Stuart Burrows
Encyclopedia
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
.
Biography
The CilfynyddCilfynydd
Cilfynydd is a village in South Wales a mile from the South Wales Valleys town of Pontypridd, and 13 miles north of the capital city Cardiff.- History :...
-born singer scaled the peaks of musical distinction during his lengthy career which saw him give up teaching to pursue a new life on the opera stage. He was of a unique pedigree, having been born in William Street, which was the same birthplace as fellow opera star Sir Geraint Evans
Geraint Evans
Sir Geraint Llewellyn Evans was a Welsh baritone or bass-baritone noted for operatic roles including Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and the title roles in Falstaff and Wozzeck...
, Welsh rugby international Glyn Davies
Glyn Davies (rugby player)
Glyn Davies was a Welsh international rugby union fly-half who played club rugby for a large selection of clubs but most notably for Pontypridd and Cambridge University. He won eleven international caps for Wales including a win over the touring 1947 Australia team...
and politician Lord Merlyn-Rees.
He began his working career as a teacher in Bargoed
Bargoed
Bargoed is a town in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, one of the South Wales Valleys. It lies on the Rhymney River in the county borough of Caerphilly and straddles ancient boundary of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. 'Greater Bargoed', as defined by the local authority Caerphilly County Borough Council,...
but his magnificent talent as a tenor soon brought him enduring fame and good fortune. His recitals included works by Beethoven, Berlioz, Schubert, Sullivan, Adams, Tippett, Tchaikovsky, Mallote, Mahler, Offenbach and Handel. He has earned worldwide recognition for being adept at oratorios, operas and specialising in the music of Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti and especially Mozart, earning him the title of "The King of Mozart".
It was a far cry from the days when he sang as a boy soprano from his bedroom window to neighbours on the street below. As a member of the congregation at the local Bethel Chapel he first performed as a soloist by singing "Bless This House
Bless This House (song)
"Bless This House" is a song. The words were written by Englishwoman Helen Taylor, a poet, under the original title "Bless the House." The music was composed by Australian May Brahe, a friend of Taylor's. It was published in 1927....
".
He occupied the top rung of the operatic lyric tenor ladder for 20 years from the mid-1960s, particularly known for his fine performances of Mozart's works. Few people realise he could have been a professional rugby player before converting his career to the opera and concert stage.
In 1963, Stuart Burrows debuted with the Welsh National Opera as Ismael in Verdi's Nabucco
Nabucco
Nabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue...
. In 1967, his phenomenal performance during the Athens Festival
Athens Festival
Athens - Epidaurus Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in Athens and Epidaurus, from May to October. It is one of the most famous festivals in Greece. The festival includes musical, theatrical and other cultural events....
brought him international acclaim. The well-crafted version of Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus rex
Oedipus rex (opera)
Oedipus rex is an "Opera-oratorio after Sophocles" by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin...
was certain evidence of Stuart being one of the world's finest lyric tenors of all time. It was a performance requested by Stravinsky himself.
He performed in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
in Brussels; Madam Butterfly in Vienna; in Milan, he played in Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
; he performed both in L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
and The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
in San Francisco; Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
at the Paris Opéra
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
; in Buenos Aires, he performed in Tales of Hoffman at the Theatre Cologne and at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Belgium; the Mozart Requiem at the Cardiff Festival of Choirs in Wales; Don Giovanni at the San Diego Opera
San Diego Opera
The San Diego Opera Association is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California and is a member of OPERA America. It was founded in 1950 to present productions by San Francisco Opera in the San Diego area...
; and many times with the Royal Opera including roles in Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
and La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
, and touring both Japan and the USA.
He made his debut with La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in Milan in 1978 singing the title role in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust. In New York, Stuart has been accompanied with the talents of Sir Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
, Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
, Seiji Ozawa
Seiji Ozawa
is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
, among others at the prestigious Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. He has also appeared in major roles at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York City for more consecutive seasons than any British singer and collaborated with several other top flight orchestral organisations including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Boston Symphony, the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
. He has also had several professional performances in the rarefied altitudes of Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
.
Although well known for live and recorded performances, Stuart was no stranger to television. He has appeared on the small screen in Australia, North America and Europe, including a successful BBC television series called Stuart Burrows Sings which featured a variety of different periods and genres over an eight-year period.
The success of this musical review made it possible for more annual televised performances to follow. In 1981 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wales at Cardiff. A Fellowship was awarded to him in 1989 from Trinity College, Carmarthen
Trinity College, Carmarthen
Trinity University College was a university college in Carmarthen, Wales. In 2010, it merged with the University of Wales, Lampeter to become the new University of Wales, Trinity Saint David.- History :...
where he also launched an International Singing Competition. The University of Wales at Aberystwyth presented him with an Honorary Fellowship and in 1992 the Eurotunnel granted him his own honorary plaque affixed to a Le Shuttle locomotive.
His work for other organizations is prolific, having recently established an international voice award in Carmarthen's Trinity College where he studied as a young man. He is also the president of a variety of charitable organizations throughout south Wales, devoting much of his time to raising funds for these worthy causes.
External links
Sources
- Powell, Dean: Cilfynydd (2005), Tempus Publishing Ltd