Producer and opera director James Conrad passed away in
Durban recently after a long illness. Head of the NAPAC (Natal Performing Arts Council) Opera and
Ballet departments, he was a well-known figure on the KZN performing arts scene
for many years:
James Conrad was born as Jacobus Coenraad Jacobs on a farm
near Carnarvon in the Karoo. He studied singing, violin and piano at
Stellenbosch University. Due to a wrist injury he specialized in singing and
accepted a lectureship at the University of Cape Town where he sang as a young
baritone with the UCT Opera Company.
In 1955 he went to London with the UCT Opera Company where
he took up a position as a news reader with the BBC while furthering his vocal
studies with Cuthbert Smith at the Royal College of Music. Being unhappy with
his lyric baritone voice, he trained himself as a dramatic tenor which resulted
in an engagement at Glyndebourne in 1959 as Erste Geharnischte in Die Zauberflöte in what turned out to be
Sir Thomas Beecham’s last appearance on the podium. Here he had the good
fortune to be heard by the Swedish Heldentenor, Sved Svanholm, who recommended
him for a DAAD scholarship to Detmold, Germany, where he studied with Professor
Frederick Hussler.
Whilst still at the academy he appeared as guest artist in
several small opera houses in Die
Zauberflöte and as Bacchus in Ariadne
auf Naxos. He also sang in the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and understudied
many major Wagnerian roles.
His first permanent engagement was at the Kiel Opera House
where he was heard by a Sadler’s Wells talent scout in the role of Corrado in
Scarlatti’s Griselda. This resulted
in a move to London in 1965, initially specifically to sing in the premiere of
Raymond Leppard’s revision of Monteverdi’s Orfeo
with original instrumentation.
At Sadler’s Wells he sang amongst other roles, Max in Der Freischutz and Florestan in Fidelio. He sang with conductors such as
Colin Davis, Strawinsky, Sawallisch, Knappertsbusch, Thomas Schippers, Vittorio
Gui and Raymond Leppard.
In 1966 he was offered a contract by Professor Leo Quayle to
return to South Africa for the opening of the new State Theatre. When this was
postponed, he was accepted for the position of Artistic Director for the Natal
Performing Arts Council where he sang Pollione in Norma. Unfortunately, the burden of administration and producing
necessitated an end to his singing career, especially since he had developed
asthma.
He produced many operas, including The Consul, La Traviata, Norma, La Bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen,
Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Il Trovatore, Faust, Nabucco and a 1920s
style La Traviata. Three South
African premieres were Ariadne auf Naxos,
Andrea Chenier (which won him the award for Best Director from the Durban
Critics Circle) and Salomé.
Invitations to produce overseas ranged from Tehran, where in
separate seasons he staged Der Fliegende
Holländer, Rigoletto (with Giuseppe Taddei) and Faust, to Barcelona where he produced Parsifal, which was also televised by Eurovision.
During the 1980s he tirelessly strove for the creation of an
opera house in Durban. With the support of the authorities and the Durban City
Council, the Playhouse complex became a reality. Artistically he felt that a
high point in his career was as producer of Der
Fliegende Holländer which was televised in its entirety by the SABC and
also shown on German television.
Unfortunately, with the rapid decline in financial support
for the arts, he took early retirement in 1989. He taught singing at the
University of Durban-Westville until the closure of the Music Department. He
subsequently continued teaching singing at his private studio, even after his
diagnosis with cancer in 2009. He was particularly proud of one his students,
Musa Nkuna, who is engaged in Germany and returned regularly to James to study
new roles.
It was only in the final months of his life that James was
unable to teach and, after a rapid decline in his health, he passed away on 1
January 2014.
The memorial service will take place on Friday (January 10) at
14h00 at the Frere Road/Glenwood Presbyterian Church in Esther Roberts Road,
Durban.
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