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

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

, mostly famous for his roles in

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

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 The Royal Danish Academy of Music, or Royal Danish Conservatory of Music (), in Copenhagen is the oldest professional institution of musical education in Denmark as well as the largest, with approximately 400 students. It was established in 186 ...

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 most populous city in the United States of America. 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 Smit ...

'' 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 (born Jan Mieczysław Reszke; 14 January 18503 April 1925) was a Polish dramatic tenor and opera star. Reszke came from a wealthy Polish family with classical and operatic musical traditions. His mother gave him his first singing ...

in 1911.

Lauritz Melchior Lauritz Melchior (20 March 1890 – 18 March 1973) was a Danish-American opera singer. He was the preeminent Wagnerian heldentenor of the 1920s through the 1940s and has come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type. Late in his car ...

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 (; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was King of Denmark from 1912 until his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, holding the title as a result of the personal union between Denmark and independent Ice ...

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 An Assistens Cemetery () is a cemetery that functions as an expansion of another, older cemetery often in relation to a city church. Already by the end of the 17th century, Danish authorities deemed that the conditions for inner-city cemeteries we ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

References

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