Bryn Terfel
a.k.a.
Bryn Terfel Jones
PRINCE OF WALES
Bryn Terfel's Dream Comes True with Long-Awaited Welsh Album
He may make his living singing in Italian and German, but celebrated baritone Bryn Terfel always has his homeland in his heart. "To be born Welsh is to be born privileged," he says. "Not with a silver spoon in your mouth, but music in your blood and poetry in your soul." Having wowed critics and audiences in opera houses and concert halls the world over, and with several dozen recordings already to his credit, Terfel has at last realized his dream of making an album of Welsh songs -- a recording he now calls "the most important disc I've done in my career." Backed by a traditional Welsh male choir and the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, We'll Keep a Welcome is a melodious love letter from a great singer to his native people, as well as a stirring introduction to the riches of an ancient and beautiful tradition. Between performances of Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera, Terfel spoke with Barnes & Noble.com's Andrew Farach-Colton about his musical homecoming.
Barnes & Noble.com: Why did you want to make an album of Welsh music?
Bryn Terfel: I've been thinking about this disc since I first signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. We have some wonderful musical traditions in Wales, such as male voice choirs that sing beautiful folk tunes, hymns, and songs.
B&N.com: And these are the songs you grew up with?
BT: I have known these songs since I was three years old. Either I sang them myself, or they were sung to me by my parents and grandparents. So, being onstage in Brangwyn Hall in Wales for a week during the recording sessions, I had such a feeling of comfortableness -- surrounded by a Welsh orchestra, two Welsh choirs, a Welsh conductor, and also with the Welsh mountains and sea to give us inspiration. All in all it was a great environment, and I think it shows.
This is really the most important disc I've done in my career. These are the songs from my home, the songs in my language. This is not a language I have to learn, such as when I sing lieder or opera -- it is my mother tongue. Of course, the Welsh are cunning linguists, so there are songs here in English by Welsh composers or composers of Welsh descent who have left their country. There are so many Welsh ex-pats in America, Australia, New Zealand, and all over the world. We have a wonderful word in Welsh, "Hiraeth," which is actually the title of one of the songs. There's no exact translation for it, but a close English word is "longing." And whenever somebody plays these songs, they will feel hiraeth for their country and a longing to come back to Wales.
B&N.com: Did you ever sing in a male voice choir?
BT: No. I left school straight away to go to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, so I was never involved in singing in choirs. The average age of a male voice choir is rather high. It's something that comes later in life -- a bit like a bottle of red wine. These guys who might have been punk rockers, or football hooligans, or whatever, within 20 years after leaving school, they all mellow, start to love singing, and join male voice choirs. Hey, once I retire, I'll join a male voice choir, too! I'll definitely know the repertoire!
B&N.com: Do you think that being Welsh has had an impact on your singing?
BT: I came to singing from a wonderful tradition in Wales which is called the eisteddfod. It's really a 19th-century reconstruction of when the bards would gather together to sing and recite their poetry -- something like medieval Germany and the Meistersinger tradition. So, everybody comes into this eisteddfod to compete against each other, and it's a fabulous nurturing ground for talent. Without this tradition, I would not be where I am today. That training -- the basic ability to perform in front of people and to be adjudicated -- gave me such an amazing start in my career. I think I've grown from strength to strength from the first moment I went onto that stage when I was four years old.
B&N.com: Was Welsh your first language?
BT: I was brought up in Welsh, from day one. But we are a nation that speaks two languages, because although we are born in Wales, we are still part of the British Isles. My son, who is six years old, is now beginning to speak English. But Welsh definitely is the first language at home.
B&N.com: Do you have a favorite song on the album?
BT: Yes, I do: "My Little Welsh Home." It's a piece that really defines being Welsh as well as being away from Wales and the longing to come back home. Unfortunately, travel is part and parcel of this career, and I'm like a little bird: Whenever I'm away, I'm constantly thinking about home, and constantly wanting to be home. But now I have this disc in front of me, and there's a picture of a wonderful mountain, and inside there's a picture of me in a Welsh rugby shirt looking really butch and full of testosterone! [laughs]
B&N.com: A few years back, you recorded a terrific album of Mozart arias and duets with Cecilia Bartoli. You two seemed to have quite a special musical chemistry.
BT: We first worked together when we did a new production of The Marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera a couple of years ago, and - yes! -- there were definite sparks. We're two singers of different voice types and different nationalities, coming together on the stage and having fun. I love working with Cecilia. She's such an amazing talent.
B&N.com: In addition to your recordings of opera and lieder, you've given us some remarkable albums of Broadway songs: If Ever I Would Leave You and Something Wonderful. You sing these songs so naturally, which is unusual for an opera singer. Have you always had an interest in this music?
BT: Well, I have absolutely no background in this music. What I do have is an enjoyment of performing it. Thankfully, no boundary has been set that says Bryn Terfel cannot sing a Rodgers and Hammerstein or a Tom Jones song -- and if there was, hopefully I'd be able to bash that boundary down. Now we're talking about making a new disc of "Broadway Baddies." You know, the bad guys of Broadway.
B&N.com: What other recording projects do you have in the works?
BT: On the operatic side, I have always set myself a goal not to do too many things. But I have one project in the next two years that is really important: recording Verdi's Falstaff. That will be with Claudio Abbado for Deutsche Grammophon. As for solo discs, I'm going to do a disc of Wagner arias, again with Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. Further in the future, things that I'm looking forward to are a second English song disc [following up on The Vagabond -- Ed.] and an album of Gilbert and Sullivan arias. I've got lots of ideas. I'd love to make a duet album with Renée Fleming, but both our schedules are so insane that it will probably have to wait four or five years.
October 3, 2000
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