Bryn Terfel

Bryn Terfel CBE
Terfel in September 2010
Background information
Birth name	Bryn Terfel Jones
Born	9 November 1965 (1965-11-09) Pant Glas, Gwynedd, Wales
Occupations	Opera singer (Bass-baritone)

Bryn Terfel Jones CBE (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈbrɨn ˈtɛrvɛl]; born 9 November 1965) is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner.

Biography

Bryn Terfel Jones was born in Pant Glas, North Wales, the son of a farmer. His first language is Welsh, but he became proficient in English as he grew up. He knew of another Welsh baritone named Bryn Jones, so chose Bryn Terfel as his professional name. He had an interest in and talent for music from a very young age. A family friend taught him how to sing, starting with traditional Welsh songs. After winning numerous competitions for his singing, he moved to London in 1984 and entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied under Rudolf Piernay. (He has recorded that he initially applied to the music college in Cardiff but when the reply was addressed to ‘Miss Terfel’ he was so annoyed a Welsh College did not know Bryn was a man's name that he switched to London.) He graduated in 1989, winning both the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Award and the Gold Medal. The same year he came second behind Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition, but won the Lieder Prize.

Career

In 1990, Terfel made his operatic début as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at the Welsh National Opera, and later in the same season he sang the title role in The Marriage of Figaro, a role with which he made his debut with the English National Opera in 1991. His international operatic career began that same year when he sang the Speaker in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and he made his United States début as Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera.

In 1992, Terfel made his Royal Opera House, Covent Garden début as Masetto in Don Giovanni, with Thomas Allen in the title role. That same year he made his Salzburg Easter Festival debut singing the role of the Spirit Messenger in Die Frau ohne Schatten. This was followed by an international breakthrough at the main Salzburg Festival when he sang Jochanaan in Strauss's Salome. He went on to make his début as Figaro at the Vienna State Opera and his debut at Covent Garden as Masetto in Don Giovanni. That year, he also signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and returned to the Welsh National Opera to sing Ford in Falstaff. In 1993, he recorded the role of Wilfred Shadbolt in The Yeomen of the Guard, by Gilbert and Sullivan and sang Figaro to acclaim at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Terfel has said that he would like to record "an album of Gilbert and Sullivan arias".

In 1994, Terfel sang Figaro at Covent Garden, and made both his Metropolitan Opera and Teatro Nacional de São Carlos débuts in the same role. He also sang Mahler's Eighth Symphony at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Levine. However, back surgery in 1994 (and again in 2000) prevented him from performing in several scheduled events. In 1996, he expanded his repertoire to include Wagner, singing Wolfram in Tannhäuser at the Metropolitan Opera, and Stravinsky, singing Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress at the Welsh National Opera.

In 1997, Terfel made his La Scala début as Figaro. In 1998, he had a recital at Carnegie Hall which included works by Wolf, Fauré, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, and others. In 1999, he performed in Paris the title role of Don Giovanni for the first time and sang his first Falstaff at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; the latter of which he reprised in the inaugural production at the newly refurbished Royal Opera House.

In 2007, Terfel performed at the opening gala concert for the re-dedication of the Salt Lake Tabernacle with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on April 6–7. Later, he performed the title role in a concert version of Sweeney Todd that had four performances from July 5 to July 7 at London's Royal Festival Hall. This idea came from Terfel and his fellow bass-baritone and friend, the Irishman Dermot Malone.

Terfel has not shied away from popular music either. He has recorded CDs of songs by Lerner and Loewe and Rodgers and Hammerstein. In 2001 he commissioned and performed 'Atgof o'r Ser' ('The Memory of Stars') in the National Eisteddfod with the composer Robat Arwyn.

In September 2007, Terfel withdrew, to severe criticism, from Covent Garden's Ring Cycle when his six-year-old son required several operations on his finger. But he did successfully return to the Met in November 2007 to sing the role of Figaro. He told reporters in New York that he will now retire Figaro from his repertoire.

Terfel intended to take 2008 as a sabbatical from opera performances, but broke this to take the title role in WNO's revival of Falstaff. He had sung in this production in 1993, when he played the role of Ford.

In 2009 Terfel sang Scarpia and the Dutchman for the Royal Opera House.

In 2010, Terfel made his debut as Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger in a production for Welsh National Opera, in Cardiff and on tour. On 17 July 2010, the cast of this production gave a "concert staging" at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the 2010 BBC Proms, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and on BBC Four television. On 31 July, again at the Proms, he performed in a concert from the Royal Albert Hall celebrating the works of Stephen Sondheim, in his 80th birthday year.

Terfel took on the role of Wotan for the premiere performances of Robert Lepage's new Met staging of Wagner's Ring 2010-2012. He sang the role in all three of the four Ring operas that feature Wotan: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried.

In September 2011, Terfel joined Andrea Bocelli in his concert at the great lawn of Central Park, performing for over 70,000 people. In December 2011, he opened the season in La Scala as Leporello in Don Giovanni.

Personal life

He is married to his childhood sweetheart, Lesley; the couple have three children: Tomos, Morgan, and Deio Sion. The family lives in Bontnewydd, near Caernarfon, Gwynedd. Terfel was a leading petitioner in the creation of Bontnewydd railway station on the rebuilt Welsh Highland Railway, and in part sponsored its construction.

Honours and awards

Bryn Terfel continues to be a patron of the Welsh language and Welsh culture, facets of his life which are largely unknown outside his native Wales. Terfel has been awarded the honour, by the National Eisteddfod, of becoming a member of the Gorsedd of Bards. The Gorsedd was created in 1792 as a celebration of Welsh heritage, and inductees are considered to have contributed to Welsh culture.

In 2003, Terfel became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, receiving the honour from the Prince of Wales. In 2006, he became the second recipient of the Queen's Medal for Music (the previous recipient was conductor Sir Charles Mackerras). In 2008, he was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford.

Terfel is also President of the Welsh homelessness charity Shelter Cymru and is Patron of Bobath Children's Therapy Centre Wales, a registered charity based in Cardiff which provides specialist Bobath therapy to children from all over Wales who have cerebral palsy.

Faenol Festival

Starting in 2000, Terfel started the Faenol Festival near Snowdonia in Wales. Billed as "Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival" (often referred to as "BrynFest" or known in Welsh as "Gŵyl y Faenol"), it turned into an annual music festival featuring internationally famous opera singers as well as popular Welsh artists. In the same year he released We'll Keep a Welcome - The Welsh Album, an anthology of favourite traditional songs. In 2009 and again in 2010, he was forced to cancel the festival because of low public bookings, after having been voted a £250,000 grant by the Welsh Assembly.

Operatic repertoire

These are roles that Terfel has performed on stage:

Composer	Opera	Role	In repertoire	Recorded
Britten	Peter Grimes	Balstrode	1995	No
Donizetti	L'elisir d'amore	Dulcamara	2001	Yes (DVD)
Gounod	Faust	Mephistopheles	2004	Yes (DVD)
Mozart	Così fan tutte	Guglielmo	1991	No
Mozart	Don Giovanni	Masetto	1992	Yes
Mozart	Don Giovanni	Leporello	1991	Yes
Mozart	Don Giovanni	Don Giovanni	1999 –	Yes
Mozart	Die Zauberflöte	Speaker	1991	No
Mozart	Le nozze di Figaro	Figaro	1991–2007	Yes
Offenbach	Les contes d'Hoffmann	Four Villains	2000	Yes (DVD)
Puccini	Gianni Schicchi	Gianni Schicchi	2007	No
Puccini	Tosca	Scarpia		Yes
Puccini	Madama Butterfly	Sharpless	1996	No
Richard Strauss	Die Frau ohne Schatten	Der Geisterbote	1992	Yes
Richard Strauss	Salome	Jochanaan	1993	Yes
Sondheim	Sweeney Todd	Sweeney Todd	2002 –	No
Stravinsky	The Rake's Progress	Nick Shadow	1996–2000	Yes
Stravinsky	Oedipus Rex	Creon	1992	Yes
Verdi	Falstaff	Falstaff	1999 –	Yes
Verdi	Falstaff	Ford	1993	No
Wagner	Das Rheingold	Donner	1993	No
Wagner	Das Rheingold	Wotan	2005 –	No
Wagner	Die Walküre	Wotan	2005 –	No
Wagner	Siegfried	The Wanderer	2011 -	No
Wagner	Tannhäuser	Wolfram	1998	No
Wagner	Der fliegende Holländer	Holländer	2006 –	No
Wagner	Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg	Hans Sachs	2010	Concert staging of Welsh National Opera production broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four television as part of BBC Proms

External links

• Bryn Terfel at Official Deutsche Grammophon site
• Terfeliaid: Official site for followers of Terfel
• www.brynfest.com Faenol Festival
• Bryn Terfel biography from BBC Wales
• Bryn Terfel Interview at What's on in Wales