The ancestors of Chilean singer Ramón Vinay proceeded from the location of Barcelonette (Larche) in France, at 5 kms from the Italian border, and 120 kms from Nice. His father, Jean Vinay Robert (1873-1950) emigrated very young to America, first to Mexico, then to Perú and finally to Chile, where he arrived in 1898. He established himself in Chillán, a location 409 kms at the south of Santiago. There he became a prosperous trader in leather horse saddles and harnesses, and there too married, in 1907, a modest and young seamstress, Rosa Elvira Sepúlveda Lara (1887-1917). (Jean had married before, in 1900, another Chilean girl who died very young, in 1903, but gave him his first son, Antonio).

Ramón Mario Francisco Vinay Sepúlveda was born in Chillán, on the 31st August 1911, and was the third of four children.

In 1914 his father traveled to France to buy machinery for his workshop. The First World War caught him there and forced him to serve in the French army. When he obtained a leave, in 1917, he deserted and returned to Chile to find that his wife had already died. In 1920 the French government granted an amnesty for cases such as that of Jean Vinay, and he sold all his belongings in Chillán and took all his children to France. He established in Digne, where Ramón finished his high school studies.

His father wanted him to study architecture, but Ramón himself would have preferred to become a violinist. In 1928, at the age of 17, Ramón Vinay against his father's wish but following the same adventurer's nature, left for Mexico, where he obtained employment with his grandmother's family, the Robert, in Mexico City. He started very humbly but soon he formed a society with his brother Otto and had his own factory, producing cardboard boxes.

About 1930 he started his studies of singing with José Pierson. Pierson was a very good teacher and contributed to the development of a whole generation of Mexican singers: Alfonso Ortiz Tirado, Juan Arvizu, Pedro Vargas, Jorge Negrete and many others. Even though Ramón Vinay occasionally sang as a bass (his Vecchia zimarra was always a success) during this first period of development, his professional debut was in a baritone role, Don Alfonso in La Favorita on September 16, 1931 at the Teatro de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City. For several years he sang in Mexican radio broadcasts where he was announced as the great Mexican baritone .

In 1940 he married a Mexican girl, María de los Angeles Padilla Brondo. The couple had two children, Rosita Elvira and Ramón Jr.

Ramón Vinay then returned to the Bellas Artes, always as a baritone, during the season 1938/39, singing in Aida and La Gioconda. The next season 1939/40 saw him again in Aida, Il Trovatore and Tosca. In 1943 he appeared in a film, Fantasía Ranchera, sharing honours with several Mexican opera singers such as Josefina Aguilar, Paco Zárate and Pedro Vargas and the very young actor Ricardo Montalbán. Until January 1944 he continued to sing baritone roles in Mexico, adding to his repertory the title role in Rigoletto, Tonio in Pagliacci and Germont in La Traviata.

Five months after his last performance as baritone (La Favorita 23 January 1944) he made his debut as a tenor, nothing less than in the title role of Otello (19 June 1944) with Stella Roman as Desdemona and Frank Valentino, and Carlo Morelli sharing the role of Iago. Next year he was Samson, Cavaradossi, Don José and Des Grieux (Manon Lescaut) and obtained his first contract outside Mexico.

He made his debut at the New York City Center September 30, 1945, as Don José in Carmen, a role he sang several times during October and November that year.

His debut at the Metropolitan Opera took place on February 22 1946, again in Carmen. The role of Don José became Vinay's war horse during this part of his career. He sang it in several important cities in USA, including a performance sung in English, on July 9th, at the Hollywood Bowl and conducted by Leopold Stokowski.

He returned to Mexico to sing during July and August at the Bellas Artes, Aida, Carmen and Otello. He also had time to participate in his second film, Sinfonía de una Vida with tenor Luis G. Roldán and composer Miguel Lerdo de Tejada.

After several more performances at the Met (Aida, Carmen and Otello) he made his debut in Italy, on 3 September 1947 at the Teatro della Pergola, in Florence, with Otello with Onelia Fineschi and Tito Gobbi. He sang this opera and Pagliacci in Genoa, Turin and Bologna. He then had to return to USA, called by Arturo Toscanini, to sing Otello in the N.B.C. broadcasts of this opera from Studio 8 in New York. The first two acts were broadcast on December 6th and the last two acts on December 13th. Fifty eight years later, it is still considered THE unsurpassed and reference Otello.

From New York he had to fly again to Italy, this time to Milan where he inaugurated the opera season on December 26th 1947 with Otello with Maria Caniglia and Gino Bechi. The conductor was Victor De Sabata.

The year of 1948 started with several concerts in Colorado and then performances of Pagliacci and Aida at the Metropolitan. He added the role of Julien in Charpentier's Louise in Boston. Later that year, he scored a great success at the Arena di Verona in Italy singing Otello with Tebaldi and Carmen wih Nicolai.

He visited Chile for the first time as a singer in September 1948, singing at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago in Otello and Aida, with Caniglia, and Carmen with Fedora Barbieri. On November 29 he inaugurated the opera season at the Metropolitan, with Otello. This performance was the first time that an opera was telecasted in New York. In 1949 he sang his usual repertory in New York (Metropolitan), Naples (San Carlo), Milan (Scala) as well as in the coast-to-coast Metropolitan Tour. Later that year he added the opera Samson et Dalila singing it at the Metropolitan, La Scala and Terme di Caracalla in Rome.

In 1950 he made his debut at the Covent Garden in London singing Otello with Tebaldi and Bechi, as a member of the La Scala Touring Company. In October he sang his first Wagnerian role, Tristan, in San Francisco with the renowned Kirsten Flagstad as Isolde . In 1951 he sang at La Scala the role of Griscka in the Italian version of La Leggenda della Città Invisibile di Kitesch by Rimsky-Korsakov. During this year he sang his usual warhorses (Otello, Carmen, Pagliacci) throughout the United States, as well as in Salzburg, Santiago and Lima.

In 1952 he was invited to sing for the first time in Bayreuth, in Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. He were to sing there during six seasons and in 1956, Wieland Wagner bestowed on him the Order of Wagnerian Knight. Also, in 1952 he sang for the first time the title role in Lohengrin, in Indianapolis. As far as we know he sang it only a couple of times in his life. Later on he sang it in 1954, in Pittsburgh. In 1952 he sang again Otello in Salzburg and returned to Chile to sing Don José, Otello and Samson. In 1953 he sang for the first time at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, as well as in Palermo, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Bayreuth (Parsifal, Walkure and Tristan), Rio de Janeiro and London (Walkure).

In 1954 he started, slowly, increasing his German repertoire and leaving out some of his Italian/French operas. He sang his first Tannhauser at the Metropolitan and then at La Scala, the main role in Cyrano di Bergerac by Franco Alfano and Egisto in Strauss's Elektra. In the 1954/1955 season at the Met, he included the role of Herod in Strauss's Salome.

During 1955 he was heard as Siegmund, Parsifal, Tannhauser, Herod and Cyrano, but also as Otello and Samson. An unusual role was sung during the 1955 Holland Festival in Amsterdam, Lenski in Eugene Onegin.

In September 1956 he sang in Chile for the last time as a tenor, in Otello, Carmen and Pagliacci. He added a new tenor role to his repertory in 1956 when he sang for the first and last time in his life the role of Avito in L'Amore dei Tre Re by Montemezzi, in Philadelphia. From 1957 he sang namely German roles: Loge, Siegmund, Siegfried, Tristan, Parsifal. The single exception was Otello, an opera he sang for the last time in 1959, in several cities in France. He sang his last tenor role (Herod) at the Metropolitan, in March 1962.

Just for statistics purposes, Ramón Vinay sang at the Metropolitan Opera House in 17 seasons, 15 roles in 15 operas, with a total of 169 performances between February 22nd, 1946 and March 31st, 1966, 123 in New York and 46 on tour.

He returned to the baritone clef and in July 1963 he sang the role of Telramund in Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival. A second career looked promisory, and he sang Scarpia, Iago, the Hollander, Nerone (L'Incoronazione di Poppea), Germont, Amonasro, Dr. Schön (Lulu), Falstaff, Gianni Schicchi, Michele (Il Tabarro), Escamillo, Belcore, Kurwenal, Marcello (La Boheme) and Tonio (Pagliacci). He sang a few bass roles, but to tell the truth without much success: Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Varlaam (Boris Godunov), Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro), Wotan (Das Rheingold), Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Pizarro (Fidelio) and Grande Inquisitore (Don Carlo). He sang two new baritone roles: Le Mari in C'est la Guerre, a one act opera by Emil Petrovics, in Nice (1965) and Prospero in La Tempête, a three act opera by Frank Martin, in Ginevre (1967).

He sang at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago for the last time in an opera in September 1969. He was heard as Scarpia and Iago. The evening of September 22nd was full of emotion. It was Vinay's farewell to opera. He sang the first three acts of Otello as baritone, and then the last act, the title role, as a tenor. Vinay sang however still a few more performances as baritone in Portland and Cleveland, and then in a concert in Santiago at the Teatro Gran Palace, in 1971.

The last time he sang in Chile was in March 1974 in a number of recitals in different cities.

Vinay's Recorded Legacy
Ramón Vinay did very few commercial records. On may 1946 he recorded for RCA highlights from Carmen with Gladys Swarthout and Robert Merrill, conductor Erich Leinsdorf. On december 1947 he recorded, also for RCA, the first act duets from Carmen and Tosca with soprano Florence Quartararo and conductor Jean Paul Morel. His 1947 NBC broadcast Otello was published by RCA Victor as a commercial LP recording in 1953 and is currently available on CD on several labels. His last commercial recording was a selection of Otello for the Columbia label, with Eleanor Steber and Frank Guarrera, conductor Fausto Cleva, in 1951.

An important part of his legacy are the live recordings, many of them happily available on CD. As a tenor, at least five different Otellos (NBC, Metropolitan, Salzburg, Naples and Buenos Aires); two different Carmen (Hollywood Bowl and Santiago); Samson et Dalila (New Orleans); Pagliacci (MET) and most of his Wagnerian repertoire (Tristan, Tannhauser, Parsifal and Walkure). As a baritone his voice may be heard in Lohengrin, Otello, Tosca and Traviata.

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Ramón Vinay was a character on stage and in private life. Though he married in 1940 in Mexico, he soon fell in love with another woman. In 1945 he sang Tosca with the soprano Lushanya Mobley, a lady announced as an Indian princess of the Chickasaw tribe. Vinay left wife and children and started a new life with his soprano. Vinay was a womanizer. He declared, in more than one opportunity, that the greatest passions for him were food and women (and I should add, drink too). When a journalist asked him his opinion about women, the answer was: Ah! the most divine of passions!!

Regarding his opera characters, he declared in 1958 on Radio Barcelona:

"I am the best paid murderer in the world (Don José, Canio, Otello) but I enjoy more singing Samson because instead of a single murder like in Otello or Pagliacci, I kill a great number of Philistines in the temple. But, to say the truth, it is very bad business because I'm paid the same."

After a long illness, Lushanya Mobley died in 1990. Her family took possession of all Vinay's fortune and he was declared mentally disabled and sent to sanatoriums in the United States were electroshock were applied, thus affecting his already weak mind and body.

The children from his first marriage rescued him and took him to Mexico, first to Guadalajara and then to Puebla, were he died of a heart attack on the 4th of January 1996. He was 85 years old. The Chilean Government took his remains to Santiago, were he received official honours at the Teatro Municipal and then to Chillán were he was buried at the local cemetery. His grave is close to that of the great Chilean pianist, Claudio Arrau.

A biography of the artist was published one year after his death, in January 1997:
Ramón Vinay: De Chillán a la Gloria, by Carlos Bastías and Juan Dzazópulos (in Spanish).