The lyric tenor Stuart Burrows (b. 1933) was
born in the small coal-mining village of Cilfynydd just
north of the town of Pontypridd in South Wales. By some quirk
of coincidence he was born, eleven years later to the month,
in the same street as another illustrious Welsh singer, the
lyric baritone Sir Geraint Evans. Life in such mining villages
in that period was harsh and earning a living as a coal miner
involved appalling working conditions as well as significant
dangers. Such harsh living fostered community camaraderie
as well as a shared work purpose and concern for safety.
This camaraderie extended to a rich cultural life associated
with the local miners club and the Chapel, both having a
proud choral tradition. Every miner hoped his son would not
have to follow him down the pit and education was gloried
in a manner long forgotten in what are now too often culturally
deprived backwaters. The role of the teacher was held in
high esteem and was also seen as a reachable aspiration.
It was possible for a bright lad to afford to train as a
teacher in the immediate post Second World War period whatever
his social origins and Stuart Burrows did so. He was also
aware of his own vocal skills and he entered the singing
competition at the Welsh National Eisteddfod in 1954, winning
a major prize. This determined him to train his voice. He
débuted with the Welsh National Opera in 1963 and rapidly
went on to Covent Garden (1967), the Met (1971), Vienna,
Paris and both the Easter and Summer Festivals at Salzburg
as well as other major centres. Whilst his repertoire extends
over the lyric tenor roles including Hoffmann, Rodolfo and
Alfredo, it is in his singing of Mozart that he has excelled
in the theatre and on record. I was lucky enough to see him
as Ottavio in Don Giovanni
, Tamino in
Die
Zauberflöte and the title part of La Clemenza di Tito,
roles he also recorded with either Sir Georg Solti or
Sir Colin Davis with whom he also recorded Belmonte in
Die Entführung.
This recording covers both the roles he performs
on complete recordings and, most importantly, Ferrando’s arias
from Cosi fan tutte,
which, as far as I am aware, he did not record commercially.
It is not a compilation from the singer’s complete recordings
but a bespoke recording first issued by Decca’s subsidiary
Editions
de L’Oiseau-Lyre on one LP.
It catches Burrows in good expressive voice with characteristic
purity of tone throughout the range, elegant phrasing and
exemplary diction. These qualities are evident from the introductory
il mio Tesoro where
Burrows is able to translate Ottavio’s varied
emotions with skill (tr. 1). Perhaps the following
Dalla sua pace (tr.
2) is a better example of why his Mozart singing conquered
the world. There is the distinctive honeyed mezza voce singing as he caresses the phrases and, metaphorically,
his beloved Anna as he seeks to comfort her. The contrast
of the voice from the more acrid tones of the first aria
and its mood of revenge on Don Giovanni is pronounced with
the singer adding bite and metal to his tone and enunciation
of the text. His heady phrasing in
Konstanze! Konstanze (tr.
5) as Belmonte yearns to hear his
lover’s voice is full of expression and aspiration. I do
not doubt that in complete recordings of these operas Burrows
brought even more characterisation to his singing. It is
a significant mark of his knowledge and experience of these
roles that enables him to do so much with the words and phrases
and provides such great enjoyment here.
In a recording of Mozart arias by the lovely-voiced
Welsh soprano Margaret Price reissued in 2005, RCA managed
to combine the contents of two LPs and give over seventy
minutes of her singing at a comparable cost of this issue
(
see review).
Here Decca seem to working on the principle of giving the
least and charging as much as they can get. If a purchaser
wishes to see the original LP liner it is necessary to go
online and search for it, although the web reference is given.
As it is, not even the recording venue is given although
the names of the production team are. Despite the meagre
fare, Burrows’ really lovely and well-characterised singing
of these Mozart arias is a must-purchase for his fans, those
of the composer and lovers of good singing.
Robert
J. Farr
Stuart
Burrows (tenor) 
