Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior (1890-1973) was a renowned Danish tenor celebrated for his powerful voice and distinguished career in opera, particularly in the works of Richard Wagner. Born in Copenhagen, he began his formal vocal training at eighteen and debuted as a baritone in 1913 before transitioning to tenor roles. Melchior gained prominence with key performances, including his roles in *Tannhäuser* and *Tristan und Isolde*, which showcased his heldentenor capabilities. He made significant debuts in major opera houses, including Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera, where he performed over a thousand times across more than thirty-five roles. His collaborations included notable sopranos and conductors, enhancing his reputation in the Wagnerian repertoire. In addition to opera, Melchior recorded extensively and appeared in film musicals, leaving a rich musical legacy. Active until his later years, he also established a foundation to support aspiring heldentenors, ensuring his influence on future generations of singers.
Subject Terms
Lauritz Melchior
Danish operatic tenor
- Born: March 20, 1890
- Birthplace: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Died: March 18, 1973
- Place of death: Santa Monica, California
Regarded as one of the most preeminent heldentenors of the twentieth century, Melchior was known especially for his performances of the heavy Wagnerian roles. He was the leading Wagnerian tenor at the Metropolitan Opera from 1926 to 1950, as well as at other major opera houses in Europe and the Americas.
The Life
Lauritz Lebrecht Hommel Melchior (LOW-rihtz leh-BREKT HOH-mehl MEHL-kyohr) was born to Jørgen Conradt Melchior, the owner and coprincipal of a private school, and Julie Sofie Møller, a mother of six who died less than a month after the birth of Lauritz. He started his formal vocal studies at the age of eighteen under Poul Bang and received theatrical training from Peter Jerndorff. In 1913, he made his debut in the baritone role of Silvio in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen. In 1917, following the advice of the American contralto Madame Charles (Sarah) Cahier, he studied with the noted Danish tenor Vilhelm Herold and made his second debut at the same theater in 1918 as a tenor in the title role of Tannhäuser (1845), by Richard Wagner. He also studied with Victor Beigel in London, Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin, and Anna Bahr-Mildenburg in Munich.
Melchior had several important debuts in 1924, singing the role of Siegmund in Wagner’s Die Walküre (1870) at Covent Garden in London, and the role of Parsifal in Wagner’s opera of the same name at the Festival House in Bayreuth. In 1926, he made his first appearance in the United States as Tannhäuser at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Besides frequent appearances at Covent Garden (1924-1939), Bayreuth (1924-1931), and the Metropolitan Opera (1926-1950), he also performed regularly at the State Operas of Berlin (1924-1934) and Hamburg (1927-1930), as well as in Philadelphia (1929-1948), Buenos Aires (1931-1943), Boston (1934-1942), San Francisco (1934-1945), and Chicago (1934-1945).
The Music
Throughout his career, Melchior sang more than thirty-five roles in more then eleven hundred staged performances. Among the most notable collaborators in his Wagnerian performances were sopranos Frida Leider, Kirsten Flagstad, Helen Traubel, and Lotte Lehmann, as well as conductors Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Sir Thomas Beecham. Besides his many Wagnerian roles, he sang Radames in Aïda, the title role of Otello in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (1892), John of Leyden in Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète (1849), Samson in Camilla Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila (1877), Florestan in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fidelio (1805), Turiddu in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (1890), and Sverkel in Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann’s Liden Kirsten (1846).
Melchior also appeared in thousands of concerts; his repertoire included operatic and musical-theater pieces as well as Scandinavian, German, English, and American songs. He retired from opera in 1950 but continued to appear in concert and on radio and television. One of his final performances was in a 1960 radio broadcast of the first act of Die Walküre with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1960, which was performed as part of a celebration of his seventieth birthday.
Early Works. Before his debut as a tenor in 1918, Melchior performed baritone or bass roles in Denmark, including Douphol and Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata, Brander in Charles Gounod’s Faust, Morales in Georges Bizet’s Carmen, Ottokar in Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz, and Antonio in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (1786; The Marriage of Figaro). He also made several recordings as a baritone on Danish HMV (His Master’s Voice) between 1913 and 1915.
Tannhäuser. A romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, Tannhäuser is based on two separate medieval legends and the song contest on the Wartburg. The title role marked Melchior’s debut as a heldentenor (a tenor who specializes in Wagnerian roles) at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen in 1918 as well as his first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1926. He performed both the Dresden (1845) and Paris (1861) versions, for a total of more than 140 performances in the major opera houses in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Argentina, England, and the United States.
Tristan. Wagner’s composition of Tristan und Isolde was inspired by his relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck and by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. A music drama in three acts based on a romance by Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan und Isolde (c. 1210) is considered by many to be one of Wagner’s most important works. Melchior made his debut in the male title role at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 1929 and subsequently sang it 222 times; it was the role he most frequently performed.
Lohengrin. A romantic opera in three acts created in the years 1845 to 1848 by Wagner to his own libretto, Lohengrin centers on the legend of the Holy Grail set in Antwerp during the tenth century. Melchior made his debut of the title role at the Hamburg State Opera in 1927 and performed the Knight of the Swan more than one hundred times. Because of disagreement with Rudolf Bing, the Metropolitan Opera’s general manager, Melchior departed from the Metropolitan after his last performance of Lohengrin in February of 1950; the performance also marked his last operatic appearance on any stage.
Musical Legacy
Dead at the age of eighty-two, Melchior left behind a legacy of more than three hundred 78-rpm recordings, dating from 1913 into the 1950’s on such major labels as Odeon, Danish, German, and English HMV, Nordisk Polyphon, Polydors, Parlophon, Victor, Columbia, and M-G-M Records. He also appeared in radio comedies and television shows and performed in five Hollywood film musicals, including Thrill of a Romance (1945), Two Sisters from Boston (1946), This Time for Keeps (1947), Luxury Liner (1948), and The Stars Are Singing (1953).
Melchior received numerous awards and honors throughout his career and was made a Commander Cross of Dannebrog (Denmark), a Knight Commander Cross of El Merito (Chile), and a Commander Cross of the White Rose (Finland). A few years before his death, he established his own Lauritz Melchior Heldentenor Foundation through the Juilliard School of New York. The foundation provides cash scholarship awards to promising heldentenors. Among the award recipients are William Cochran, Gary Lakes, Timothy Jenkins, and Ian DeNolfo.
Principal Works
operatic roles: Silvio in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, 1913; Tannhäuser in Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser, 1918; Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, 1919; Samson in Camilla Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, 1919; Sverkel in Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann’s Liden Kirsten, 1920; Parsifal in Wagner’s Parsifal, 1924; Siegmund in Wagner’s Die Walküre, 1924; Turiddu in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, 1924; John of Leyden in Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète, 1928; Jean van Leyden in Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète, 1929; Tristan in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, 1929; Radames in Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, 1930; Florestan in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fidelio, 1933; Lohengrin in Wagner’s Lohengrin, 1950; Otello in Verdi’s Otello, 1960.
Bibliography
Albright, William. “Great Dane in the Morning: Musings on the Centenary of Lauritz Melchior.” The Opera Quarterly 7, no. 4 (1990): 110-129. Written to celebrate the centenary of Melchior’s birth, this article gives an account of the criticism he received in the early stage of his career.
Emmons, Shirlee. Tristanissimo: The Authorized Biography of Heroic Tenor Lauritz Melchior. New York: Schirmer Books, 1990. An informative biography of Melchior, covering his life, career, and travels. Features a detailed list of sources, as well as the third and expanded edition of the Melchior discography compiled by Hans Hansen.
Melchior, Ib. Lauritz Melchior: The Golden Years of Bayreuth—With Text and Photographs from the Scrapbooks of Lauritz Melchior. Fort Worth, Tex.: Baskerville, 2003. Written by Melchior’s son, a filmmaker and screenwriter, this authentic biography focuses on the years between 1923 and 1931 at Bayreuth. Contains text from Melchior’s scrapbooks, numerous photographs, and an accompanying compact disc.