Niels Jacob Hansen (March 23, 1880 – September 19, 1969) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

, mostly famous for his roles in

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

Career

Niels Hansen studied as an artist but turned to singing and trained with Valdemar Lincke in Copenhagen, who discovered that the young singer held great potential. He made arrangements to train at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 1906 to 1908. He made his debut in Copenhagen as Rodolfo in a 1909 production of ''

La Boheme LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

'' at the Danish Royal Theatre, starting a career as one its favorite tenors for forty years. He went to Paris and studied with

Jean de Reszke Jean de Reszke (14 January 18503 April 1925) was a Polish tenor and opera star. Reszke came from a musically inclined family. His mother gave him his first singing lessons and provided a home that was a recognized music centre. His sister Josep ...

in 1911.

Lauritz Melchior Lauritz Melchior (20 March 1890 – 18 March 1973) was a Danish-American opera singer. He was the preeminent Richard Wagner, Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and has come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type. Late i ...

was Hansen's understudy at the Danish Metropolitan Opera for a little while in 1921. He was appointed as Kongelig Kammersanger (Royal Chamber Singer), a prestigious title given only to about fifty opera singers since 1700, by the monarch

Christian X Christian X ( da, Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was List of Danish monarchs, King of Denmark from 1912 to his death in 1947, and the only List of rulers of Iceland, King of Iceland as ...

Family and personal life

His parents were typographer Niels Jacob Hansen (ca. 1856-80) and Birthe Kirstine Christensen (born 1853). He also had 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl. He is buried at

Assistens Cemetery Assistens Cemetery ( da, Assistens Kirkegård) is the name of a number of cemeteries in Denmark. The common nominator is, as the first part of the name implies (Latin: ''assistens'' meaning assisting), an assisting cemetery for a town's churches. ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

References

Danish operatic tenors 1880 births 1969 deaths Singers from Copenhagen 20th-century Danish male opera singers {{Denmark-opera-singer-stub