Endowed with a powerful voice and a finesse of line, Welsh tenor Stuart Burrows has distinguished himself in Mozart operas as well as in Baroque oratorios, melodies and songs from his native country. Born in Cilfynydd, near Pontypridd, Wales, on February 7, 1933, James Stuart Burrows made a name for himself as a child with his soprano voice and as a choirboy, performing at local festivals and ceremonies. He studied singing at Bargoed and won a competition in 1954, before continuing his studies at Trinity University College, Carmarthen, and giving his first concerts and recitals. Engaged by the Welsh National Opera in Verdi's Nabucco in 1963, he went on to perform a number of roles, including Verdi's Macbeth and Rigoletto, Puccini's La bohème, Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Smetana's La Fiancée vendue. In 1967, he appeared at the Athens Festival in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and inaugurated a twenty-two-year collaboration with the Royal Opera House in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. On stage and on record, he became a specialist in Mozart operas, dubbed "The King of Mozart" for his performances in The Magic Flute (1970) and Don Giovanni (1979) with Georg Solti, or Don Giovanni (1973), La Clémence de Titus (1977) and The Abduction from the Seraglio (1988) with Colin Davis (1977). Other memorable recordings include Donizetti's Maria Stuarda (1971), Handel's Messiah with Karl Richter (1973), Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust with Seiji Ozawa (1974), Donizetti's Anna Bolena with Julius Rudel (1973), Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with Solti (1975) and Berlioz's Requiem with Leonard Bernstein (1976). He also recorded a recital of Mozart arias(Mozart Arias, 1976) and several volumes devoted to Welsh melodies. Stuart Burrows has sung on the world's greatest opera stages, from La Scala in Milan to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and on tours of Australia and Japan. Appointed Honorary Doctor of the University of Wales (1981), Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2007, the tenor died in Cardiff on June 29, 2025, at the age of 92.
