Opera Australia has announced that the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel will return to our shores in 2019, giving two recitals in November. Accompanied by Orchestra Victoria, the beloved international star will perform his favourite opera arias and musical numbers at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne.

Bryn Terfel. Photo © Mitch Jenkins/DG

Terfel last performed here in 2015, appearing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for concert performances of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and a Broadway-themed recital. He has also appeared in recital across Australia and starred in Opera Australia’s Falstaff in 1999. Conducted by Simone Young, it was Terfel’s debut in the title role, which has become one of his signature parts.

Terfel’s star was launched as a finalist in the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, losing out to the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky in an intense round dubbed ‘the battle of the baritones’. Since then, he has appeared in most of the world’s major opera houses to acclaim, and has become known as a leading Wagnerian after an early career specialising in Mozart. His recent forays into musical theatre have also proved successful, most notably alongside Emma Thompson in...