Word: melchior
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Probably the best-known Wagnerian tenor of the century, Danish-born Lauritz Melchior, retired from the opera stage 19 years ago. Since then, he observes accurately enough, "there has been no one to replace me." One reason is that his major roles require a Heldentenor (heroic tenor), that rare breed of singer with the stature of a Valhalla deity, the projection of a diesel horn and the stamina of a Channel swimmer...
They are usually high baritones who take time off in their late 20s or 30s to ac quire a tenor's range and build up their voice. But careers move so fast now adays that few singers can afford to interrupt them. The result, says Melchior, is that "the breed has practically vanished." Most of the tenors who attempt these heroic roles are a bit jugendlich (youthful-sounding). Meantime, great dramatic sopranos like Birgit Nilsson are Isoldes in search of Tristans, and some of Wagner's finest music is scant ed in the repertory...
...Melchior, now 78, has been doing his part by scouring the ranks of young singers for potential Heldentenor ma terial. He formed his own Heldentenor Foundation five years ago, and by this year had raised enough money to offer some deserving prospect a year of sub sidized study and practice. Last week, at Manhattan's Juilliard School, he auditioned nine candidates from among 50 applicants around the country. The judges included Singers Nilsson and Alexander Kipnis and Juilliard President Peter Mennin. They picked not one but two winners, each of whom proved in extreme ways Melchior's dictum...
...Birnam Wood Country Club in Santa Barbara, Calif., to raise hosannas to Soprano Lotte Lehmann on her 80th birthday. It was the sort of occasion that called forth a telegram of congratulations from West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and commanded the presence of such votaries as Tenor Lauritz Melchior, Actress Judith Anderson and Conductor Zubin Mehta. "I am excited and overwhelmed," said Lehmann, who retired 17 years ago but still teaches master classes in voice at the University of California at Santa Barbara. "It is not everyone who can say, 'I have lived exactly as I wanted...
...exact copy of the first-night program. But little else was the same. At the birthday concert, the distinguished musicians in the black-tie audience far outnumbered those on the stage (among them: Composer Aaron Copland, Conductor Leopold Stokowski, Pianist Rudolf Serkin, Violinist Isaac Stern and retired Tenor Lauritz Melchior). Ticket prices were set as high as $35 (regular concerts currently bring an $8.50 top). The orchestra, which merged in 1928 with the rival New York Symphony and became the Philharmonic-Symphony Society, has doubled from the original 53 players, to 106. What was once a daring program, with...