Sir Bryn Terfel Jones, is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer.
33 Facts About Bryn Terfel
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Bryn Terfel Jones was born in Pant Glas, Caernarfonshire, Wales, the son of a farmer.
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Bryn Terfel had an interest in and talent for music from a very young age.
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Bryn Terfel graduated in 1989, winning both the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Award and the Gold Medal.
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In 1990 Bryn Terfel made his operatic debut as Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte for 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 English National Opera in 1991.
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In 1992 Bryn Terfel made his Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut as Masetto in Don Giovanni, with Thomas Allen in the title role.
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Bryn Terfel went on to make his debut as Figaro at the Vienna State Opera.
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On 19 June 1992 Bryn Terfel made his US concert debut singing in Mahler's Eighth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Levine.
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In January and February 1993, Bryn Terfel sang the role of Donner in Wagner's Das Rheingold at Lyric Opera of Chicago; Zubin Mehta conducted.
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In 2000 Bryn Terfel said that he would like to record "an album of Gilbert and Sullivan arias".
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In 1994 Bryn Terfel sang Figaro at Covent Garden, and made both his Metropolitan Opera and Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos debuts in the same role.
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In 1999 Bryn Terfel performed the Rugby World Cup anthem "World in Union" with Shirley Bassey at the Millennium Stadium before the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final.
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In 2003, Bryn Terfel hosted and performed on the stage with opera tenor Jose Carreras and soprano Hayley Westenra in front of the capacity crowd of 10,000 people from Faenol Festival in Wales.
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Bryn Terfel has recorded CDs of songs by Lerner and Loewe and Rodgers and Hammerstein.
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In September 2007 Bryn 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.
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Bryn Terfel told reporters in New York City that he would retire Figaro from his repertoire.
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Bryn 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.
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Bryn Terfel had sung in this production in 1993, when he played the role of Ford.
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In 2009 Bryn Terfel sang Scarpia and the Dutchman for the Royal Opera House.
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In 2010, Bryn Terfel made his debut as Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger in a production for Welsh National Opera, in Cardiff and on tour.
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Bryn Terfel sang the role in all three of the four Der Ring operas that feature Wotan: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure and Siegfried.
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In September 2013 Bryn Terfel collaborated with Mormon Tabernacle Choir released the album Homeward Bound which reached No 58 Official UK Charts.
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In September 2014 Bryn Terfel reprised his role as Sweeney Todd in the Live from Lincoln Center concert production of Sweeney Todd, which was broadcast on PBS.
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In 2016 Bryn Terfel took the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, directed by Antonio Pappano at the Royal Opera House.
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On 6 May 2023 Bryn Terfel performed a setting in Welsh, by Paul Mealor, of Kyrie eleison at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla in Westminster Abbey.
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Bryn Terfel was married to his childhood sweetheart, Lesley, in 1987 until their divorce in 2013.
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Bryn Terfel was a leading petitioner in the creation of Bontnewydd railway station on the rebuilt Welsh Highland Railway, and in part sponsored its construction.
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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.
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Bryn Terfel has been awarded the honour, by the National Eisteddfod, of membership of the Gorsedd of Bards.
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Bryn Terfel was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to music.
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Bryn Terfel is 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.
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Bryn Terfel is a vice president of the Dunvant Male Choir in Swansea, the oldest continuously singing Welsh choir, dating from 1895.
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In 2000 Bryn Terfel founded the Faenol Festival, at the Faenol Estate near Snowdonia, Wales.