Torsten Ralf

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Torsten Ralf (1901–1954)

Endowed with an irresistibly attractive voice combining great sweetness and heroism, the Swedish heldentenor Torsten Ralf hailed from a musical family. Two of his brothers had successful singing careers in Sweden but did not reach the heights of international fame that Ralf won. Trained as an engineer, Ralf eventually began his vocal studies with Haldis Ingebjart, who had taught the soprano Kirsten Flagstad and the bass Ivar Andrésen. After moving to Germany, he made his debut as Cavaradossi in Stettin. Karl Böhm hired him for the Dresden Opera, where he sang Apollo in the world premiere of Strauss’s Daphne. In 1935 he made his debut at Covent Garden, replacing an ailing Lohengrin. For this engagement, he was unable to book a flight to London and traveled by ship and train instead. Even though he arrived just three and a half hours before the performance, he sang exceptionally well. In the following London season, the Wagner biographer Ernest Newman lauded Ralf’s Parsifal as the best he had ever heard.

During the war, Ralf sang with the Berlin State Opera. He made his debut at the Met in 1946, singing Lohengrin under the baton of Fritz Busch. He also received great praise for his Walther von Stolzing, a role to which he was ideally suited. In 1952 he received the title of Court Opera Singer in Sweden.

Ralf died unexpectedly in 1954, but his voice lives on in several recordings he made. His Lohengrin excerpt "Das süsse Lied Verhallt" (recorded in 1939), with Tiana Lemnitz as Elsa, must be heard for its great subtlety and smoothness.