Sir Bryn Terfel

Sir BRYN TERFEL is for the first time in Bulgaria! The famous Welsh Bass-Baritone with a shining career is a regular guest on the most prestigious venues and opera houses around the world. He is hailed at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera - New York; the National Opera of Paris, La Scala in Milan, the Zurich Opera and many others. He has been celebrated in the roles of Falstaff,
Wotan, The Dutchman, Dulcamara, Boris Godunov, Don Pasquale, Reb Tevye and Sweeney Todd. Sir Bryn is a Grammy, Classical Brit and
Gramophone Award winner with a discography encompassing operas of Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss, and more than fifteen solo discs including Lieder, American musical theatre, Welsh songs and sacred repertory.

Sir Bryn Terfel was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to Opera in 2003, was awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2006, received a knighthood for his services to music in 2017, was honoured with the title of Austrian Kammersänger for his services to the Wiener Staatsoper and awarded an European Cultural Award at the Tonhalle, Zurich, in recognition of his extraordinary
music career in 2022. He was the last recipient of the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation.

Among his most recent honourable appearances is his performance of Paul Mealor’s Kyrie eleison in Welsh on 6 May 2023 at the coronation of Charles III in Westminster Abbey, and this is the first time Welsh has been sung at a coronation ceremony. On May 7th, he sang the popular song You’ll Never Walk Alone from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel in duet with Andrea Bocelli at the coronation concert at Windsor Castle.

Born in North Wales in 1965, Bryn Terfel completed his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 1989 he won the Lieder Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and in 1990 made his professional debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at the Welsh National Opera. He also performed the title role in Le nozze di Figaro there, with which he made his debut the following year at
English National Opera.

His international operatic debut was in 1991 as the Speaker in The Magic Flute at Teatro La Monnaie in Brussels, the same year he made his American debut as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera.

This was followed by his successful debuts in 1992 at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden as Masetto in Don Giovanni, at the Salzburg Festival as Jochanaan in Salome, and at the Vienna State Opera as Figaro. He also made his US concert debut in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Levine. At the same festival, he performed Lieder by Schumann and Schubert with keyboard accompaniment by Levine, and sang the role of Abimélech in Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah (with Plácido Domingo and Denis Graves in the title roles), again with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Levine. The Lyric Opera of Chicago saw him sing in Wagner’s Das Rheingold under Zubin Mehta. In the same year, he signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and performed the title role in Le nozze di Figaro conducted by John Eliott Gardiner in his first recording. He sang Ford in Falstaff at the Welsh National Opera and Figaro at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera and the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos.

Over the years that followed, Terfel expanded his repertoire with Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Mephistopheles in Faust, Don Giovanni and Leporello in Don Giovanni, the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Balstrode in Peter Grimes, the Four Villains in The Tales of Hoffmann, and others, and in the field of musicals he sang the leading roles in Sweeney Todd and Fiddler on the Roof with great success. In recital at Carnegie Hall he performed songs by Wolf, Fauré, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, and others. Sir Bryn marked his 50th birthday and twenty-five years in the profession with a special one-off Gala Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, presented by Hollywood star Michael Sheen. The celebrations continued at Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre, where he sang Scarpia in a special concert performance of Tosca with Welsh National Opera.

Recent performances include Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Balstrode for Wiener Staatsoper and Royal Opera House, Holländer in Der fliegende Holländer for Grange Park Opera, Falstaff for Zürich Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper, Münich, Scarpia for Zürich Opera and Opera National de Paris, Don Pizarro in Fidelio at the Schloßberg, Graz, Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House and Boris Godunov for Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Royal Opera House.

Other operatic highlights to date include his debut in the role of Hans Sachs in the critically acclaimed production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Welsh National Opera, Wotan in The Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, his debut in the role of Reb Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for Grange Park Opera, Sweeney Todd for English National Opera and hosting a four day festival, Brynfest, at the Southbank Centre, London as part of the Southbank Centre’s Festival of the World.

Equally at home on the concert platform, his highlights range from the opening ceremony of the Wales Millennium Centre, BBC Last Night of the Proms and the Royal Variety Show to a Gala Concert with Andrea Bocelli in Central Park, New York and curating a special Christmas concert and live international stream for the Metropolitan Opera’s Met Stars Live in Concert series from Brecon Cathedral, Wales. He has given recitals all around the world and for nine years, he hosted his own festival in Faenol, North Wales. Recent performances include a 9-date recital and concert tour of the UK, orchestral concerts in Antwerp and Belgrade, and voice, harp and piano recitals in Stockholm and Geneva.