Tenor, born in Copenhagen, Denmark. His career began as a baritone (in Pagliacci, 1913), then from 1918 he appeared as a tenor, making his Covent Garden debut in 1924. One of the foremost Wagnerian singers of the century, he sang at Bayreuth (192431) and regularly at the New York Metropolitan (192650).
Lauritz Lebrecht Hommel Melchior - often misspelled Melchoir - (March 20, 1890 – March 18, 1973) was a Danish, later American opera singer. Wagnalls, 1936.)
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the young Melchior was a boy soprano and amateur singer before starting his first operatic vocal studies under Paul Bang at the Royal Opera School, Copenhagen, at age 18 in 1908.
In 1913 Melchior made his debut in the baritone role of Silvio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the Royal Theatre (Det Kongelige Teater) in Copenhagen. He sang mostly secondary baritone and bass roles for the Royal Danish Opera and provincial Scandianavian opera companies for the next few years.
One night, while on tour, Melchior helped an ailing soprano in Il Trovatore by singing a high C in the Act IV Leonora-Di Luna duet. She even wrote to the Royal Opera pleading that Melchior be given a sabbatical and a stipend to restudy his voice.
In 1920, Melchior visited England, singing in an experimental radio broadcast to the Scandinavian capital cities from the Marconi Station in Chelmsford. From 1920, Melchior was a frequent performer in London, appearing at Sir Henry Joseph Wood's Promenade Concerts in Queens Hall. Additional studies under Victor Beigel, Ernst Grenzebach and the legendary dramatic soprano of the Vienna Court Opera, Anna Bahr von Mildenburg, kept Melchior occupied until 1923.
On 14 May 1924 Lauritz Melchior made his debut, as Siegmund, at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London. Some weeks later Melchior made his debut on the stage of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth in the rôles of Siegmund and Parsifal. In his first season at the Met Melchior sang only 8 times.
Although Melchior sang at most of the theatres and concert halls of the Western world during his long career, he is perhaps best remembered as a member of the Metropolitan Opera company, where he sang 519 performances of his Wagnerian roles between 1926 and 1950. Melchior's breakthrough at the Met finally arrived with his performance of Tristan on 20 March 1929. It was Lohengrin's Farewell which served as Melchior's "swan song" in his last stage performance, on 2 February 1950.
Melchior appeared at Covent Garden from 1924 to 1939, also as Otello and Florestan, besides the Wagnerian repertory.
Melchior made very many recordings, first as a baritone on Danish HMV, then as a tenor for Deutsche Grammophon—Polydor (1923-1930), English and German HMV (1927-1935), RCA Victor (1938-1941) American Columbia (1942-1950) and lastly Warner Brothers. His final appearance with Danish radio in 1960, a performance of the first act of Die Walküre to celebrate his 70th birthday, was recorded and constitutes a terrific souvenir of the indestructible, indeed almost supernatural Melchior in full flight.
Some of Melchior's most notable colleagues in the opera houses of the world included the sopranos Frida Leider, Kirsten Flagstad, Lotte Lehmann, Helen Traubel, Marjorie Lawrence and Elisabeth Rethberg and the conductors Felix Weingartner, Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Fritz Reiner, Thomas Beecham, Arturo Toscanini, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, and Otto Klemperer.
Between 1944 and 1952, Melchior performed in 5 Hollywood musical films for MGM and Paramount Pictures and made numerous US television appearances.
Following his unofficial retirement around 1955, Melchior made sporadic singing appearances. In the late 1960s, he set up a fund through Juilliard for the training of potential heldentenors called "The Lauritz Melchior Heldentenor Foundation."
An American citizen since 1947, Melchior died in Santa Monica, California in 1973.
Bibliography
Emmons, Shirley: Tristanissimo: The Authorized Biography of Heroic Tenor Lauritz Melchior New York, Schirmer Books, 1990
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