Tenors

Torsten Ralf

Torsten RalfSwedish tenor. He studied singing with Haldis Ingebjart in Stockholm, the with Hartha Dehmlow in Berlin.  Made his debut as Cavaradossi (Tosca) in Stettin, in 1930.  He sang at Chemnitz in 1932/33 then in Frankfurt between 1933-1935.  He then moved to Dresden where was based for the next 8 years.  He first sang at Covent Garden in 1935 where he remained a firm favourite, noted for his reliability until the outbreak of WW11.  He made his Metropolitan debut in 1945 as Lohengrin and Tannhauser and returned there again as Parsifal in 1947. His final appearance at Covent Garden was in 1948 as Radames. He had a large voice with full and powerful top notes and was a conscientious musician, faithful to to composer’s intentions.  Indeed, when he sang ‘Celeste Aida’, ending the aria with a diminuendo as written, rather than with the usual stentorian forte, he was met with only a smattering of applause!  He died tragically early at the age of 53.