Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Lebrecht Hommel Melchior ( born March 20, 1890 in Copenhagen, † March 18, 1973 in Santa Monica, California ) was a Danish operatic tenor. He is next to Max Lorenz as the greatest Wagnerian tenor of the first half of the 20th century.
Melchior made his debut after studying at the Royal Opera School in Copenhagen in 1913, first in the baritone role of Silvio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci, but then took singing lessons with Vilhelm Herold, a Danish Wagnerian tenor, who retrained him to the tenor. In 1918, he sang as Tannhäuser first time one of the great Wagner roles, although he continues to have participated baritone roles as needed. It was not until 1921 he decided to use a pure tenor career and left Denmark. In Munich, Melchior had continued form of the Wagner interpreter Anna Bahr - Mildenburg.
Lauritz Melchior's unique career as a Wagner interpreter began on May 14, 1924 in Covent Garden in London as Siegmund in Die Walküre. In the same year he made her first appearance at the Bayreuth Festival, a year later he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera. On February 17, 1926, there was a triumphant Tannhäuser Melchior's career at the Met in New York, to which he remained faithful until February 2, 1950. Particularly friendly relationship he remained Siegfried Wagner, the son of Richard Wagner, for whom he from 1924 until his death in 1930 ( and beyond even at the Bayreuth Festival in 1931) sang all the great tenor roles (except the Lohengrin ). Lauritz Melchior coined the Wagner opera with its powerful and clear, always colored baritone voice.
It is still unclear why Melchior his stage career ended abruptly in February 1950. Reports, his voice had lost much of its appeal, apparently go back to a deliberate disinformation of the former Met director Rudolf Bing. The penultimate Lohengrin performance is captured on tape - the voice of the 59 -year-old tenor sounds like there fresh and radiant. Melchior himself writes in his memoirs:
"After a Lohengrin idea I simply said: now runs the Swan all the way home."
Melchior is on Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen's Nørrebro buried.