Lauritz Melchior

I wish to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the picture.

I wish to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the pictures.

As a boy, Melchior sang in a church choir, first as a soprano, then as a bass. At age 18, he started taking voice lessons in Copenhagen, as a baritone; he made his unofficial debuts in 1911 in a school production in Copenhagen as Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro, then in 1912 as Germont with a small touring company, and his official debut the following year at the Royal Opera Copenhagen, as Silvio. For the next few years, he sang in Copenhagen, mostly comprimario parts, but not exclusively: as Luna in 1916, in an attempt to help a nervous Leonora, he interpolated a high C at the end of the Luna-Leonora duet. It was that performance's Azucena, Sarah Cahier, who told him that he was actually a tenor, and advised him to restudy. He did so, with Vilhelm Herold.

In October 1918, he made his tenor debut as Tannhäuser, again at the Royal Opera Copenhagen. When that theater made some guest performances in London in 1920, the novelist Hugh Walpole was so impressed with Melchior's voice that he offered to pay for his further studies. So from 1922, Melchior trained for being a true heldentenor in London and Germany (with Victor Beigel, Ernst Grenzebach and Anna Bahr-Mildenburg). He resumed his career in 1924, and soon caused a sensation as Siegmund at Covent Garden: the epitome of the heldentenor was born, a baritonal voice of endless power and breath, but (unlike most other heldentenors) with an impressive high C.

The centers of his career were Covent Garden (1924–39), the Bayreuth Festival (1924–31), the New York Met (1926–50) and the Berlin Staatsoper (1925–39); as a guest, he sang at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Paris Opéra, in Brussels, Antwerp, Den Haag, Barcelona, Hamburg, Munich, Milano, Stockholm, Chicago, San Francisco or Buenos Aires. At the Met, he appeared on 519 evenings, in just seven roles – Wagner only (apart from concerts): Siegmund, both Siegfrieds, Tristan, Parsifal, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser.

After his 1950 Met farewell, Melchior continued to appear in concert, on radio and TV into the 1960s, with undiminished vocal power – and at least occasionally also in opera, the last time in Copenhagen in 1960, as Lohengrin. Already in the 1940s, he had begun to make use of his considerable comic talent as a (musical) film actor.

Reference 1: Youtube channel "Dead Tenors' Society"; reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 3

Many thanks to Anton Bieber for the rare Flaget recording, with label scan.

I would like to thank Daniele Godor for the recording (Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond in Danish).

I would like to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recording (Wälse!).

Reference: Eduardo Arnosi Lauritz Melchior, El coloso wagneriano, Buenos Aires, 1994