Franz Völker

A tenor with a voice of dramatic size and strength, Franz Völker wisely avoided the most heroic roles of Richard Wagner where he could not compete in sheer volume with such a phenomenon as Lauritz Melchior. Yet, as Lohengrin, he was the only artist to rival the Danish tenor for beauty of sound and adherence to legato tone production. With or without such imposing competition, the German tenor still would have been celebrated as a superior singer, not lacking intensity, but holding first and last to full-throated, polished vocalism: proof that a bel canto approach did indeed ex...