Anthony Rolfe Johnson

Anthony Rolfe Johnson, a British tenor celebrated for the luminosity of his voice and the breadth of his repertoire, built a substantial recording legacy while earning particular admiration as an interpreter of Bach, Haydn, and, above all, Mozart. Born in London in 1940, he began singing in his local church choir as a child, displaying early promise as a boy soprano; that gift led to a HMV recording of the song “Jesus Is My Joy,” though he did not yet envision music as a profession. His teenage years were spent on the family farm, after which he completed a degree in agriculture. During the 1960s he ran a cattle farm in Sussex, often serenading the animals with hymns. At twenty-nine he joined the choir of St. Nicholas’ Church in Worth, where fellow choristers recognized his renewed vocal promise and urged him to train seriously. He therefore studied with Vera Rozsa and Ellis Keeler at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and received additional guidance from Peter Pears.

Following the completion of his studies in 1973, Rolfe Johnson made his operatic debut as Count Vaudemont in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. Two years later he received the John Christie Award after his Glyndebourne first appearance as Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. In 1978 he joined the English National Opera for the first time, singing Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. He also formed a recital partnership with pianist Graham Johnson and became a founding member of the Songmakers’ Almanac. Throughout the 1980s he maintained an active double career, touring and recording extensively as both opera singer and recitalist. In 1988 he debuted at Covent Garden in Handel’s Semele and simultaneously revived the Gregynog Music Festival. Three years afterward he made his New York debut at the Met, appearing as Idomeneo under John Eliot Gardiner’s baton—an engagement that established him as one of the conductor’s preferred tenors for the remainder of his career. Beginning in 1990 he also served as Director of Singing Studies at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies. In the later 1990s Alzheimer’s disease forced his retirement from the stage, and he died in 2010.