An article by Gilles Denizot
While searching for documents on the Heldentenor Lauritz Melchior I discovered an eloquent article signed by the eminent music critic Lawrence Gilman, published on March 21, 1929 in the New York Herald Tribune. This essay narrates the debut of the great Danish Heldentenor at the former Metropolitan Opera House of New York in the part of Tristan. It stimulated my reflection about Heldentenors, more specifically in Wagner’s Tristan.
“A New Tristan at the Metropolitan : Lauritz Melchior’s Performance, a Notable Event”
Yesterday was the thirty-ninth birthday of Mr. Lauritz Melchior, the Metropolitan’s Wagner tenor and Mr. Melchior, evidently an unselfish and altruistic person, celebrated the occasion by making a present to New York operagoers of a new Tristan. The party, to be sure, was arranged by the Metropolitan for its Wagner Cycle subscribers; but the major gift of the occasion was the generous donation of Mr. Melchior.
It was one worth having. We see no need for making any bones of the fact that Mr. Melchior disclosed himself as not only the best Tristan in the Metropolitan’s present company, but one of the best that has been heard here in a decade. In fact, we cannot recall a Tristan since the dim days before the war who has sung the music so well as Mr. Melchior did yesterday.
A good deal of it he sang more than well. There was often beauty of tone, beauty of phrasing, beauty and a delicate truth of sentiment, in Mr. Melchior’s singing – especially in the quieter passages of the love duo (“O sink hernieder” was sung almost wholly in tune by both the enraptured lovers). In the Vision scene of the Third Act, Mr. Melchior’s “Siehst du sie? Siehst du sie noch nicht?” was of rare tonal loveliness – even more poetic in timbre and texture than the tone-color achieved by the horn quartet in the succeeding cantilena that sustains the wondrous song of the dream-haunted lover.
Mr. Melchior’s medium register is especially responsive, and when the music’s tessitura favors him, and he can still sing mezza voce, the results are grateful to a degree that can be understood only by those who have suffered, as so many of us have, from the hideous brazen bawling, the tonal mayhem committed by a majority of the Metropolitan’s Heldentenors during recent years.
Mr. Melchior did not yell, and most Tristans, sooner or later in that terrific Third Act, resort to yelling. He treated the great fortissimo outbursts of his part as Wagner expressly said that he wished them treated: that is to say, he sang the notes; he did not shout or declaim them, as certain of his Wagner colleagues at the Metropolitan indefensibly do. Even the desperate and terrible “Verflucht, weh dich gebraut!” which few Tristans can resist the temptation to deliver parlando, was really sung: one heard, wonder of wonders, the F, the D flat, the C and the octave F.
This is scarcely to say that Mr. Melchior has nothing to learn as a “Tristan” singer. But the point, the important point, is that he delivered the music of the role – which is so essentially a prodigious adventure in impassioned song – with a sensitive perception of its shape, its hue, its symmetry; and he did this without depriving the music of its expressional significance. The song was packed with meaning – even exceptionally so: we do not recall that any recent Tristan has voiced the hysterical despair of his “Verloren!” in the scene of the arriving ship as Mr. Melchior did yesterday.
No doubt Mr. Melchior will convey to us more of the complexity and subtlety of the part as he continues to live with it (he made his first appearance in the role only two months ago at Barcelona). In action he is still a bit immobile, and he turned the necessary reserve of his first scene with Isolde almost into apathy. The sense of tension was insufficiently conveyed.
In aspect the new Tristan is surprisingly personable. His generous size is turned shrewdly to account. The face is bearded – acquiring gravity and a hint of epic romance. The costuming is felicitous. Altogether, a welcome Tristan. We salute him, and wish him many happy returns. Surely Mr. Gatti will introduce this Tristan to his regular subscribers, now that he has met the fanatical Wagnerian band !
Lawrence Gilman, New York Herald Tribune, March 21, 1929
Copyrights: New York Herald Tribune – New York Times Studio – Musical America Archives
Heldentenor “Fach” or Vocal Category
“Heldentenor” is the German word for “heroic tenor”. Heroic as in heavy, weighty, solid, dramatic, forceful, robust, and – in Will Crutchfield’s words – able to come back “again and again with immense power to the same few notes in the upper midrange, without fatigue, without faltering”.
According to Richard Miller (“Training Tenor Voices” Schirmer Books, p.9 and following), the Heldentenor is primarily a Wagner singer. His repertoire includes Tannhäuser, Siegmund, Tristan, Siegfried, and Parsifal. His Passaggio notes are generally C4-F4, which is approximately a tone below those of the “lyric tenor”, and half a tone below the “spinto tenor”. On the other hand, they are identical to the register changes of the “dramatic tenor” and parallel to some Heldenbariton (heroic baritones) whose Passaggio notes can be close to Bflat3-Eflat4.
One must differentiate:
- the lyric tenor who debuted as Tamino or Rodolfo and who, when maturity allowed, approached a selection of more dramatic tenor roles. For instance: Heinrich Knote, Walter Widdop (debuts as Radames in 1923, excellent in Handel oratorios), Franz Völker, Ludwig Suthaus, Gotthelf Pistor (originally an actor then debut as Froh in Bayreuth in 1925), Fritz Wolff (debut as Loge in Bayreuth in 1925), Carl Hartmann (debuts as Tannhäuser in 1928), Max Lorenz, Torsten Ralf, Wolgang Windgassen, Hans Hopf, Jon Vickers (debuts as Duca, famous Peter Grimes, Otello, and Tristan).
- the dramatic baritone or the high baritone (sometimes wrongly categorized as middle-voiced singer) who debuted in parts such as Jago or Escamillo, and who reaches the Heldentenor repertoire by pushing chest voice higher than health recommends. William Vennard (“Singing, the Mechanism and the Technic” Carl Fischer Music 1967, p.79, par. 283) mentions that the Heldentenor may develop from a “spinto tenor”, but is more often a “pushed-up baritone”. Vennard acknowledges the rarity of such voices.
- the robusto tenor, a naturally heavier voice, slightly lower than lyric tenors, and whose “high-voice” category is not immediately diagnosed. This type of singer will drown in a lower tessitura when not recognized as a future dramatic tenor. He is often deprived of an appropriate technical training, especially as regards to the higher Passaggio. Some of the greatest dramatic tenors have debuted as baritones, because of the teacher’s incapacity to identify the tenor voice (heavier and darker than the light and brighter quality more commonly associated to tenors) or to train the tenor’s upper Passaggio and high register. For instance: Lauritz Melchior (debuts as Silvio in I Pagliacci in 1913, tenor debuts in Tannhäuser in 1918), Ramon Vinay (baritone debuts as Conte di Luna, then tenor debuts as Don Jose, finally back to the baritone repertoire in 1962 as Telramund), Set Svanholm (debuts as baritone then tenor debuts as Radames), Paul Kötter, Jean de Reszke, Placido Domingo (debuts as baritone then Borsa in 1959).
This third category includes some impressive names. It is more than a simple mistake in Fach diagnosis. Singers presented a peculiar voice, whose true nature remained undetected at the beginning of their training.
The Transition from Baritone to Heldentenor
Lauritz Melchior’s example is significant: he began vocal studies in 1908 (at 18) supervised by Paul Bang at the Copenhagen Royal Opera School. Five years later on April 02, 1913, he debuts at the Copenhagen Opera as Silvio, a baritone part, and also sings Germont’s famous “Di Provenza” as well as Brander, Conte di Luna, Morales, and Ottokar. Madam Charles Cahier (who premiered Mahler’s “Lied von der Erde”) once heard Melchior’s high C. On her recommendation, he was allowed a sabbatical leave and a scholarship to study. Between 1917 and 1918, Melchior is trained by Danish tenor Vilhelm Herold who had sung Wagner at Covent Garden, in Chicago, and Copenhagen between 1900 and 1915.
Melchior’s tenor debuts took place on October 8, 1918 in Copenhagen as Tannhäuser. He also sang Canio and Samson. Another scholarship allowed Melchior to perfect his voice until 1923 with Victor Beigel, Ernst Grenzebach and the legendary dramatic soprano of Vienna, Anna Bahr-Mildenburg. The re-opening of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus – foreseen for 1924 – was approaching and Melchior was committed to it as Siegmund and Parsifal. He also had sung in Berlin with Frida Leider in 1923.
In 1924, finally, after two years of “silence”, he was ready to face the operatic world. His Heldentenor’s real debuts happened at Covent Garden as Siegmund on May 14, 1924. It was a considerable success. Some weeks later, he was Siegmund and Parsifal in Bayreuth. He then sang eight Tannhäuser at the Met, sadly without real enthusiasm from the audience. The second season offers him only one single performance. Melchior needed a permanent engagement with the Hamburg Opera and his debuts as Lohengrin, Otello, Radames and Jean de Leyden (Le Prophète, Meyerbeer) to be recognized. The real triumph at the Met occured on March 20, 1929 as Tristan and the success did not stop until his farewell performance on the same stage on February 2, 1950 as Lohengrin.
The greatest Heldentenor thus needed to train his voice from 1908 to 1924 (16 years!) before he could really sing in his true Fach. That is why Lauritz Melchior, convinced that “one is not born Heldentenor but that one becomes one”, created a program intended to help potential Heldentenors. He knew that the transition from baritone (real one or wrongly classified as such) to Heldentenor requires time, money, and moral support, during the off-stage years.
Technical Specificities and Training
The Heldentenor possesses the heaviest instrument of all tenors. He must face a long tessitura, sustain notes that are frequently situated in the Passaggio or in the medium register, without thickening the voice, and all this mostly along a powerful Wagnerian orchestral sound.
Because of their strengthened muscular structure (compared to most female singers), the male singers’ vocal training generally takes more time. The Heldentenor case is the most difficult of all because one deals with the heaviest instrument in a high tessitura. Alan R. Lindquest considered the dramatic tenor to be the most complex voice to train. It is necessary to discipline the muscle structure: focus the voice without pushing while trying to sing high and loud. It is necessary to learn to sing “light and loud” simultaneously. One needs to gain flexibility in vocal training. The elasticity of the Heldentenor muscular system (especially of the rib cage) is required.
One should train the voice of the dramatic tenor “from the top down”. The nature of the “tenore robusto” is to offer very rich low and medium registers. If the singer weighs down these two registers, it becomes impossible for him to lighten the mass of the vocal folds on ascending scales in the Passaggio and above. The burden laid on the cords prevents the healthy laryngeal pivot. The singer then has to stop singing or needs to push breath and force his vocal cords to phonate as high and loud as possible. It is damaging to push the heavy mechanism (or chest voice) higher than reasonable. In contrast it is essential to favor narrow tones in the low and medium registers (while keeping the color of the tenor voice), and a flexible and fully-mastered Passaggio. The high range is then released just like any other lyric tenor, but with this special ring and “laser-like” quality demanded by the Heldentenor repertoire.
The incorrect technical training (beyond the appealing pitfall of singing “wide” in the low and medium registers) comes within the very notion of “dramatic voice”. When one sings well, the voice possibly shows to be of dramatic intensity and/or color. It has nothing to do with “singing dramatically “by pushing breath. When the voice is released, it reveals its true qualities. The listener may in turn qualify it as dramatic, whereas the singer does not perceive his own color. The Canadian tenor Ben Heppner considered himself to be a lyric tenor, even though he is perhaps today’s leading Tristan.
Singing Wagner
During a production of Wagner’s Ring at the Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet, conductor Jeffrey Tate mentioned the palette of nuances in Wagnerian singing. Wagner explicitly requested some “piano singing”. The early Wagner is closer to Bel Canto composers such as Spontini, Weber, or Meyerbeer. Voice teachers at the time used to train singers according to this School of Singing so they necessarily mastered the Italian technique. True, Tristan und Isolde is a more modern score. Yet certain Heldenteor arias request a Bel Canto vocal technique: “Allmächt’ger Vater” (Rienzi – 1842) with its typical Italian ornaments (the main theme’s grupetto) or Erik’s cavatina (Der fliegende Holländer -1843). The “tenore di grazia” usually sang Lohengrin, along with Roméo or Des Grieux. I am fortunate to own my great-grandfather’s score of “Tristan”: his performance schedule indicates that he was alternatively singing Tristan, Cavaradossi, and Faust. The Heldentenor should thus protect the flexibility of his voice.
“Tristan is globally the big dramatic tenor” (François Grandsir, in “Guide des Opéras de Wagner”, Fayard Editions. However, he first needs a lyric tenor voice. Then during the major part of act I, the singer should never allow the heavier voice to show up, in spite of a wide range (C#3-A4). There must be flexible and pleasant vocal lines with short breaths. Tristan suddenly gives more voice only from the 5th scene onwards. Singing Tristan implies the mastery of vast vocal capacities. The extensive singing in the area of the high medium (Passaggio) and the repetition of high and fortissimo notes (cf. the entry of the love duet) represent some of the characteristic difficulties of the role.
The first Tristan was Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld on June 10, 1865 in Munich. Wagner held this tenor in respect for his unequalled vocal intensity, for his indefatigable energy, and for his magnificent vocal production. Lauritz Melchior sang the part 223 times, more than any other role of his repertoire, and recorded it at least six times:
- 1936 Fritz Reiner (with Flagstad) Covent Garden London
- 1937 Arthur Bodanzky (with Flagstad) MET New York
- 1937 Thomas Beecham (with Flagstad) Covent Garden London
- 1941 Erich Leinsdorf (with Flagstad) MET New York
- 1941 Identical cast (except Traubel instead of Flagstad) Golden Age
- 1948 Fritz Busch (with Traubel) MET New York
A “rare spiritual quality” (Ernest Newman), ”the softest diminuendo, melodious parlando, – a sign of heroism – and not a fake Sprechgesang” (Christophe Capacci): Melchior’s expressive range includes the typical German’s “Sehnsucht” or longing, which balances the heroism of the role. One needs only to listen to “O König” (Act II): Melchior behaves as a musician and not as a large-voiced singer. Melchior dominated the Wagnerian stage during more than thirty years. In 1960, on his 70th birthday, Melchior sang Siegmund (Act 1) in a Copenhagen concert. The recording stunningly proves that Melchior still mastered his voice. It is evidently unfair to say that Wagner ruins voices.
“What makes someone heroic?”
Friedrich Nietzsche was 17 years old when he discovered “Tristan und Isolde”. His answer to the question above was: “To simultaneously face one’s heaviest pain and one’s highest hope”. This may well be a definition of the Heldentenor: a heroic desire to rise up to the highest notes of the male voice, yet with the heaviest tenor instrument. Lauritz Melchior undoubtedly succeeded.
© OperaLab Gilles Denizot – All Rights Reserved