MELBA RAMOS gave us a blast as Contessa Almaviva. She really took us away into another world when singing "Dove sono i bei momenti". She also acted like a real Contessa and has to be seen as a grand dame at Vienna Volksoper.
BIOGRAPHY
Power and passion
The soprano chamber singer Melba Ramos, born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, graduated from the “Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico”, an institution founded by Pablo Casals.
Melba Ramos received first prize in the Metropolitan Opera District of Puerto Rico competitions in 1987, 88 and 89. At the end of her studies she went to Europe, where shortly after she joined the studio of the Cologne Opera from 1989 to 1992 in Germany. Subsequently, he received his first contract from 1992 to 1996 at the “Wuppertalerbühnen”.
During these years Melba Ramos enriched her repertoire with roles from soubrette to lyric coloratura, including Gilda “Rigoletto”, Pamina and Queen of the Night from “The Magic Flute”, Liù “Turandot”, the four heroines from “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” and many others, ….
The highlight of the performance was the voice of Melba Ramos. The singer created a touching image of a young Japanese girl. Her voluminous soprano, rounded in all registers, reveals itself in parlando as well as in full-sounding cantilenas. Dramatism, vocal expression, flexible coordination of solo and ensemble scenes, spectacular stage presence of the singer - all this allows us to feel great joy. Her reincarnation in the image of butterfly left no one indifferent.
With a sonorous and dynamically changing voice, Melba Ramos' presentation of Bess was also a real pleasure, with richly colored expression and brilliant high notes.