Bryn Terfel

Biography

Terfel was born in Pant Glas, Caernarfonshire, Wales, the son of a farmer. His first language is Welsh. He chose Bryn Terfel as his professional name to avoid confusion with another Welsh baritone, Delme Bryn-Jones. He had an interest in and talent for music from a young age. A family friend taught him how to sing, starting with traditional Welsh songs.

After winning numerous competitions for his singing, Terfel moved to London in 1984 and entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied under Rudolf Piernay. In 1988, he entered and won the Morriston Orpheus Choir Supporters' Association Young Welsh Singer of the Year Competition. He graduated in 1989, winning the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Award and the Gold Medal. The same year, he came second behind Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, winning the Lieder Prize.

Career

1990s

In 1990 Terfel made his operatic debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte for Welsh National Opera. Later in the same season, he sang the title role in The Marriage of Figaro, a role with which he made his debut with English National Opera in 1991.

His international operatic career began that same year when he sang the Speaker in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, and made his United States debut as Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera.

In 1992, Terfel made his Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut 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 debut as Figaro at the Vienna State Opera.

On 19 June 1992, Terfel made his U.S. concert debut singing in Mahler's Eighth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Levine. Also at the festival, on 22 June, he and Levine (at the piano) performed Schumann's Liederkreis (op. 39) and Schubert's Schwanengesang, and on 27 June, he was Abimélech in Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah (with Plácido Domingo and Denyce Graves in the title roles), also with the CSO under Levine. In January and February 1993, Terfel sang the role of Donner in Wagner's Das Rheingold at Lyric Opera of Chicago; Zubin Mehta conducted.

Also in 1992, he 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.

In 1994, Terfel sang Figaro at Covent Garden and made his Metropolitan Opera and Teatro Nacional de São Carlos debuts in the same role. 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 more Wagner, singing Wolfram in Tannhäuser at the Metropolitan Opera, and Stravinsky, singing Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress at the Welsh National Opera. These performances won him the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for the singer of the year.

In 1997, Terfel made his La Scala debut as Figaro. In 1998, he had a recital at Carnegie Hall, including 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 1999, Terfel performed the Rugby World Cup anthem "World in Union" with Shirley Bassey at the Millennium Stadium before the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final.

2000s

In 2000, Terfel said he would like to record "an album of Gilbert and Sullivan arias".

In 2003, Terfel hosted and performed on the stage with opera tenor José Carreras and soprano Hayley Westenra in front of a capacity crowd of 10,000 people at the Faenol Festival in Wales.

In 2007, Terfel performed at the opening gala concert for the re-dedication of the Salt Lake Tabernacle with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on 6–7 April. Later, he performed the title role in a concert version of Sweeney Todd that had four performances from 5–7 July at London's Royal Festival Hall. This idea came from Terfel, his fellow bass-baritone and friend, the Irishman Dermot Malone.{{cite web |access-date = 14 June 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070616012824/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/108765.html |archive-date = 16 June 2007 |url-status = dead}}

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 Sêr' ('Memory of the Stars') in the National Eisteddfod with the composer Robat Arwyn.

In September 2007, Terfel withdrew, to severe criticism, from Covent Garden's Der Ring des Nibelungen when his six-year-old son required several operations on his finger. But he successfully returned to the Met in November 2007 to sing the role of Figaro. He told reporters in New York City that he would retire Figaro from his repertoire. But he sang the role of Wotan in Covent Garden's revival of Der Ring from September to November 2012.

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.

Since 2010

In 2010, Terfel debuted 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 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 Der Ring, 2010–12. He sang the role in all three of the four Der Ring operas featuring Wotan: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried.

In September 2013, Terfel collaborated with Mormon Tabernacle Choir released the album Homeward Bound which reached No. 58 on the Official UK Charts.

In September 2014 Terfel reprised his role as Sweeney Todd in the Live from Lincoln Center concert production of Sweeney Todd, which was broadcast on PBS. This production also starred Emma Thompson as Mrs Lovett, Philip Quast as Judge Turpin, and Audra McDonald as The Beggar Woman. Terfel, Thompson, and Quest reprised their roles in 2015 with the English National Opera opposite John Owen-Jones and Katie Hall as Pirelli and Johanna at the London Coliseum.

In 2016, Terfel took the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, directed by Antonio Pappano at the Royal Opera House.

On 6 May 2023, Terfel performed a setting in Welsh, by Paul Mealor, of Kyrie eleison at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla in Westminster Abbey. This was the first time Welsh had been sung at a coronation service. On 7 May, he sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" in a duet with Andrea Bocelli at the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle.

In February 2024, Terfel released a new album, Sea Songs, on Deutsche Grammophon.

In 2025, Terfel was one of the coaches in Y Llais, a Welsh-language version of The Voice UK.

Personal life

Terfel was married to his childhood sweetheart, Lesley, in 1987 until their divorce in 2013. The marriage produced three children.

In 2017, Terfel and harpist Hannah Stone had a daughter. The couple married on 26 July 2019 at Caersalem Newydd Baptist Church in the bride's home city of Swansea.

Terfel was a leading petitioner in creating Bontnewydd railway station on the rebuilt Welsh Highland Railway and in part sponsored its construction.

Partial solo discography

• Bryn Terfel – Volume I (1988)
• Bryn Terfel – Volume II (1990)
• The Vagabond and Other Songs by Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Finzi and Ireland (1995)
• Something Wonderful (1996)
• Handel Arias (1997)
• We'll Keep a Welcome (2000)
• Some Enchanted Evening (2001)
• Under the Stars (2003), with Renée Fleming
• Bryn (2003)
• Simple Gifts (2005)
• Tutto Mozart! (2006)
• First Love (2008), songs from the British Isles
• Carols and Christmas Songs (2010)
• Homeward Bound (2013), with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
• Dreams and Songs (2018)
• Sea Songs (2024)

Welsh albums

File:Bryn Terfel Cyfrol 1 - Volume 1, album cover.jpg|Sain (Recordings) Ltd; 1988 File:Schwanengesang, album cover.jpg|Sain (Recordings) Ltd; 1990 File:Cyfrol 2 - Volume 2, album cover.jpg|Sain (Recordings) Ltd; 1990 File:Caneuon Meirion Williams - The Songs Of Meirion Williams, album cover.jpg|Sain (Recordings) Ltd; 1993 File:Hafan Gobaith - Another Day, album cover.jpg|Sain (Recordings) Ltd; 1995 File:Hafan Gobaith - Another Day 2003, album cover.jpg|Sain (Recordings) Ltd; 2003 File:Benedictus, album cover.jpg|Sain (Recordings) Ltd; 2005

Videography

• James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala (1996), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, B0004602-09

Honours and awards

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 membership 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.

• Morriston Orpheus Choir Supporters' Association (MOCSA) Young Welsh Singer of the Year (1988)
• Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2003)
• Queen's Medal for Music (2006)
• Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford (2008)
• Honorary Doctorate in Music, Bangor University (2012)
• Honorary Doctorate in Music, Royal College of Music (2012)
• Austrian Kammersänger (2022)

In 2006, the Hamburg-based Alfred Toepfer Foundation awarded Terfel its annual Shakespeare Prize in recognition of his life's work.

Terfel was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to music.

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.

Terfel is a vice president of the Dunvant Male Choir in Swansea, the oldest continuously singing Welsh choir, dating from 1895. The choir sang at Terfel's wedding in 2019.

Faenol Festival

In 2000 Terfel founded the Faenol Festival (known in Welsh as "Gŵyl y Faenol"), at the Faenol Estate near Snowdonia, Wales. Billed as "Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival" (often referred to as "BrynFest") 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. The festival had been voted a £250,000 grant by the Welsh Assembly, but did not take place in 2009 or 2010 and ended as of 2010. Subsequently, the 2012 Faenol Festival took place in London.

Operatic repertoire

Terfel has performed the following roles on stage:{{Cite web | access-date=18 June 2008

References

References

1. "Bryn Terfel". [[Decca Records]].
2. (1996). "The NPR Interviews". Houghton Mifflin Company.
3. "MOCSA Young Welsh Singer of the Year Competition". morristonorpheus.com.
4. "Bryn Terfel". classicfm.co.uk.
5. (2015). "Charles Mackerras". Boydell & Brewer Ltd.
6. "The Marriner/Philips Yeomen".
7. "Barnes & Noble.com Music – Classical Interview".
8. (June 2016)
9. (17 September 2003). "Westenra on bbc radio".
10. (26 August 2003). "Hayley Westenra International – That was the best festival ever in North Wales". Archive.hayley-westenra-international.com.
11. Holden, Anthony. (9 March 2008). "Don't mess with Bryn". The Guardian.
12. "Opera Schedules from The Opera Critic".
13. "Opera Schedules from The Opera Critic".
14. (September 2025). "Archive/Search – Event 2010-Prom 02 of 2010 season. Held at Royal Albert Hall, London on Saturday 17 July 2010 at 4:00PM.".
15. (2010). "Saturday: 31 July 2010". BBC Proms 2010 website.
16. (2010). "Wagner's ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre''". Metropolitan Opera website.
17. "Bryn Terfel and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir".
18. (2014). "''Sweeney Todd'' Live from Lincoln Center [Recap/Review]". The Guardian Liberty Voice.
19. [https://www.whatsonstage.com/west-end-theatre/news/sweeney-todd-full-cast_37282.html/ Full casting and extra performance announced for Sweeney Todd starring Emma Thompson]
20. Maddocks, Fiona. (20 March 2016). "Boris Godunov review – Bryn Terfel is superb as tsar in torment".
21. Royal Opera House. (22 March 2016). "Bryn Terfel and Antonio Pappano on what makes Boris Godunov a masterpiece (The Royal Opera)".
22. (6 May 2023). "Sir Bryn Terfel Jones performs Coronation Kyrie with Westminster Abbey Choir". [[Sky News]].
23. (16 April 2023). "Buckingham Palace is pleased to announce further details of the twelve new compositions that have been written for the Coronation of Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6th May 2023.". The Royal Family.
24. {{YouTube. piYmpYiWFbo. King Charles III coronation: Bryn Terfel sings Kyrie eleison: ABC News
25. Hall, Sophia Alexandra. (7 May 2023). "Andrea Bocelli and Sir Bryn Terfel perform emotional 'You'll Never Walk Alone' at Coronation Concert". Classic FM.
26. "Y Llais".
27. (2013-02-11). "Bryn Terfel splits from wife". [[Daily Express.
28. Helena de Bertodano. (2013-08-15). "Bryn Terfel interview: 'Being an opera singer is easy'". Telegraph.
29. Adam Sweeting. (2012-06-08). "Hay Festival 2012: An interview with Bryn Terfel". Telegraph.
30. (2017-05-05). "Baby for Sir Bryn Terfel and harpist Hannah Stone". BBC.
31. Cooper, John. (26 July 2019). "Bryn Terfel marries harpist Hannah Stone in Wales on 'magical' day".
32. "Welsh Mountain Railway, Notes From Hidden Britain". Classic FM.
33. "Handel: Arias – Bryn Terfel, Charles Mackerras | Songs, Reviews, Credits".
34. "MOCSA Young Welsh Singer of the Year :: Morriston Orpheus Choir".
35. Krebs, Lord. (2008). "The Principal's Report". [[Jesus College, Oxford]].
36. (29 February 2012). "Bryn Terfel awarded Bangor University honorary doctorate". BBC News.
37. "Wiener Staatsoper: Ehrungen auf offener BÜhne im Anschluss an ''Peter Grimes'' am 2. Februar 2022". Vienna State Opera.
38. {{London Gazette. (31 December 2016)
39. "55th Annual Grammy Awards Nominees: Classical". Grammy.com.
40. "About Us".
41. "Côr Meibion Dyfnant".
42. "Magazine 2019".
43. Stuart Jeffries. (2012-06-26). "Bryn Terfel: 'I'd like to sing Citizen Kane'". The Guardian.
44. (24 January 2012). "Bryn's Faenol Festival comes back... in London". bbc.co.uk.
45. (26 January 2012). "Global music festival for Faenol estate in Gwynedd". BBC News.