Obituary: Tenor Stuart Burrows Dies at 92
By Francisco SalazarOn June 29, 2025, Welsh Tenor Stuart Burrows died at the age of 92.
Born on Feb. 7, 1933, in South Wales, Burrows sang soprano as a boy from his bedroom window to neighbours on the street below. He went on to give his first solo performance as a congregation member at the local Bethel Chapel.
Burrows was a rugby player who was offered a contract by Leeds Rugby League Club, but did not take it and instead began his working career as a teacher in Bargoed.
Additionally, he trained as a tenor and started to gain attention for his recitals. He would perform the music of Beethoven, Berlioz, Schubert, Sullivan, Tippett, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Offenbach, and Handel.
In 1963, he made his debut at the Welsh National Opera as Ismaele in Verdi’s “Nabucco.” In 1967, he went on to the Athens Festival in the title role of Stravinsky’s “Oedipus rex,” making a huge impression.
He went on to make his Royal Opera House debut in 1967 in “Fidelio” and would sing with the company until 1989. He sang “The Magic Flute,” “Faust,” “Falstaff,” “Don Pasquale,” “Maria Stuarda,” “La sonnambula,” “Don Giovanni,” and “La Clemenza di Tito,” the opera with which he gave his last performance.
His international career took him to the Metropolitan Opera, where he performed seven times, San Francisco Opera, Teatro alla Scala, the Wiener Staatsoper, and on a tour of Japan.
He also performed with many prestigious orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Boston Symphony, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Throughout his career, he made many live and recorded performances and appeared on the small screen in Australia, North America, and Europe, including a BBC television series called Stuart Burrows Sings.
He also received numerous prizes, such as an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wales in 1981, a fellowship from Trinity College, Carmarthen in 1989, an honorary fellowship from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth, and an honorary plaque affixed to a Le Shuttle locomotive granted by Eurotunnel in 1992. In 2007, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 2008, he received the Freedom of the Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf.
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