Ticho Parly

Ticho Parly (né Frederick Christiansen) (16 July 1928 – 21 June 1993) was a Danish-born Heldentenor who sang leading roles in most of the major opera houses of Europe as well as the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, where he debuted in 1966 as Tristan opposite Birgit Nilsson in Tristan und Isolde.

Parly was born in Copenhagen on 16 July 1928. He began singing as a treble in his homeland, and grew into a bass-baritone. After studying in Denmark, France, Italy and Switzerland, as well as Indiana University, he went to New Orleans, where he resided from 1957 to 1960. In the Crescent City, he studied with Charles Paddock (also the teacher of Thaïs St Julien, Anthony Laciura and Greer Grimsley) who "insisted" he become a tenor. In 1958 he made his operatic debut with the New Orleans Opera Association, in the secondary role of Pong in the local premiere of Turandot, conducted by Renato Cellini. The next year, he sang Flavio in Norma, as well as in Eine Nacht in Venedig, this last for The Experimental Opera Theatre of America.

Within a few months, however, Parly was starring in Continental theatres, including Aachen where he sang Radamès in Aïda. In the next few seasons, he would become acclaimed as one of the world's leading Heldentenors, appearing at Brussels (Les contes d'Hoffmann staged by Maurice Béjart, 1961), Wuppertal (as Mephisto in Busoni's Doktor Faust and in Peter Grimes, 1962), Lisbon (the Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten, 1962; and Herodes in Salome, 1975), Kassel (Die Frau ohne Schatten and Siegfried, 1962; and Tannhäuser conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi, 1964) and Amsterdam (Doktor Faust, 1962; and as Prince Chouïsky in Boris Godunov, 1989).

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