Torsten Ralf

Torsten Ralf was a Swedish tenor who studied in Stockholm with John Forsell and later in Berlin with Hertha Dehmlow, and made his stage debut at Stettin in 1930 as Cavaradossi. After engagements at Chemnitz and Frankfurt he joined the Dresden Staatsoper in 1935, remaining until the theatre closed in 1944, and there created Apollo in Strauss's Daphne in 1938. He sang regularly at Covent Garden between 1935 and 1939, and in 1936 was Bacchus in a single performance of Ariadne auf Naxos conducted by Strauss himself. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1945 to 1948 in the Wagnerian repertory, and was appointed Sweden's Hovsångare, or court singer, in 1952.