Samuel Ramey - "Encore un de gagné !" / Meyerbeer, "Robert le diable" / English subtitles / 1985

Meyerbeer's "Robert le diable" with Samuel Ramey premiered at l’Opéra de Paris on 24 June 1985. This revival was staged specifically for him and became the first performance of the opera on a major stage since 1893.
In one of his interviews, Ramey shared that while he was in Paris singing Moïse in 1983, Massimo Bogianckino, the general director of the Paris Opera, asked him to come to talk about possible future projects: they planned to do productions of operas that had been composed for and premiered at the Paris Opera. "He asked if I would be interested in doing Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots" and, of course, I knew of it but I was not familiar with the music at all." Ramey recalled, however, that someone told him about another Meyerbeer opera with a fabulous bass role-"Robert le Diable". It had also been composed for the Paris Opera, so he decided to counter Bogianckino's offer: "Since you're thinking of Meyerbeer, what about "Robert le diable"? They said, "oh that might be interesting". So it came about, and the next thing I did in Paris, was the role of Bertram."
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According to the plot based on a medieval tale, the childless duchess of Normandy calls for Satan's help and gives birth to his son, Robert. So the real Devil here is not the title character, but his father appearing years later. He is disguised as Robert's mysterious best friend Bertram, sung by the incomparable Samuel Ramey.
In this aria, Bertram gloats over his success in ensnaring yet another soul by his evil influence-Raimbaut, a minstrel, whom he corrupted with a bag of gold. Amid his triumph, Bertram also reveals his fatherly love for Robert, confessing his conflicted feelings and his readiness to do anything for his son.
The quality of the available recording is very poor; still, it's a great gift that we can enjoy Ramey's surreal performance as Bertram. It's pure (black) magic!
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