Cast

Bass baritone

Bryn Terfel

Born in North Wales in 1965, Bryn Terfel began studying at London's Guild-hall School of Music and Drama in 1984, first with Arthur Reckless and later with Rudolf Piernay. In 1988 he wins the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship. The following year he takes his exams at the Guildhall School and receives its gold medal. Shortly after, representing Wales, he wins the song prize at the "Singer of the World" competition in Cardiff.

1990 Opera debut as Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) at Welsh National Opera. Release of Monteverdi's Marian Vespers with Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

1991 debut at English National Opera and USA debut in Santa Fe as Figaro. Release of Jochanaan in Strauss' Salome under Giuseppe Sinopoli.

1992 Sensational Salzburg debut as Jochanaan; Covent Garden debut as Masetto in Don Giovanni; receives inaugural Critics' Circle Award for the year's most significant contribution to British musical life. Release: Angelotti in Puccini's Tosca. Awarded "Young Singer of the Year" by Gramophone music magazine.

1993 Signs exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon; triumphant Vienna State Opera debut as Figaro; sings Ford in Falstaff at Welsh National Opera; "Newcomer of the Year" at the International Classical Music Awards; appears on New Year's Eve at the Berlin Philharmonic's Wagner Gala under Claudio Abbado

1994 Appears as Figaro at Covent Garden and in his Met debut; first solo recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, Salzburg Festival and Florence; first U.S. recital at New York's Alice Tully Hall; soloist at "Last Night of the Proms"; releases: Figaro with Gardiner; Baron Mirko Zeta in Lehár's Die lustige Witwe under Gardiner; An die Musik - Schubert-Lieder, with Malcolm Martineau (Gramophone Award).

1995 Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Met; Leporello and Figaro at the Salzburg Festival; Jochanaan at Covent Garden; recital debut at La Scala, Milan. Release of The Vagabond - songs by Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Finzi and Ireland (Prix Caecilia, Edison Award, Gramophone Award).

1996 First recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. Publications: Opera Arias under James Levine (Grammy®); Something Wonderful - Songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein (Gramophone Award).

1997 Opera debut at La Scala, Milan, as Figaro. Album with Handel arias under Sir Charles Mackerras.

1998 Hollywood Bowl debut. Publications: Leporello in Don Giovanni under Abbado; Mephisto in Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust and Requiems by Fauré and Duruflé (Classical Brit Award) under Myung-Whun Chung; If Ever I Would Leave You - famous Broadway songs.

1999 Falstaff at Sydney Opera House, Lyric Opera in Chicago and at the reopening of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; sings the title role in Don Giovanni for the first time in Paris; takes the title role in Handel's Saul under Mackerras at the Edinburgh Festival. Release of Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress under Gardiner (Grammy®).

2000 Met appearances in the four villainous roles from Les Contes d'Hoffmann and as Don Giovanni; Nick Shadow at San Francisco Opera; Berlioz's Mephisto at Edinburgh Festival; first Faenol Festival (Terfel's own annual festival held in North Wales); releases: the "Welsh album" We'll Keep a Welcome and a recital of Schumann songs

2001 Don Giovanni in Vienna, Figaro in Tokyo, Figaro and Falstaff in Munich, Falstaff at the Salzburg Festival; Far East tour. Release of Falstaff under Abbado (Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, Echo Prize).

2002 Don Giovanni at Covent Garden, Falstaff at the Met and Bavarian State Opera, the four villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Paris, Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (role debut) in Chicago; his Faenol Festival receives the Tourism Award for "Best Show in Wales - Event of the Year 2001". Album with Wagner arias (Prix Caecilia)

2003 Concert with Abbado at the Lucerne Festival; the Faenol Festival program includes an opera gala with José Carreras; Queen Elizabeth II awards him the Order "Commander of the British Empire" for his services to opera. His new album with Sissel and Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel Sings Favourites, becomes a bestseller (Classical Brit Award). DVD release: Bryn Terfel Live in Concert

2004 "Artist of the Year" at the Classical Brit Awards. Role debut as Wotan in Das Rheingold in a new production of Wagner's Ring at Covent Garden.

2005 Role debut as Wotan in Die Walküre at Covent Garden; appearance with Plácido Domingo in a concert performance of Die Walküre at the BBC Proms. Debuts in Houston and Los Angeles as Falstaff. Publications: Silent Noon - his second anthology of English songs; Simple Gifts (Grammy®). DVD release of a performance of the Met: Don Giovanni under Levine

2006 title role in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at Welsh National Opera and Scarpia in Tosca at Covent Garden. Queen Elizabeth II awards him The Queen's Medal for Music at the BBC Proms. Receives the Shakespeare Prize of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg for his "outstanding contribution to European cultural heritage in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking world" and the Echo Prize as "Singer of the Year." Release of, among others, Tutto Mozart! - popular pieces with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Mackerras

2007 Don Giovanni and Falstaff in Vienna, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at Covent Garden; Sweeney Todd at the Royal Festival Hall in London (concertante); Figaro at the Met. Opera arias in Munich, Hamburg and Dresden; concert at the Tower of London.

2008 A highlight of the year is the performance at the "Last Night of the Proms" at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Release: Scarborough Fair - popular British folk songs with the London Voices and the London Symphony Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth

2009 Sings Scarpia and the Dutchman at Covent Garden, the latter also at the Bavarian State Opera; opera arias with Rolando Villazón and the Prague Philharmonic at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris; further concerts in the Czech Republic, the USA, Great Britain and New Zealand; festival appearances in Bergen, Verbier and Edinburgh

2010 Highlights include Wotan in Das Rheingold in Robert Lepage's new production of Wagner's Ring at the Met, Falstaff at the Opéra de Monte Carlo, Scarpia at the Met, Hans Sachs in Die Meistersingern for Welsh National Opera, a European tour with the Bad Boys CD program, an opera gala at his Faenol Festival with the Welsh National Opera orchestra and singers including Rolando Villazón, and a recital tour in the U.S. with Malcolm Martineau. CD releases: Bad Boys - rogue roles from operas and musicals from Mozart and Beethoven to Weill and Sondheim - with the Swedish Radio Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel, and the Christmas album Car¬ols & Christmas Songs.

Performances

• THE ART OF Sir Bryn Terfel

photo: Mitch_Jenkins/Deutsche Grammophon