Category: Music

Ticho Parly (above, as Lohengrin) would have been my first-ever Tristan if I’d been able to secure a ticket for one of his 1966 Met performances of the role, opposite Ludmila Dvořáková. But every performance at the Met in that opening season was sold out well in advance, and so it was not until 1982 that I had the unexpected pleasure of hearing this estimable helden-tenor.

Born in Denmark, Ticho Parly went from being a treble to being a bass-baritone. It was while studying with Charles Paddock (the teacher of Anthony Laciura and Greer Grimsley) in New Orleans that Parly settled in as a tenor. He made his operatic debut with New Orleans Opera as Pong in Turandot.

Returning to Europe, the tenor sang at Aachen, Brussels, Wuppertal, Lisbon, Kassel, Amsterdam, and Vienna. He made his Bayreuth debut in 1963 as Walther von Stoltzing in Meistersinger, and returned to the Festival to sing Siegmund and Siegfried in 1966.

1966 was also the year of his Met debut, in the afore-mentioned Tristan und Isolde. Parly’s other Met roles were Erik in Fliegende Hollander and Aegisth in Elektra.

Ticho Parly’s career kept him shuttling between Europe and the Americas: he sang at Covent Garden, La Scala, Paris, Covent Garden, San Francisco, Mexico City, and at the Teatro Colón. His roles included Tannhauser, Parsifal, Loge, the Drum Major in Wozzeck, Herod in Salome, the Emperor in Frau ohne Schatten, Florestan, Bacchus, and Peter Grimes. He was active thru 1988, when he sang Otello in Denmark, and passed away in 1998 in Seattle where he had been teaching.

Here’s the story of my one opportunity to hear Ticho Parly live:

An enterprising organization called The Wagner International Institution offered the complete Ring Cycle in concert form at Northeastern University on Boston. The operas were given on four consecutive Sunday afternoons. My friend Paul and I decided to give the Walkure a try, prompted mainly by the fact that Roger Roloff was singing Wotan. We enjoyed it thoroughly, and immediately obtained tickets for the Götterdämmerung, scheduled for two weeks later.

Ticho Parly was not the announced Siegfried in the pre-publicity for this Ring, but on performance day, there he was onstage. He’d had a long career and I was unsure of what to expect from him, but here’s what I wrote the day after:

“Ticho Parly was a surprise Siegfried. He sang commandingly and sustained the long, often cruelly demanding part impressively. He had ample vocal heft, and the tone is still quite pleasant; his diction so clear, and his feeling for the music so sure. His third act was especially fine: a huge and sustained high-C on “Hoi-ho!” (greeting the hunting party) and a firm rendition of his long narrative. His final apostrophe to Brünnhilde was tenderly sung, and moving. In sum: an excellent performance!”

Mr. Parly recorded Siegfried’s farewell to Brünnhilde: here.

Mr. Parly and Gladys Kuchta sing the final duet from Siegfried from a 1966 NY Philharmonic concert conducted by Lukas Foss. Ms. Kuchta never quite makes it up the the concluding high-C but otherwise it’s a very interesting performance. Listen here.

~ Oberon