100 Greatest Singers: LAURITZ MELCHIOR

THIS PROJECT IS RESERVED ONLY FOR THE GREATEST! Melchior in this list? What´s your opinion? Please comment!

Lauritz Melchior, Tenor (1890-1973)

Giacomo Meyerbeer L´Africaine
Pays merveilleux (Mi batte il cor) sung in german (Land so wunderbar)
(Recorded 1929)

My personal opinion: You may love or hate Wagner, but you can´t ignore Lauritz Melchior. No other tenor was so much sovereign in his parts and distanced his rivales as he did.
His voice was big, bright and blessed with inconceivably energy. With this, Melchior often was criticised for only singing loud, but these critics were all nonsense. Comparing his recordings with other Wagner-tenors, Melchior was the most lyric one of it. Max Lorenz (great out of question) for instance was much more heroic.
To show how great Melchior indeed was, I don´t choose a Wagner performance. Please hear him at age 39 with the well known aria of Vasco da Gama Mi batte il cor, sung in german. This recording summarized all virtues of great singing.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Lauritz
• Melchior
• Wagner
• Bayreuth
• Siegfried
• Tannhäuser
• Lohengrin
• Tristan
• Max
• Lorenz
• Wolfgang
• Windgassen

[Ranicus]

Ein Widerspruch in sich: Ein lyrischer Heldentenor! Wunderschön in den leisen Passagen, und mit einer Strahlkraft versehen, die einen atemlos macht.

Grandios, ich weiß nicht was man noch sagen kann!

Wo gibt es einen neuen Melchior?

[wotan3000]

Bullshit!

Period.

He was known as a kind, light-hearted man.

Share your story here, because it would be the first I have heard showing any temperament problem.

Bravo, Melchior!

[Yitzhakhazak]

@qklq42

I have to agree with you. The steel in his high tones is typically Wagnerian. On the other hand why shouldn´t he sing Meyerbeer with a lyrical touch as he is doing it. I am sure he has enjoyed it a lot. Let´s enjoy it together with him.

[paulostroff99]

Heavenly.One of the true tenor greats of opera

[paulostroff99]

@wotan3000 --Bravo indeed.Why would one want to discredit such a fine man and artist.

[tomfroekjaer]

Lauritz Melchior was probably the best Heldentenor of all times - until now at least.

He was a charismatic, yet very mild and human, person with a great sense of humour (as evidenced in his performances with Victor Borge).

A nice person with a great voice. That he happens to be Danish, as myself, is of no importance.

[PEAinSwe]

Interesting and clever choice of music to illustrate his  technical and musical excellence.

But for me he is Tristan (with Flagstad as isolde). That is heaven!

[stevevandien]

@stevevandien --- LM in person. I've read many accounts by some who did. Virtually all suggest that one could not fully appreciate this great artist and his extraordinary voice otherwise --

[stevevandien]

@hiyadroogs I agree, absolutely:).  I don't think there was ever a true heldentenor who was better suited to the fach than Melchior. Just listing his virtues makes one exhausted (but I'll do it anyway:)): Huge, ringing tone; perfect balance (during his prime) between the registers; perfect pronunciation of vowels; absolute identification with the dramatic situation at hand; absolute control (again during his prime) of dynamics from fff to ppp. I wish that I could have heard -- read on --

[hiyadroogs]

@quakercub His personality DID match his talent! But he wasn't full of his own self importance like some of his colleagues. He wasn't 'precious' either about himself, or his art. He could occasionally be a little wayward musically, but musicality is not a quality best exhibited in tenors anyway. He was a charming man, who only fell foul of management because he liked to wander off for a beer when he wasn't required on stage. He had a wonderful sense of humour, & sent himself up all the time.

[hiyadroogs]

@stevevandien What I particularly love about Lauritz's singing, is that you will never hear him rabble rousing. He always sings notes legitimately no matter how arduous the piece. He never screams, forces, or bellows the note, but always holds the voice within the limits of its natural production. The sound quality & power always came from correct production, rather than from athleticism. Like Tamagno, he sang on the interest of his voice, never the capital.