Bryn Terfel

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 20:08

The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand and three, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:31

My Costaway this week is an opera singer. Brought up in a small farming community in North Wales, he sang because that's what everybody around him did. He only knew Welsh songs and nothing of opera when he won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but he was soon converted and his rich bass baritone carried him quickly to the top of his profession. Now at thirty-seven he's sung in most of the world's major opera houses with many of the top sopranos and the top conductors too. He's currently preparing for his biggest challenge so far, playing Votan in the Royal Opera production of Wagner's Ring in 2005. But he hasn't forgotten his roots or his early love of popular music and Welsh folk song, and he reckons that playing Sweeney Todd in Chicago recently was one of the highlights of his career. Singing is a hobby for me, he says. I love entertaining people. I'm really just a singer who's lucky to be six foot three. He is, of course, Bryn Tervil. Mistaken on occasions for meatloaf, I understand, Bryn.

Bryn Terfel1:31

Yes, that was a a true story actually. I was walking uh from the apartment to the Metropolitan Opera House and somebody uh shouted across the street, Hey, Mitlov, can I have your autograph?

Bryn Terfel1:43

And of course I wrote down Good Luck, meatloaf.

Bryn Terfel1:48

And uh which made them happy.

Presenter1:50

Despardieux as well, I think they've mistaken.

Bryn Terfel1:52

Yes, the they've mistaken me for a couple of uh personalities, and uh I guess it's my good looks and charm.

Presenter1:59

It's it's your size, as you say, six foot three. And that's very important to you really, isn't it, in terms of performance? Because what you do, which isn't always the case with opera singers, is you you act as well.

Bryn Terfel2:03

That's

Bryn Terfel2:12

Well, I've always had the height, which uh stood me in good stead wh whilst I was in school, because uh most of my uh early uh interests were to do with sports. And in a way I had to do it because it counteracted the fact that I also sang. And in a school, perhaps singing is not something that's embraced. But because I had this sporting capability as well, it counteracted and and it was a very good balance in the end.

Presenter2:41

But when you walk on the stage, and as I say, you do command it even before you open your mouth, and when you open your mouth you command it even more, you in just enjoy that for itself, don't you? I mean, that that that's important to you. You like audiences.

Bryn Terfel2:55

Yes, I always remember the very first thing that Sir Geraint Evans of course I was bound to be put in the same boat as Sir Geraint, which was a wonderful boat to be put in, but the first thing he said to me

Speaker 23:08

Best.

Bryn Terfel3:10

You start singing the moment they open that door before you even walk on the stage. So uh how you look, how you presented yourself uh was very important. And I remember the second thing he told me was uh buy a new suit, boyo.

Bryn Terfel3:26

Of course I laughed then, but it's very true. And before I've even walked on that stage you have to be comfortable with what you're wearing. You have to be comf comfortable with performing in front of an audience, which, by the way, I've had since the age of three years old. Really? Yes, well I've been singing in Wales the first time I took off my nappies, I guess. That's when my mother said we were competing in Estedvodai, which is a wonderful tradition in Wales. And I'm glad because I don't think I would be where I am today apart from what I was brought up on.

Presenter4:03

But it's the range, you see. I mean, uh in the beginning then you would have been singing Welsh folk, as I was saying in the introduction, but

Presenter4:09

Now you do, of course, opera, but you also do popular songs. You also appear with Shirley Bassey and Cardiff to launch the Rugby World Cup, you know, with Tom Jones. You don't mind, do you? As long as there's an audience there.

Bryn Terfel4:19

As long as there's an audience

Bryn Terfel4:22

I think that boundaries are there to be uh knocked down, and there's no straitjacket to say that I can't feather my own cap with lots of different musical styles.

Presenter4:31

As long as it's good music, that's the point.

Bryn Terfel4:33

As long as it's good music.

Presenter4:34

Exactly. Okay. Well, look, let's find out about your taste in music,'cause it uh this list here I can see is also very eclectic. Um, tell me about the first record you've chosen to take to your desert.

Bryn Terfel4:43

Well, Frank Sinatra is somebody that I I personally would have loved to be able to see and hear perform. Unfortunately, I never had the chance. But one for my baby is one of my pure favourites. In a way, it comes down to the fact that you have to perform a song with just a piano accompaniment, and therefore colors, words become imperative. And I think he was a master at giving an audience a ballad, and hence the reason why people enjoy listening to him, I think.

Speaker 35:15

I could tell you a lot.

Bryn Terfel5:16

Tell you a lot.

Speaker 35:20

But it's not

Speaker 35:21

In a gentleman's coat?

Speaker 35:28

Just make it one for my baby.

Speaker 35:35

And one more for the road.

Presenter5:38

Frank Sinatra and one for my baby. He doesn't go for vocal perfection, you said it's all about performance. Is that something that you also think about doing or almost prefer to do?

Bryn Terfel5:47

Yeah.

Bryn Terfel5:49

Yes, I I sometimes am guilty of perhaps

Bryn Terfel5:52

Uh putting all my energy into addiction and making sure that the audience can understand what I'm trying to convey.

Presenter6:01

At the expense of the musical perfection, is that what you're saying?

Bryn Terfel6:03

Yes, at the expense of perhaps vocal quality, at the expense of

Bryn Terfel6:08

of trying to achieve a a beautiful sound.

Presenter6:11

But that's the choice you make. You think the words are more important.

Bryn Terfel6:14

Oh, d most definitely. Uh there's absolutely no point in me singing a Welsh song or an Italian song or a German song and they can't hear the words. Otherwise uh there there's th all the thinking that the composer had with his poetry uh is thrown away.

Presenter6:30

But that's what the critics don't like, isn't it? When when you move into what has now become a dirty word, this sort of crossover stuff, and you sing some enchanted evening as well as Largo al factotum or whatever, they say that in the end you will spoil your the perfection of your classical training.

Bryn Terfel6:49

I think that's one person's uh opinion in a way, but I still think that I need to have lots of different styles of music. For instance, if I would have started singing Wagner as I was promised and and offered at the beginning of my career in nineteen eighty-nine, one of the biggest European opera houses uh offered me the ring cycle.

Bryn Terfel7:11

Obviously I wanted to jump at that chance, but thankfully I had people around me that said no, that's such a ridiculous offer.

Bryn Terfel7:19

Uh

Presenter7:20

That would have spoiled your voice. It was too soon.

Bryn Terfel7:22

I I'll never know, but most probably it would have.

Presenter7:25

It was of course Placido Domingo in the first place who who lit your candle, I think you said. You hadn't heard any just not a note of opera, I don't think, until you were nineteen and you saw Domingo at the Opera House.

Bryn Terfel7:35

Yeah.

Bryn Terfel7:36

If you would have asked me who Placido Domingo was whilst I was in school, I would have had no idea. I would have thought he might have played for Real Madrid.

Presenter7:44

And neither would you, as I understand it, have known as a young boy that you were going to be a singer, because you sang, as you say, but y y you w didn't have your sights set set on it. You weren't an Alad Jones, were you? You weren't sort of a boy soprano, any great note.

Bryn Terfel7:51

Yeah.

Bryn Terfel7:56

Yeah.

Bryn Terfel7:58

No. No, I wasn't. But but I did enjoy performing and I did enjoy that thrill, that release, uh that wonderful communication that you have wi with songs.

Presenter8:10

But it was not necessarily going to be a career for you.

Bryn Terfel8:12

Goodness gracious no, even when I uh walked in through that door at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which meant that I threw away all my childhood in Wales, which meant that I was away I we have a saying in Welsh, a wichtir square, which is the square mile, and I'd never been outside of that square mile. And it was an enormous step for me to actually go to London and actually stay there. That first six weeks at the Guildhall was terrifying for me. Terrifying. I was totally depressed. I was crying every night. I was missing not only my parents, my home, but my girlfriend at that time, Leslie, who is now my wife.

Speaker 28:39

Okay.

Presenter8:51

Who'd been your childhood sweetheart?

Bryn Terfel8:52

Childhood sweetheart. So uh I was uh I was away from everything that I knew.

Bryn Terfel8:57

The huge

Presenter8:57

A huge decision, so why did you make it?

Bryn Terfel8:59

How did you make it?

Bryn Terfel9:00

I was offered a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before I even sat my A-levels.

Presenter9:06

But you were just trying singing on for size, were you really? Well, I'd sign from the age of three. Yes, but you weren't entirely committed to it as a computer.

Bryn Terfel9:09

Well, I'd sign from the age of three.

Bryn Terfel9:13

No, no. And even at the college, of course the people that stood on that wonderful table listening to you, doing your audition, and they could see there was something there that they could train. There's a raw talent there.

Bryn Terfel9:28

But even the first four years of the Guildhall wouldn't say that I would have been successful because I never won a competition there.

Bryn Terfel9:35

until the very last competition, which was one of the biggest one in the Guild Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which is the gold medal. And that in a way was the the bells ringing that perhaps that I had done the right decision.

Presenter9:48

That you are something special. Let's pause for record number two. Tell me about that.

Bryn Terfel9:52

Well, obviously this is uh coloured by the fact that I come from Wales and the beautiful tradition we have there of male voice choirs and one of the most beautiful melodies, which actually is a very sad melody, Paham me dictero mavanu. Of course, mavanui. It's one of the most beautiful, haunting pieces of music that's ever come out of Wales.

Speaker 310:49

He said on white are God.

Presenter11:07

Mivanwe, sung by the Triorke Male Choir, conducted by John Cunnan Jones. Just give me a a description of, you know, the place, this square mile in which you were born and brought up. Snowdonia, isn't it?

Bryn Terfel11:19

Yes, uh it's of course in the beautiful uh mountain ranges of Snowdonia. We are actually underneath uh uh a little mountain called Greig Gorch, and it's a village called Pantglas, which is literally translated into the Blue Gorge. It's a fantastic little village with one post office, one church, ten houses, and then of course these wonderful farms scattered all around acres of land.

Presenter11:45

Your father was a farmer, is he?

Bryn Terfel11:46

My father still farms. Sheep. Sheep and cows. Yes. And my mother used to work in a a special school for handicapped children.

Presenter11:49

Two yeah.

Bryn Terfel11:54

But she's retired now.

Presenter11:55

And you were entirely Welsh speaking.

Bryn Terfel11:57

Yes.

Presenter11:58

And and still are at home, miss.

Bryn Terfel11:59

Still are, yes.

Presenter12:01

But it's fascinating, as you say, therefore, to to leave all of that behind, and it was a conscious dec decision of yours to come to London, and suddenly there you are on this performance class, you know, learning to tap dance like Fred Astaire. A pe peculiar change in your life.

Bryn Terfel12:15

Oh, uh amazing ch change in a way. But you know, after the first six months I then realized that I was in London and I was really in the mecca of of this industry in a way. Not only could you visit opera houses with your student card, you could go and listen to recitals. For instance, one of the best couple of days that I ever had was listening to Dietrich Fischer Diskow singing three different uh recitals on consecutive nights and three different composers, Brahm, Schubert and Schumann.

Presenter12:49

And all this stuff, all this music was new to you. You hadn't you'd really only known Welsh stuff before.

Bryn Terfel12:54

Yes, only I'd only sang the folk tunes and uh there's a a wonderful style of singing in Wales uh which is called kerdant, and that was my introduction to singing really, which is singing Welsh poetry to a melody already given to the harp.

Presenter13:09

And you had a a brilliant teacher in your first few years, didn't you, at at the Guild Hall, who wanted to wrap you in cotton wool.

Bryn Terfel13:13

Wrap you in

Bryn Terfel13:16

Yes, a wonderful gentleman called Arthur Reckless and I always say this joke he used to say that when he used to sing they used to put a reckless baritone on the programme. But Arthur, for the first two or three years of my career, did look after me, which was, I guess, the best thing that I could ever have had.

Presenter13:36

Record number three. Tell me about that.

Bryn Terfel13:37

There's one instance that I guess found out what true pressure was all about, and it was a live performance of the Requiem by Brahms, conducted by Claudio Arbado with a Berlin Philharmonic in the Musikverein in Vienna, with the Erich Eriksson choir from Sweden, which is one of the most strikingly beautiful, fantastic choirs you'll ever listen to. Live broadcasts to Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Britain. Barbara Bonnie and I were put, as per usual by Claudio Bardo, between the choir and the orchestra, and there was no room on that stage. So we were there waiting for our part to sing. And it's only one little aria that begins for the baritone. So it was truly a terrifying moment in my career. But what I came away from

Bryn Terfel14:36

That concert was the fact that I could cope.

Bryn Terfel14:39

with that kind of pressure. And we are going to listen to one of the most fantastic crescendos ever in music, where the musique ferrain was really shaking.

Presenter15:41

Den Alles Fleisch Es ist Vie Gras, because All Flesh Is As Grass from Brahm's German Requiem, sung by the Erik Eriksson Chamber Choir and the Swedish Radio Chorus, with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abardo.

Presenter15:53

So, Bryn, y you were really engaged straight out of college, weren't you? Your career exploded. The Welsh National Opera offered you um Guglielmo in Cousi and Figaro. You never really did the rounds with the the big choruses, did you?

Bryn Terfel16:07

No, I didn't. But and some somehow perhaps I looking back now, perhaps I should have had a little hindsight and taken perhaps a year off college.

Bryn Terfel16:16

Perhaps to concentrate a little bit on languages.

Presenter16:20

But how could you turn down such an opportunity to be offered those big solo roles so early in your career you had to grab them with both hands?

Bryn Terfel16:26

Exactly, exactly. No becomes a very difficult uh little word to say because you tend to fill your calendar with engagements uh when you're starting off.

Presenter16:30

A little

Presenter16:36

Mm.

Presenter16:37

And you won't be asked again.

Bryn Terfel16:38

Exactly.

Presenter16:40

But but you broke through really, didn't you, into the international scene because of the conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli, who suddenly rang you up out of the blue and asked you to do a a recording of Salome with John the Baptist. How did that happen?

Bryn Terfel16:51

My well, it was really after the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, which is a competition that throws you into that international limelight because people can hear and listen to you on the television.

Presenter17:03

So he saw you on the telly and thought that's my boy.

Bryn Terfel17:06

Yes, so did Claudio Arbado. So did Jose Carreras actually.

Presenter17:09

Meaning

Bryn Terfel17:09

Jose Carreras saw me and offered me Abbe Melech, which is the smallest role in Sampson and Delilah, and actually Sampson kills Abi Melech in the first five minutes of the opera. But it was a vehicle, it was the beginning of an international career.

Presenter17:09

Yeah.

Presenter17:25

Because I think the following year then, only two years into your professional career, you were then performing John the Baptist at Salzburg, weren't you? And George Schulte saw you and said, This is very special, this is phenomenal.

Bryn Terfel17:33

Yeah.

Bryn Terfel17:38

Well, it's amazing how a jigsaw I I have never thought that I'd

Bryn Terfel17:44

contemplate even uh arriving at such a career.

Presenter17:47

Record number four.

Bryn Terfel17:48

I guess we're going to another hemisphere now. And I I think it goes back to school days and relationships and boyfriends, girlfriends, whatever, always have a chosen piece of music. And Leslie and I have Lionel Rich's Hello and that's our kind of song.

Speaker 318:11

I've been alone with you inside my mind

Speaker 318:18

And in my dreams I've kissed your lips

Speaker 318:22

A thousand times.

Speaker 318:26

I sometimes see you pass outside my door.

Bryn Terfel18:26

Yeah.

Speaker 318:34

Hello

Presenter18:40

Lionel Ritchie and Hello.

Presenter18:42

You were obviously very well behaved, Bryn. You did what Schulte said, you didn't want your voice to go too far, too fast, so you stuck to the secondary roles even when you were offered the big ones, until, what, ten years in, and you accepted to play Don Giovanni at the Paris Opera. Now, you were a huge success, but the production wasn't.

Bryn Terfel19:02

It was, I must say, one of the nightmares of my career, because uh unfortunately singers are never within the process of talking about sets or costumes. Uh singers tend to arrive and they arrive into that set and into the director's concept.

Bryn Terfel19:21

And this particular production it was like a cross between a a shipwreck and a a gym. Don Giovanni, I guess, can be one of those graveyards for directors. And it's always interesting within this piece to see what they come up with.

Presenter19:39

Because you can understand directors wanting to do something different with it, can't you? Because the opera repertoire is so small, and so therefore if they're going to do part of its staple diet, they want to bring something new and different to it.

Bryn Terfel19:42

Is the official

Bryn Terfel19:49

obviously, and of course technical capabilities of opera houses now are much greater. But this set in this particular Don Giovanni never made sense, and therefore it wasn't a joy to actually

Speaker 219:53

Uh Uh

Bryn Terfel20:01

Walk in through the stage door, and when you're defeated before the overture even starts, your job becomes very difficult.

Presenter20:09

So what are you saying? You don't mind experimentation, but it's got to be done very carefully and very cleverly.

Bryn Terfel20:16

Exactly. But also I think the audience's view of a piece has to be thought of in the process. People walked out of the Bastille in Paris disappointed with that particular Don Giovanni, as did the singers.

Presenter20:29

But they queued round the corner for the returns because they wanted to hear you sing it. Perhaps they it perhaps they closed their eyes while they listened, do you think?

Bryn Terfel20:29

But they cured round the corner.

Bryn Terfel20:36

Uh per that that would have been one way I can

Presenter20:39

Next record, tell me about this one.

Bryn Terfel20:41

This one is, I guess, uh about travelling and being in different countries and uh w which is part and parcel of my career anyway.

Bryn Terfel20:50

It's a definite negative, of course, when you have three boys and and a family at home.

Bryn Terfel20:55

It takes you away from uh people you love, the country or you feel uh most comfortable within, and uh in a way stings uh an Englishman in New York, does talk about being away, I guess, and uh walking down Fifth Avenue. I've done it countless times myself, even whistling his tune.

Speaker 321:16

I don't drink coffee, I take tea, my dear.

Speaker 321:21

Like my toaster

Speaker 321:24

You can hear it in my accent when I talk. I'm an Englishman in New York.

Speaker 321:35

You see me walking down Fifth Avenue

Speaker 321:40

Walking cane here at my side.

Presenter21:44

Sting and Englishman in New York. So you enjoy crossing the musical divide, Bryn, obviously from everything you've said, and you've recorded Lerner and Lowe and Rogers and Hammerstein, as well as Schubert and Handel. I gather you sing My Little Welsh Home at the end of a Schubert recital in Salzburg as an encore. How does it go down, Vehensig?

Bryn Terfel22:05

Yes, and I even sang Mud, Glorious Mud, in uh in the Royal Opera House.

Bryn Terfel22:11

But uh wh why why can't I do that? You know, there's no rule book which is wonderful, so

Presenter22:17

Do you think that's what we're moving towards? A a a breakdown uh of this artificial definition, which is actually a definition that's grown up in the twentieth century really, isn't it? Um between what is opera and what is a musical and ba and at the end of the day, it's all entertainment, it's either good or bad, it's all music theatre.

Bryn Terfel22:35

It's either good or bad, but also we have to remember, when we were doing Sweeney Todd on one of the biggest opera houses in America, which is nearly four and a half thousand people, Bars Lennon was doing his Boheme on Broadway in New York, which was an opera going into into a music theater. They were always talking about Boheme in Broadway, but they never talked about Sweeney Todd.

Presenter22:59

Hmm.

Bryn Terfel22:59

On the operatic stage.

Presenter23:00

But if you sang Sweeney Todd on Broadway

Bryn Terfel23:03

Yes.

Presenter23:03

Night after night after night after night, could you fill that house?

Bryn Terfel23:08

I think so. I hope Sweeney Todd is that they've a tried and tested piece, and they did have wonderful runs. But what we're saying is.

Presenter23:15

But what we're saying is is the audience there for music theatre which is performed to the standards of opera?

Bryn Terfel23:22

Most definitely.

Presenter23:24

Record number six.

Bryn Terfel23:25

Yes. It brings us back again, I guess, to my childhood days in school.

Bryn Terfel23:31

And my first introduction really to a classical symphony when I was sitting in my classes doing music A level. And I really didn't want to be there. I wanted to be kicking a ball outside in the fields, but I felt I had to do A levels. But um Brahms' first symphony was our set piece, and Leslie and I, who's my wife, were in these classes and I used to copy her string quartets and copy her homework, which the the music teacher Megan Roberts finally found out, of course. And it there came a time where we um dissected Brahms' first symphony, and there's that one theme.

Bryn Terfel24:10

which instantly was recognizable and instantly went somewhere into my being that created such a huge shock and and perhaps a wake up call.

Bryn Terfel24:27

But this is beautiful. And fifteen years down the line, I was singing Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, and Seiji Ozawa and his wonderful Saitokinen Festival Orchestra played Brahms' first symphony. And Leslie and I sat there with huge smiles on our faces, and we actually wrote a postcard to our music teacher. We are sitting in the hall listening to Brahms' first symphony. Most probably listening to the best string section ever.

Presenter25:59

Part of the last movement of Brahms Symphony No. One in C minor, played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Azawa. The pressure has been on you for years now, Bryn Tervil, to sing Votan in Wagner's Ring Cycle. You're finally going to do it. You've turned it down before, as we've heard.

Presenter26:18

Obviously you feel you're ready for it now. Has something different happened to your voice? Or can you now reach deeper notes or fail to reach higher notes than you used to be able to?

Bryn Terfel26:27

Uh no, I think because of a certain time in one's career and uh there there had to be a time where I would say yes. And uh the theatre was uh the right choice. The conductor most definitely was the right choice.

Presenter26:42

This is Tony Papana.

Bryn Terfel26:43

Tony Papano, who is a a conductor I

Bryn Terfel26:47

Just love to work with

Presenter26:49

But is this in a way the last great Everest you have to climb in your operatic career, in your view?

Bryn Terfel26:55

Votan is still somebody that I'm not sure of.

Bryn Terfel26:59

I haven't started really going underneath the skin of that opera. Obviously, I've I've sang little roles.

Presenter27:06

But what are your fears about him? I mean, it's it's kind of six hours long. Is that a fear?

Bryn Terfel27:07

But what are your fears?

Bryn Terfel27:08

Yeah.

Bryn Terfel27:11

Most definitely, the the ab ab absolute length of the opera and the the amount of singing that one has to do on the stage, plus the the amount of homework and dedication one has to to learn it.

Presenter27:21

Are you worried about getting exhausted or getting bored?

Bryn Terfel27:24

I'm worried about uh both of them.

Bryn Terfel27:27

Uh and that's being very honest, because it's a kettle of fish that I'm not certain about. Perhaps I'll have to start reading those endless books about Wagner and those uh

Bryn Terfel27:38

Five thousand page books, I think.

Presenter27:40

To get a real understanding of the past.

Presenter27:44

But you've also suggested that you might only do it once on stage.

Bryn Terfel27:50

I think that sounds very good to me, actually.

Presenter27:52

Why?

Bryn Terfel27:53

Well, um I'm a father, I have three boys, and usually Wagner productions take eight weeks rehearsals, and uh which culminates in only four performances, which uh sometimes is like the wind being taken out of your sails. But I definitely don't have another ring cycle within my calendar.

Bryn Terfel28:13

Because I need to make that judgment after I've performed a treatment.

Presenter28:17

And you'll be about forty when you perform it, won't you? You'll have just hit the golden number.

Bryn Terfel28:20

I hate it.

Presenter28:22

And

Presenter28:24

There's again been suggestions of retirement about then.

Bryn Terfel28:28

Uh it doesn't actually go into retirement, but it actually gets to perhaps being more selective, uh curtailing one's uh trips to America, for instance. America is of course wonderful to sing and perform there, but there's not a possibility to jump on a plane and go home for a weekend.

Presenter28:41

Yeah.

Presenter28:46

You've had enough of all that international travel is really what you said.

Bryn Terfel28:49

Yeah, so I I've had enough, really. I've had a bucket full of missing birthdays and uh football for the kids and and actually just being there to take them to school and being there

Bryn Terfel29:01

to take them home for tea and having

Bryn Terfel29:04

you know, conversations around the table. Uh it's it's a very sad part of one's life. Don't take me wrong, it's a beautiful lifestyle and the positives really outnumber the negatives. But family life i is really hurt by by the profession, uh a profession which you have to travel to to sing in the best spaces of the world.

Bryn Terfel29:27

And perhaps when I'm forty two, forty three, forty five, whatever.

Bryn Terfel29:31

Perhaps I'll be thinking of certain other things to do.

Presenter29:34

Flight.

Bryn Terfel29:35

Like uh doing more recitals perhaps, or doing television programmes about Welsh music, which means that I can be home more often. Record number seven. And in this certain production I was carrying a load of the mandolin, his his bedding, his coats, his shoes, his huge box.

Bryn Terfel30:15

And I think it took a toll on my back and I bent down after the dress rehearsal to just put my socks on and something happened to my back and I couldn't walk. So in the next two days I was under the surgeon's knife in New York, which felt daunting. And after I came out of the first keyhole surgery that I'd had, this was the piece of music that I heard.

Presenter31:10

Carl Jenkins conducting his own composition, Addy Amos, with Miriam Stockley and the London Philharmonic. So a desert island's not where you'd like to go. Obviously from everything you said, Bryn, you'd prefer to be at home with the family. But travelling the world singing and meeting all of those demands that your professional agenda has put upon you must mean that you know how to cope with loneliness, that you're self-sufficient in so many ways.

Bryn Terfel31:32

Well, I think I would be um

Bryn Terfel31:34

very comfortable with my own presence on a desert island. And I'd sing the countless operas that I already have in my memory. And uh I have all those wonderful memories, and I think that's what life is all about. It's great memories.

Presenter31:48

So you'd be king of your island. In fact, you are king of an island. I'm not sure.

Bryn Terfel31:52

I was asked to be a king of an island, yes, which is the most beautiful island off the coast of North Wales. Which I actually went there a couple of weeks ago, and a group of primary schools had found that they wanted to do a crown for the king, so that one of our newspapers, the Daily Post,

Bryn Terfel32:11

wanted a competition to see who they would love to be king. And it was I had between me, Prince Charles and Tom Jones. And they chose me. And um unfortunately I had to decline the royal duties within that island. But I had a

Bryn Terfel32:27

A strong feeling when I went onto that island. I went into the church, for instance, this very small, quaint church.

Bryn Terfel32:34

And after all my friends had left I I sang a hymn there.

Presenter32:36

Him

Bryn Terfel32:38

And it was so all-inspiring, it carried me away for five minutes, which is wonderful.

Presenter32:43

Last record.

Bryn Terfel32:44

Well, um we started with Frank Sinatra, who is somebody that I would have loved to have met and heard singing.

Bryn Terfel32:51

Elvis Presley is another performer that I.

Bryn Terfel32:54

Listened to very often in the car or at home.

Bryn Terfel32:57

In fact, my children now always want this particular song whilst going to school in the mornings. And they all join together, which is, I think, so important in music. You know, you have to enjoy yourself. And this is the one, Return to Centre, that the kids love. I actually particularly like it myself as well.

Speaker 333:13

Hiya.

Speaker 333:16

So then I dropped it in the mail box.

Speaker 333:20

As in a special D

Speaker 333:24

And bright and early next morning

Speaker 333:27

It came right back to me.

Speaker 333:30

She rode upon it, Return to Senda.

Speaker 333:35

Address unknown.

Speaker 333:39

No such person!

Presenter33:45

Elvis Presley and Return to Sender, the Terreville School Run song. Now, if you could only take one of those eight records, Bryn, which one would you take?

Bryn Terfel33:49

You would only take

Bryn Terfel33:53

Oh, most definitely uh the last one.

Presenter33:55

Never mind.

Bryn Terfel33:56

Because it just makes everybody dance and tap and

Presenter33:56

Yeah.

Presenter34:00

Farmers members of the Boys.

Bryn Terfel34:01

Makes you smile.

Presenter34:02

Yeah.

Presenter34:03

What about your book? We give you the Bible and Shakespeare. What other book would you like?

Bryn Terfel34:08

Well, one book that I particularly enjoyed, especially from the fact that I met him also, was Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, which o obviously had that Celtic uh feeling to it as well, and

Presenter34:20

Wouldn't exactly cheer you up.

Bryn Terfel34:21

No, but it makes one feel uh that you're very lucky and fortunate to be

Presenter34:21

Nope.

Bryn Terfel34:27

living at this day and age with all the modern equipment that we have and actually the strong feeling of family, how family actually gets together and looks af look after each other, because I've got a support network in Wales that's second to none, and it's wonderful.

Presenter34:46

And what about your luxury?

Bryn Terfel34:47

I've changed my luxury, I'm afraid. I had said a pair of goggles to swim in, but I I think I could do without those. But now I'm going to take the the new Millennium Centre that's being built in Cardiff, which is the new opera house that Wales is going to get. And I would want that. I don't want to miss it. I'd rather have it there with me on that island.

Presenter35:08

Even without an audience, it's single-owned.

Bryn Terfel35:09

Even without an audience, to actually just stand on that stage. If they if they could perhaps build another one which is exactly the the same as the one that's being built in in Cardiff Bay, it would be fantastic.

Presenter35:22

Bryn Daleville, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Bryn Terfel35:25

Oh, it's been a pleasure being here. Thank you very much.

Speaker 235:35

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.