Out,” Greene was dubbed!

As a teenager, future Hammer house composer James Bernard received encouragement from Benjamin Britten. Their friendship blossomed, and Bernard wound up working with Britten, Imogen Holst, and Peter Pears. He won an Academy Award NOT for any of his music (for which he was never even nominated), but rather for a screenplay he wrote with his partner, Paul Dehn, for “Seven Days to Noon.” As if all that weren’t remarkable enough, during WWII, Bernard assisted in the cracking of the Enigma code.

There’s so much talent and so many interesting anecdotes associated with this movie, one of Hammer’s best, that we couldn’t possibly talk about everything, but we touched upon what we could in roughly 90 minutes.

Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner live-streams on Facebook every Friday and Sunday evening throughout October at 7 p.m. EDT. This Friday, we’ll wrap up our month-long celebration of Halloween with special guests Michael Rizzo and Marybeth Ritkouski of SciFi Distilled. The four of us will discuss Mel Brooks’ affectionate parody of Universal Studios’ classic creature-features, “Young Frankenstein” (1974).

As an added bonus, there will also be a virtual costume party, so if you want to get in on the act, be prepared to join us on Zoom following the discussion, when we’ll be puttin’ on the Ritz!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

October 26, 2020
Christopher Lee Opera Secret Revealed

During the course of our discussion of “The Devil Rides Out,” last night on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, Roy and I touched upon the fact that Christopher Lee’s great regret in life was not pursuing a career as a professional opera singer.

In his autobiography, “Tall, Dark and Gruesome” (later reissued as “Lord of Misrule”), Lee talks about how, whenever he was Sweden, he would make it a point, in his downtime, to slip off with amateur opera companies and tour with them incognito. He filmed “Tales of Hans Christian Andersen” in Sweden, and for a time he was engaged to Henriette von Rosen. His Swedish connections were such that when Von Rosen’s father threw up a final impediment, that he would allow Lee to marry his daughter only if he could obtain permission from the King of Sweden, Lee was able to so – like something out of a fairy tale in itself!

Ultimately, Lee did not marry Von Rosen (the situation seemed very high-maintenance), but he did attract the attention of tenor Jussi Björling. He recounts the story, as well as his family history in the opera, in one of the videos linked below.

First, here’s Lee in an off-the-cuff demonstration of his singing ability, with selections from “The Flying Dutchman” and “The Damnation of Faust;” and then, to keep it seasonal, he recites Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”:

Much later, he shares an anecdote and proves that he’s still got the pipes:

Finally, Lee recounts his experience with Björling and his family’s role in bringing opera to Australia:

Of course, as he points out, if he had, after all, become a professional opera singer, his career would have ended decades earlier. But as an actor, he was able to continue to do what he loved until the end of his long and fruitful life.

Really, when you think about, is there all that much difference between gothic horror and a life in the opera?

October 26, 2020
The Devil Rides Out Hammer Horror Christopher Lee

“Don’t look at the eyes, Rex… DON’T LOOK AT THE EYES!”

But of course, nobody in this movie listens.

Roy Bjellquist and I will continue our month-long celebration of Halloween with a discussion of my favorite Christopher Lee film, “The Devil Rides Out” (released in the U.S. in 1968 as “The Devil’s Bride”).

Lee gets to play the hero for a change, aristocrat and occultist Nicholas, Duc de Richlieu, who alone possesses the arcane knowledge to do battle against a web of Satanists. Richlieu is the hero of no less than ELEVEN novels by Dennis Wheatley – of which only THREE have supernatural themes. WTF? Elsewhere, he’s frittering away his time solving mysteries, battling Spanish anarchists, rescuing relatives from Soviet prison, fighting Nazis, or otherwise engaged in colorful globetrotting.

But perhaps that’s all just as well. Having read “The Devil Rides Out,” I can tell you it’s nothing to write home about. Thankfully the movie is another story, surely one of Hammer’s best!

We’ve already made our sacrifice to the Goat of Mendes, so hopefully we’ll be spared the connectivity issues we suffered on Friday night.

I hope you’ll join us, with your comments and insights, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, to be live-streamed on Facebook this Sunday night at 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

Since the movie itself doesn’t appear to be available for streaming through official channels in the U.S., here are a couple of links to Dailymotion, where it’s been posted in two parts.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38ggi5

October 25, 2020
Spooky Classics with Karloff & Lee for Halloween

Grab a second cup of coffee and join me, if you haven’t already. It’s a morning of spooky classics, as we look ahead to Hallowe’en.

Among our tricks and treats will be recordings of Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, revered for their onscreen personifications of classic movie monsters. Karloff will narrate Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” – you need to tune in if only to hear how he relishes his final line, giving it a delightfully macabre spin – and Lee will prove himself a quick-change artist in his portrayal of all the characters (including the Princess!) in Igor Stravinsky’s take on the Faust legend, “The Soldier’s Tale.”

It’s a steady diet of jack o’lanterns and candy corn until 11:00 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

October 27, 2016

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