Ralf, Torsten (Ivar)

views updated

Ralf, Torsten (Ivar)

Ralf, Torsten (Ivar) , Swedish tenor, brother of Oscar (Georg) Ralf; b. Malmö, Jan. 2, 1901; d. Stockholm, April 27, 1954. He studied at the Stockholm Cons. and with Hertha Dehmlow in Berlin. He made his operatic debut as Cavaradossi in Stettin (1930); then sang in Chemnitz (1932–33) and Frankfurt am Main (1933–35). He was a member of the Dresden State Opera (1935–44), where he created the role of Apollo in Strauss’s Daphne in 1938; was made a Kammersänger in 1936. He sang at London’s Covent Garden (1935–39; 1948) and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1946); made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Lohengrin on Nov. 26, 1945, and remained on its roster until 1948. He was best known for such roles as Walther von Stolzing, Tannhäuser, Parsifal, Otello, and Radames.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

More From encyclopedia.com