Get to know Bryn Terfel
Was there a particular experience that first made you want to make singing your career?
Undoubtedly the Eisteddfod in Wales has played its part, slowly but surely, in giving young performers a stage to develop. On any given day you could be the best competitor or the worst. I have tasted both. It builds a resilience and a strong character for performing for an audience and an adjudicator. If there was an operatic performance that impressed me as a young bass-baritone, it would certainly have been Sir Geraint Evans’s last performance at the Royal Opera House, in the role of Dulcamara: televised and with all the energy and dedication Evans always gave in his performances, and capped with the Welsh National Anthem sung during the curtain call on that impressive stage. I was hooked and instantly interested, with dreams of maybe being in the same boat!
Is singing still as integral a part of Welsh culture as it was when you were growing up?
It is the air that we breathe. Singing is integral to our culture from primary school days, right through your education. Hopefully we can keep this going for years to come and the Eisteddfod will be strongly supported by the powers that be. I would dare to say that it is even stronger these days than when I was growing up. And long may it continue.
Of the many productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in which you’ve performed, do you have a favourite?
My favourite was certainly the production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Keith Warner directing and Antonio Pappano conducting. An amazing cast, all ready to pause their everyday lives to be a part of something quite extraordinary. Also, two amazing Walküre performances at the Royal Albert Hall, one with Pappano at the helm and the other with Barenboim. Two different palates and yet so powerful and incredibly moving. To sing any Wagner in that space takes courage and commitment.
As for other productions, I took part in the monumental Robert Lepage Metropolitan Opera Ring Cycle. This is the one I really thought would be groundbreaking and that the technology would be developed year after year, in that the set they designed could produce that Ring Cycle in four days. I don’t think it was given the chance to blossom and grow.
The one place that I did seem to miss in my career was singing in Bayreuth, but I was in Salzburg for all the Gerard Mortier years. I always enjoyed watching my favourite Ring Cycle on the old VHS tapes, especially the Patrice Chéreau production, which had that marvellous, dynamic team of Sir Donald McIntyre and Dame Gwyneth Jones.
In a concert performance like this one, how do you prepare to go on stage and embody a character without any costumes or props?
This is the Wagner singing that I adore. On the stage with the orchestra and conductor and the acoustic shell of any given hall. You can gauge the dynamics, you can pace your performance and all without a single prop or costume. Storytelling at its strongest and a little prayer that the voice is behaving!
Tell us how you and Esa-Pekka Salonen first met. What’s it like working together?
We met in Cardiff when the Welsh rugby team were playing some fabulous, expansive, exciting rugby. I bumped into him after the game. Totally unexpected. What a treat! I have always admired from afar his incredible musicianship and the diverse programmes he tackles. What a pity we never met on the real operatic stage as I think he would be amazing in pieces like Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi or Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Amazing one-act operas for his numerous concert tours!
Which concerts coming up in the Philharmonia’s London season catch your eye, and why?
4 May: I am an avid listener of repertoire for piano. Hearing Stephen Hough play again would be top of my list with his incredible style and interpretation.
8 June: Nicola and Sheku together on the stage surely cannot be missed! I would like to sing some Beethoven Celtic songs with the amazing Kanneh-Mason family, of course Nicola is welcome to join as well. Busking Beethoven!
