Biography

Anthony Rolfe Johnson was a British tenor vocalist known for his brilliant voice and vast repertoire. He was a prolific recording artist and a respected interpreter of Bach, Haydn, and especially Mozart. Rolfe Johnson was born in London in 1940, and he sang in his church choir beginning at a very young age. He was a talented boy soprano and recorded the song "Jesus Is My Joy" with HMV, but he didn't consider singing as a career option until he was an adult. He spent his teen years on his family's farm, and later earned a degree in agriculture. In the 1960s, he managed a cattle farm in Sussex, and he sang hymns to the livestock while he worked. When he was 29 years old, he joined the choir at St. Nicholas' Church, in Worth, where his vocal talents were rediscovered. He was encouraged by other members of the choir to develop his singing and pursue a career in music. This led him to study with Vera Rozsa and Ellis Keeler at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and he also received instruction from Peter Pears. After he completed his studies in 1973, Rolfe Johnson made his operatic debut as Count Vaudemont in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, and in 1975 he won the John Christie Award for his Glyndebourne debut performance in the role of Lensky from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Rolfe Johnson sang with the English National Opera for the first time in 1978 as Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute. He also performed recitals with pianist Graham Johnson and was a founding member of the Songmakers' Almanac. He toured and recorded extensively in the 1980s in a successful dual career as both an opera singer and as a recitalist. In 1988 he made his debut at Covent Garden in a production of Handel's Semele, and that same year he also relaunched the Gregynog Music Festival. Three years later, he made his debut in New York at the Met with John Elliot Gardiner conducting Mozart's Idomeneo, and he became one of Gardiner's top choices for tenor roles for the rest of his career. Rolfe Johnson was also an educator and beginning in 1990 he held an appointment as the Director of Singing Studies at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies. Later in the 1990s, he began suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which led to his retirement from performing and ultimately his death in 2010. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi