Bryn Terfel Bass baritone

Born in Wales, Sir Bryn Terfel studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

He made his professional debut in 1990 at the Welsh National Opera in the role of Guglielmo (Così fan tutte). The next year, he sang Sprecher (The Magic Flute) at La Monnaie in Brussels and made his American debut as Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Santa Fe Opera.

His signature roles include the Dutchman (The Flying Dutchman), Méphistophélès (Faust), Leporello and the title-role in Don Giovanni, Jochanaan (Salomé), Scarpia (Tosca), the title-role in Gianni Schicchi, Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Balstrode (Peter Grimes), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore).

He recently made his role debut as Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville) at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. In the last two seasons he has sung the title roles in Sweeney Todd in Zurich and Boris Godunov at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the Dutchman at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and in Bilbao, Scarpia at the Royal Opera House, the Wiener Staatsoper and Națională București Opera, Falstaff at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Zurich Opernhaus and Grange Park Opera, Don Pizarro (Fidelio) at the Schloßberg in Graz and the title-role in Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House.

His performances also include recitals in Tokyo, Moscow, London, Monte-Carlo, Zurich. He has an extensive discography of Mozart, Wagner and Strauss operas to his credit, as well as a dozen solo albums. He was knighted in 2017, is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was awarded the last Alfred Toepfer Foundation Shakespeare Prize in 2015.

At the Paris Opera: Don Giovanni (title-role), 1999 ; The Tales of Hoffmann (the four evil roles), 2002 ; La Damnation de Faust (Méphistophélès), 2015 ; Tosca (Scarpia), 2016, 2022 ; Falstaff (title-role), 2017.