John Horton Murray

Born into a US family residing in Berlin, he studied voice at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. After winning prizes in singing competitions in 1988 and 1989, he started his career in concert and oratorio in the US and the UK. From 1990, he was a member of the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang secondary parts like the Bojar in Boris Godunov (his debut role), the Fifth Jew in Salome, the First Armed Man in Zauberflöte, the High Priest in Idomeneo, the Messenger in Aida or Lerma.

After a successful Don José at the New York City Opera in 1995, he would sing main roles: Menelas in Die ägyptische Helena at the Garsington and Baden-Baden festivals (1997 and 1998, respectively), in 1999 German in Gent and Bacchus in Santa Fe, in 2000 Parsifal at the Edinburgh Festival.

From 2001, he sang again at the Met every now and then: the Emperor in Frau ohne Schatten; Énée, but also still Andres and Walther von der Vogelweide.

Establishing himself as an international dramatic tenor, he sang at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in Frankfurt, Glasgow, at Covent Garden, in Belfast, Barcelona, at the Arena di Verona, at La Scala, in Geneva, Nancy, Angers, at the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet, in Hong Kong, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, Santiago de Chile. In the 2000s, he sang a lot in Mannheim. His career petered out in the 2010s.

He also published some of his own compositions.

Reference 1 and top picture source: Murray's website; reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens

I would like to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recording.

Repertory: Fidelio, La damnation de Faust, Les Troyens, Carmen, Rusalka, Její pastorkyňa (Laca), Káťa Kabanová (Boris), Die tote Stadt, Pagliacci, Boris Godunov (Grigorij), Madama Butterfly, La bohème, Tosca, Turandot, Ariadne auf Naxos, Daphne (Apollo), Die ägyptische Helena (Menelaus), Die Frau ohne Schatten, Pikovaja dama, Aida, Otello, La forza del destino, Die Walküre, Der fliegende Holländer (Erik), Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Parsifal, Siegfried, Tannhäuser, Der Freischütz, Fidelio.