Bryn Terfel has just arrived at the offices of Welsh National Opera where he greets his old friend John Fisher. The international bass baritone has spent most of the morning driving down the infamous A470 from his family home near Caernarfon to Cardiff for another week of rehearsals for Falstaff.
As with many journeys along the often winding rural road, it seems that it hasn’t been an easy one as he found himself stuck behind many tractors.
“It took a while today,” he says in his deep North Walian accent.
Terfel must know the road like the back of his hand as he uses it regularly while working with WNO to enable him to return to his wife Lesley and their three young sons – Tomos, Morgan and Deio Sion – when he’s not rehearsing or on stage.
Today he has made it to the opera company’s home – the magnificent Wales Millennium Centre of which he is patron – just in time for sitzprobe (his first singing rehearsal with the orchestra).
And while he doesn’t have long to catch his breath, he is still quite happy to chat with me and Fisher – WNO’s general director – first.
Terfel is one of WNO’s big draws this season as he makes his title debut in Falstaff for the company.
Dressed in a pair of jeans and a casual shirt and nibbling on some grapes he easily blends in with the office staff around him.
But while the celebrated performer is a true star in every sense of the word, unlike many demanding Z-list “celebrities” I’ve come across, he is far from a“diva”.
This is why he endears himself not only to opera fans but everyone he meets – from fellow cast members to singers in the chorus and from ticket sellers to the woman who serves him his coffee.
In fact, the only negative publicity I have come across was when he dramatically pulled out of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at Covent Garden last autumn when his youngest son needed surgery for complications to a broken finger. While bosses at the opera house were angered by his decision, Terfel clearly stands by it saying, “Of course there was an angry opera house but there would also be an angry six-year-old little boy if dad wasn’t there.”
He has now moved on and tomorrow he will be back on stage when Falstaff is launched with a St David’s Day gala.
“I was in the second revival (of Falstaff) at the New Theatre (in Cardiff) when I was singing the role of Ford,” says Terfel, who has to wear a huge prosthetic belly for the role.
“It (Falstaff) was always a role I wanted to tackle. It has all the different elements. It’s dramatic. It’s such a masterpiece. You don’t throw those words about very often but everyone seems to be together on this one.”
Terfel, 42, has also bonded well with the cast, which includes one of his great friends Rhys Meirion as Fenton.
“We all went to see Sweeney Todd the other night. I had got over the disappointment of not being asked to do it,” laughs Terfel of the Tim Burton movie. “But when I saw what Johnny Depp brought to it I thought it was amazing. There was lots of blood and gore.”
Falstaff, which is directed by Peter Stein and conducted by Carlo Rizzi, is the second opera Terfel has done with WNO in two years. In February 2006 he made his title debut in David Pountney’s The Flying Dutchman, which had rather mixed reviews – although Terfel’s performance clearly shone.
I share with him my own experience of the opening night when I slipped on the footbridge near the WMC and, unbeknown to me at the time, fractured my wrist. With a makeshift sling and an ice-pack from the St John Ambulance crew I sat through the performance.
“It was a bit of a controversial production,” Terfel now admits. “We missed an element there as it could have been so traditionally Welsh. But they borrowed the production from another opera house which tends to pull the reins in financially.”
At the time, it was Terfel’s operatic debut at the WMC and he clearly felt at home on the vast stage.
“We have had the wonderful centre built for us so it’s a matter of embracing it now,” he says.
“There’s nothing better than seeing singers from Wales performing and it’s wonderful just walking around the building and hearing people speaking Welsh.
“All the kids in Falstaff are from Welsh schools. We are driving the director mad speaking in Welsh as it’s a language he doesn’t grasp.”
While Terfel will play Falstaff in Cardiff, Birmingham and Llandudno, Roberto de Candia takes over at the other venues, including Swansea.
“I don’t do all the performances because it is a long period,” says Terfel. “This was always going to be my only opera in 2008 and I wanted to make sure I did Cardiff, and Llandudno is also important for me. But it’s wonderful that the WNO audiences get to see another singer (as Falstaff).”
Is there any rivalry between the men?
“I would say a camaraderie,” he says. “I am always open to any suggestions (in playing the part) too.”
While Falstaff will be launched tomorrow with a St David’s Day charity gala performance, Terfel wishes the day in which we commemorate our patron saint would be declared a public holiday.
“I would love a bank holiday on St David’s Day. Usually the schools let the kids dress up but if we make it a national holiday it’s our duty to put on things for the kids. I would adore that.”
As Terfel chats away, Fisher sits quietly listening to him.
The pair have become firm friends since they first worked on a recording of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur when Terfel was just 19. Coincidentally, it was recorded with WNO Chorus and Orchestra at Brangwyn Hall in Swansea and Fisher – who started his career at WNO in 1972, as music director of the Opera For All project – was preparing the cast for the recording.
“There was a quartet of young singers and Bryn was the bass,” says Fisher. “I remember walking into the room and meeting Bryn for the first time – it seems no time at all since then. “Since then we have worked together in various guises. I was Bryn’s producer at Deutsche Grammophon. We became much closer then and are now good friends.
“We have worked together on many things, including Figaro and Don Giovanni at the Met. With hand on heart, he was the best Wolfram in Tannhauser.”
With a laugh, Terfel interjects. “And the most nervous.”
WNO had already pencilled in Falstaff with Terfel in the title role before Fisher returned to the company in 2006 from his job as a director at the Met in New York.
“I was thrilled. The first thing I saw after my appointment was The Flying Dutchman.”
So does Terfel still get nervous before appearing on stage?
“Definitely,” says the bass baritone as he bites on another grape. “You have to keep concentrated – there’s no resting on that stage. My 6ft 3in bulk looks enormous with the belly so there will be no hiding for me on stage (in Falstaff).”
With that, it’s time for Terfel to leave us.
“I’m going to warm up now,” he says. I tell him I’m looking forward to seeing him in Falstaff. “Avoid the bridge this time,” he adds with a smile.
After he leaves, Fisher tells me that in summer 2010, Terfel will reach the “epiphany” of his career when he makes his role debut as Hans Sachs with WNO’s Die Meistersinger – regarded as the greatest and most demanding role for a bass baritone.
“He has done the Ring Cycle and now this is the next step. It’s one of the longest roles in the operatic repertoire. He knows a couple of the monologues already.”
It is certainly a major coup for the company. But, for now, Fisher is looking forward to Falstaff.
He says there’s always a “buzz” when the opera giant is in the building.
“People are excited about having him here. He’s such a down-to-earth person – the very opposite of a diva,” says Fisher.
“He doesn’t want to be treated as someone special. He’s very respectful of his colleagues. Although he’s one of the greatest stars in opera, he’s not a cardboard cut-out media creation.
“His voice technique and musicianship is extraordinary. His knowledge and understanding is quite remarkable, which is vital in opera. But he is in touch with life and his feet are firmly on the ground. His family is the most important thing in his life and where he lives – it’s the fabric that makes him who he is.”
Fisher goes on to tell a story about when he was working at the Met and Terfel was performing in an opera there.
One evening there was a concert and the Welsh star was roped in at the last minute on the proviso that he could sing My Little Welsh Home.
“He had an audience of 4,000 people in the palm of his hand. It’s a unique gift. I can’t say enough about him.
“But there’s no putting him on a pedestal – he would hate it.”
Falstaff is at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff – March 3, 5, 7 & 9; Venue Cymru, Llandudno – March 18 & 20; Swansea Grand Theatre – April 24
Source: Western Mail
