hats off to anyone named WIndgassen that went on to a great career as an opera singer

Max Lorenz, although sometimes casual about note values & not immune to some ad libbing, left the competition in the dust. At his best, you're not just listening to 'great Wagner singing', the character in all his complexity has come to life. Utterly thrilling!

Years ago, I became acquainted with the son of Jess Thomas who told me his dad was particularly proud of having performed Siegfried. According to him, there were quite a few Tristans out there, but not many Siegfrieds. We also touched on the subject of Wagnerian tenors having a tendency to die young.

No greatest Wagner Tenor list without the inclusion of Max Lorenz   Period!

Melchior,  Lorenz, Aldenhoff, Svanholm, Suthaus

If I could ask, Dave, Id love to see your take on the 5 greatest Verdi Baritones!

Melchior, Vickers, Windgassen, Lorenz, Jerusalem

Max Lorenz, Ludwig Suthaus and James King, all capable to combine great volume firepower with a beautiful lyrical voice.

Yes, it's a joy that we have and always have had great opera singers (of all types) in Sweden.

During curtain call in old met broadcasts, Milton Cross would refer to Melchior as " the greatest heldentenor or all time" . Very rare while a singing is still active. No one will ever surpass him. He sang Tristan over 200 times. The runner up for most tristans sang it 50 times. Pretty entertaining as a movie actor too." Luxury liner" for example. A jolly giant with lots of lovely white hair.

Add Max Lorenz and Carl Martin Ohman

Jan Vickers was like John Bonham, they built their strength doing farm chores. Ben Heppner also did Tristan and Rienzi.

Originally, Vickers was in training to become a doctor before he became an opera-singer.

Melchior was originally a baritone. There's a few recordings of him as young man singing baritone repertoire.

James King had great dictation in German, every word he sings you understand.

Melchior, Windgassen, Lorenz, Vickers, and James King. 🙂

I would not want to be without James King, a superb artist and an interesting guy.

Lauritz Melchior
Set Svanholm
Wolfgang Windgassen
Max Lorenz
Alberto Remedios

Max Lorenz, Hans Hopf, Helge Rosvaenge, Wolfgang Windgassen, Ernst Kozub

Here is my list :

The Five Greatest Wagner Tenors
Max Lorenz
Set Svanholm
Lauritz Melchior
Jon Vickers
Wolfgang Windgassen

There is a Bartered Bride on YouTube from the Bavarian State Opera where Mařenka enters on a tractor.

I am so glad you included Svanholm.  As well as his magnificent Loge for Solti he did a great Wotsn for Fjeldstad, that is still available on Eloquence Australia.
Please consider doing a list of bass-baritones. Those roles are way more interesting than the tenor ones.