Lauritz Melchior

Lauritz Melchior earned distinction as the earliest major Wagnerian heldentenor whose performances reached disc, while he likewise became the first operatic tenor heard on radio. Collectors and scholars continue to regard his discs as the standard against which every later Siegfried and Tristan is measured. The extent of what vanished became apparent after he and his wife left Germany in 1939; soldiers from both German and Russian forces took over and stripped the residence, and unpublished recordings from the collection served as targets during practice.

Melchior began vocalizing in childhood once a paying guest in his father’s home, himself a voice instructor, offered lessons to the children of the household. He frequently escorted his blind sister to opera performances, where her responses taught him how forcefully a voice alone could convey drama even in the absence of visible stage action. Following the pattern of many later heroic tenors, he launched his professional path as a baritone and, for a short interval, as a bass; he first worked privately with Paul Bang and, after reaching twenty-one, entered the Copenhagen Royal Opera School. His formal debut occurred in 1913 when he sang Silvio in I Pagliacci at the Royal Opera, where he remained for several seasons, progressing from supporting parts to principal assignments and appearing poised for a steady Verdi baritone career that included the role of di Luna in Il Trovatore and the elder Germont in La Traviata.

One colleague, after hearing him deliver an unwritten high C during an Il Trovatore performance, informed the Royal Opera directors that Melchior possessed the makings of a heldentenor. The management concurred and arranged further training under the tenor Wilhelm Herold. Melchior returned to the Copenhagen stage as a tenor in 1918, taking the title role in Tannhauser, though doubts about his technique lingered. In 1919 a wealthy patron persuaded conductor Henry Woods to hear him, resulting in a London appearance at the Proms in 1920. Author Hugh Walpole, another supporter, supplied a substantial stipend that allowed continued study and helped sustain Melchior’s family. Covent Garden first presented him in 1924 as Siegmund. After auditioning for Siegfried Wagner, he made his Bayreuth debut that same year in Parsifal and went on to assume leading parts there, among them the celebrated 1930 Tristan und Isolde led by Toscanini, who bestowed the nickname “Tristanissimo,” continuing until shortly before World War II. His Metropolitan Opera debut took place in 1926 as Tannhauser; he appeared regularly until 1950, when Rudolf Bing, newly installed as general manager, declined to extend the contract.

Following that decision Melchior withdrew from the operatic stage yet remained active in films and operettas, performed on radio—including a Copenhagen broadcast of the first act of Die Walküre on his seventieth birthday—and traveled with his own concert company.