For all that Wales is usually referred to as ‘The Land of Track’, the proof is actually within the pudding, ie the sheer variety of proficient Welsh singers to have trodden the boards and carved out an area for themselves within the operatic corridor of fame.
Listed here are 11 Welsh singers – each previous and current – who high the checklist.
Finest Welsh singers
Bryn Terfel
Born in Caernarfonshire, the son of a farmer, Bryn Terfel (primary image) was taught methods to sing by a household buddy, starting with conventional Welsh songs.
After transferring to London aged 19, he studied on the Guildhall Faculty of Music and Drama, successful each the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Prize and the Gold Medal upon commencement. However his huge worldwide breakthrough got here in 1992, when he sang Jochanaan in Strauss’s Salome on the Salzburg Competition.
Now he’s a famous person – unquestionably essentially the most well-known residing Welsh operatic bass-baritone – whose vocal heft has made him a very good match for beefy Wagnerian roles equivalent to Wotan, in addition to one among opera’s best baddies: Scarpia from Tosca. And he has embraced a great deal of non-classical music too, not least Stephen Sondheim‘s Sweeney Todd, by which he and Emma Thompson made a devilish double-act because the killer barber and his pie-baking confederate.
Natalya Romaniw
Introduced up in Swansea in a single mother or father household, Natalya Romaniw was a small little one when she fell in love with music, largely due to her Ukrainian grandfather, who would play the accordion and sing to her whereas her police officer mom was working shifts.
Nevertheless it wasn’t till finding out on the Guildhall Faculty of Music that she grew to become accustomed to opera. Quick ahead a decade, she is among the most sought-after younger British sopranos, a lot admired for the depth of her voice, however much more so for her depth of character portrayal.
And she or he’s had many alternatives now to show it: the previous couple of years have seen her solid in a number of psychologically meaty roles, a lot of which, together with Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Jenůfa and Rusalka, have drawn on Romaniw’s Slavic heritage.
Sir Geraint Evans (1922-1992)
The son of a coal miner, Sir Geraint Evans got here to opera by way of a left-field route. On leaving college aged 14, he labored for a time as a window-dresser in a Excessive Class Girls’ Put on retailer, taking singing classes in his spare time.
Throughout the Second World Battle he served with the Royal Air Drive and, post-war, labored as a radio mechanic. Ultimately, nonetheless, his ardour for singing gained out when he efficiently auditioned for the Guildhall Faculty of Music and Drama. He went on to turn into some of the legendary bass-baritones of all time, with a 4 decade profession spanning greater than 70 roles – most of them at Covent Backyard, which he considered his operatic residence.
Robert Tear (1939-2011)
Born in Barry, within the Vale of Glamorgan, Robert Tear made his first forays into music singing in his college choir and on the age of seven, in 1946, took half in Welsh Nationwide Opera’s first manufacturing: Cavalleria Rusticana.
His primary operatic debut, nonetheless, got here in 1963, singing the Male Refrain in Benjamin Britten‘s Rape of Lucretia with the English Opera Group. The tenor would go on to turn into well-known for singing the music of Britten, even when the composer himself allegedly ‘ghosted’ Tear after he selected to carry out in Michael Tippett‘s The Knot Backyard at Covent Backyard fairly than showing within the premiere of Britten’s Owen Wingrave.
The ghosting didn’t hurt Tear’s profession: broadly admired for his phenomenal vocal approach, attraction and stage charisma, he remained a lot in demand proper up till his retirement in 2009, and left behind round 250 discs of repertoire starting from Bach to Victorian parlour songs.
Margaret Value (1941-2011)
Although born to musical household, Margaret Value was not inspired to turn into a singer. Her father – a proficient novice pianist – advised her that no daughter of his was ‘going into the theatre’, and on the time she did not thoughts an excessive amount of, on condition that her dream was to turn into a biology instructor.
However when she was 15, her college music instructor organised an audition with the English organist and choral conductor Charles Kennedy Scott, who persuaded her to review with him at Trinity School of Music in London.
She went on to carry out a number of roles with Welsh Nationwide Opera, Covent Backyard, Glyndebourne and at numerous venues in Germany, the place she settled for quite a few years. Adored for the pure, gentle high quality of her soprano voice, which stood her in significantly good stead when performing Mozart (a speciality of hers), she stays some of the admired sopranos of her technology.
Gwyneth Jones
Broadly considered one of many best Wagnerian sopranos of the 20 th century, Gwyneth Jones was born in Pontnewynydd, Monmouthshire, and labored as a secretary earlier than auditioning for the Royal School of Music.< dir=”auto”>Through the years she grew to become recognized for her formidable vocal energy and stamina, one among her most acclaimed achievements being her muscular interpretation of Brunnhilde in Bayreuth’s Centenary Ring Cycle in 1976.dir=”auto”>Youthful viewers, nonetheless, would possibly bear in mind her from Quartet, Dustin Hoffman’s movie a couple of group of retired opera singers, by which she and Maggie Smith performed rival Prima Donnas.
Rebecca Evans
Born in Pontryhydhyfen in South Wales, Rebecca Evans initially educated to be a nurse earlier than being suggested by Bryn Terfel to review on the Guildhall Faculty of Music and Drama – as she described in a 2007 interview: ‘[Bryn] requested me what I used to be doing, and I advised him I’d simply received a junior assistant’s submit in an working theatre.
“You idiot!”, he stated. “You’ll want to go to the Guildhall Faculty of Music and Drama, and it’s worthwhile to go NOW!” Since then she has turn into famend for the heat of her tone, and the humanity of her characterisations, performing lead roles in venues all around the globe. However her favorite composer is Mozart. ‘I could not stay a day with out him,’ says Evans, whose interpretations of two Marriage of Figaro roles – Susanna and the Countess – are world-famous.
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Katherine Jenkins
The daughter of a manufacturing facility employee and an NHS radiographer, Katherine Jenkins was introduced up on a council property in Neath, and was a high-flyer in school, reaching A grades in each her GCSE’s and A ranges.
Music, nonetheless, was her ardour, and, after reaching distinctions in each Grade 8 singing and piano, she went on to win a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music.
For some time she supported herself as a contract voice coach, a tour information on the London Eye, and as a mannequin, turning into the Face of Wales in 2000.
However her musical breakthrough got here on the age of twenty-two, in 2003, when Common Information heard her demo tape and instantly signed her up for £1 million. She has since turn into one of many UK’s finest promoting crossover artists, having launched 13 primary albums.
Dennis O’Neill
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Born in Pontarddulais, to Welsh and Irish dad and mom, Dennis O’Neill determined to turn into an opera singer on the age of 19, after spending a summer season as an apprentice singer on the Opera Barga Competition in Tuscany.
With a voice that has usually been described as ‘Italianate’, he has devoted a lot of his profession to decoding the works of Verdi, singing in opera homes all around the world, with over 200 performances at Covent Backyard alone.
In between he strives to go on his expertise to younger singers, and in 2006 based Wales Worldwide Academy of Voice, the place he’s now director.
Stuart Burrows
Born on the identical road in Clifynyddas as Geraint Evans, Stuart Burrows made his first forays into music as a toddler, singing soprano from his bed room window to the neighbours beneath.
Regardless of his love of music, nonetheless, he initially made his profession as a instructor, and was so expert as a rugby participant that Leeds Rugby League Membership provided him a contract. It wasn’t till the final minute that he modified his thoughts and determined as an alternative to strive his luck as a tenor.
It labored out nicely, and earlier than lengthy Burrows was singing with Welsh Nationwide Opera, making his huge breakthrough in 1965, when Stravinsky heard him and requested him to sing his Oedipus Rex in Athens. Since then he has sung an enormous vary of repertoire in all kinds of far-flung venues. However it’s with music by Mozart, Donizetti and French composers equivalent to Berlioz and Massenet, that Burrows – recognized for the purity of his voice, and his refined method to phrasing – has turn into most carefully related.
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Elin Manahan Thomas
An instructional go-getter, whose father M. Wynn Thomas is a Professor of Literature at Swansea College, Elin Manahan Thomas achieved a starred first in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge College, earlier than devoting herself to music.
A member of the Swansea Bach Choir in her youth, she initially cast a profession singing within the Monteverdi Choir and The Sixteen, amongst different ensembles.
Baroque repertoire that she selected to specialize in.
She has since had some extraordinarily high-profile opportunites for showcasing it, not least the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018, the place she sang Handel’s Everlasting supply of sunshine divine.<
Picture: Frankie Fouganthin
