A. Rolfe Johnson | Farmer, opera star, 69

Anthony Rolfe Johnson, 69, an Englishman who began his professional life as a farmer and ended it as a distinguished lyric tenor who had performed to glowing notices in the world's most storied opera houses and concert halls, died July 21 in London.

His death was announced on the website of his management company, Askonas Holt. Mr. Rolfe Johnson had been ill with Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Rolfe Johnson, who did not begin formal training until he was nearly 30, eventually sang leading roles on opera stages including those of Covent Garden in London, the Paris Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera, where he appeared 20 times in the 1990s.

He recorded widely and was a soloist with major orchestras, including the Chicago and Boston Symphonies and the New York Philharmonic.

He was born in the Oxfordshire village of Tackley; as a boy he sang in his church choir. By the time he was a teenager, however, he had decided to study agriculture and spent most of his 20s farming in Sussex.

In his late 20s, seeking a hobby, he joined a local choir. On hearing him, a fellow chorister sent him to sing before a prominent voice teacher in London. There - and by all accounts to his immense astonishment - Mr. Rolfe Johnson was told that properly trained, he stood to become a world-class singer.

Before long, he had enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He found himself years behind his classmates, unable even to read music. He soon learned, and eventually studied privately with the distinguished English tenor Peter Pears, composer Benjamin Britten's life partner.

In 1992, he was made a Commander of the British Empire. - N.Y. Times News Service