Trivia

Hansen also performed the roles of Don José in Bizet's Carmen and the hunter Konrad in the romantic opera Hans Heiling by Heinrich Marschner. As a baritone he took on the title character in Verdi's Rigoletto.

In 1925, with his film career behind him, Hansen took on the role as Director of the State Theatre of Thuringia, based in Gera. He held the role until 1930, rarely appearing on stage after this period.

He was successful too as a movie actor, and his movie "Die Herrin der Welt" (1919) was one of the most popular movies of that year at the same time.

During his career he mastered 150 roles using both singer ranges, but tended to prefer operettas.

He studied in Copenhagen at the Royal Chamber under the tutelage of baritone Albert Hoeberg (1879-1949) and the tenor Hermann Spiro.

As a young tenor he was popular in heroic leads and appeared in several classical Wagner interpretations, including the title roles in Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Parsifal and as Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

He asserted as a successful singer who took on roles as a tenor as well as a baritone.

In 1917 Hansen, now working in Berlin, branched into silent movies and in 1919 took on the romantic lead in The Mistress of the World.

When his singing career ended, he returned to Copenhagen where he became a music teacher. He later moved to Helsinki where he died in 1967 at the age of 81.

Hansen's initial occupation was as a copper-engraver but he harbored desires to become an opera singer.

He later traveled to Berlin, where he studied under both Louise Reuss-Belce and Lilli Lehmann. He extended his vocal range during his time in Berlin and by 1919 he was able to take on both tenor and baritone roles.

The Danish opera singer and actor Paul Hansen made his stage debut in 1908 in Copenhagen in "Lida Kirsten". He eventually went to Berlin where he got a training as a baritone.

In 1917 Hansen appeared in his film debut, Cavalleria Rusticana, based on the opera of the same name. His co-star on Cavalleria Rusticana was mezzo-soprano Emma Vilmar, who took the role of Lucia. The two became a couple and were later married.

Hansen made his operatic stage debut in Copenhagen at the Royal Danish Theatre in 1908 as a tenor, when he appeared as Sverkel in the romantic opera Liden Kirsten.