The following is an article written by Henning Viljoen in Scenaria magazine (April 1986)
JAMES CONRAD, tenor, born 1932 (Carnarvon)
James Conrad is known as a producer and head of opera and ballet of NAPAC [Natal Performing Arts Council] for the last two decades, but before he returned to South Africa in 1966, he established himself as one of those rare breeds of heldentenors in Germany and England.
James (Jacobus Jacobs) was born in Carnarvon in 1932. After attending school in Carnarvon and Victoria West, he first enrolled as a law student at the University of Stellenbosch, but soon changed to music. He obtained diplomas in singing, violin and pianoforte. Initially he concentrated on violin and pianoforte, but a broken wrist led to his first singing lessons. In 1955 James became a junior lecturer in singing at the College of Music in Cape Town. Here he took part in his first operas. As a member of the Cape Town Opera Company he toured Britain singing a leading role as a baritone in Menotti's The Consul. On this tour he also gave a recital of Janáček songs in the Wigmore Hall in London.
James decided to stay in London accepting a post as an Afrikaans radio announcer at the BBC, while he continued his studies in singing – as a dramatic tenor and no longer as a baritone. His first break came when he was offered the leading role in the Liverpool Repertory Company's production of Stoker's musical The Londonderry Heir. Soon afterwards, in 1960, he sang in the Glyndebourne production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. This performance led to a recommendation by the famous tenor Set Svanholm for a German exchange scholarship. This enabled him to enrol at the Detmold Academy for Music where he studied voice production and repertoire from 1960 to 1963. During the holidays he sang in the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and he was highly acclaimed for his rendition of Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos which was produced by the Opera School of the Academy in Herfordt.
In 1964 James was engaged as a tenor at the Opera House in Kiel, singing roles such as Bacchus and Florestan (Fidelio). In 1965 Sadlers Wells contracted him as a dramatic tenor, where he sang Bacchus, Florestan and Max (Der Freischütz). The following year he was invited to become principal tenor of PACT [Performing Arts Council of Transvaal] but at the same time he was offered the position of Head of Opera in NAPAC. James accepted the position as Head of Opera in Durban, and in 1968 he also became Head of Ballet. Since his return to South Africa with his former wife Ines-Maria, a musician in her own right, and his three daughters, James almost stopped singing and mainly established himself as a producer. Apart from producing operas such as The Consul, La Traviata, Nabucco, Norma, Faust, Lucia di Lammermoor and Carmen among others, he also produced the South African premieres of Ariadne auf Naxos and Andrea Chénier which won him the award for the Best Director from the Durban Critic's Circle. James also produced operas in Iran and Spain. In separate seasons he staged Der Fliegende Holländer, Rigoletto (with Giuseppe and Luciana Serra) and Faust in Teheran. In Barcelona he produced Parsifal with Eva Randova, Hermin Esser and Rolf Kuhner at the Teatro del Liceo which was televised by Eurovision, as well as Die Walküre.
At present he is married to Rosalie Hunt, the chorus-mistress at NAPAC. As far as his future plans are concerned he intends to use the new facilities of the Playhouse to its full potential in adventurous new productions.
