'I made sure I would enjoy it'

'I made sure I would enjoy it'. Opera star Bryn Terfel, on the Last Night of the Proms.

Bryn Terfel, Opera singer

ANDREW MARR: Now then... sorry... Bryn Terfel - or Bryn as he's known to his many fans - is one of the great bass baritones of our age.

In huge demand from all the world's most famous opera houses, he remains firmly rooted in his native Wales and he also makes time to perform and record popular and traditional songs.

His latest album reflects his love of Celtic music and we'll be talking to him about that in a moment. But first he is...here he is in full voice - and full costume - as Verdi's Falstaff just 12 hours ago, Last Night of the Proms.

- CLIP OF LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS: Bryn Terfel in Verdi's Falstaff -

ANDREW MARR: You're a, you're a fine figure of a man, it has to be said.

BRYN TERFEL: Fat Boy Slim.

ANDREW MARR: (laughs) You didn't have very much time. I mean you were, you were performing in a slightly more traditional costume and then you had to nip away and return as that.

BRYN TERFEL: Yes, rather intense last night, running around the corridors of the Royal Albert Hall. And we had, as you mentioned, twenty minutes to put on that wonderful makeup.

And I must say Ron Freeman did some wonderful work. And of course you know that belly is such a wonderful thing for the character of Falstaff.

ANDREW MARR: Sure. You were enjoying that, weren't you?

BRYN TERFEL: Yeah, I think the promenaders enjoyed it more or less.

ANDREW MARR: It was a great... it's a great feel good moment. As a performer...I mean you were doing a lot of singing on the last night and you were coming back again and again and again. Is that intimidating still at your stage?

BRYN TERFEL: A little bit. I always said fourteen years ago I did not embrace what the Last Night of the Proms was, but last night I made sure that I would enjoy it. And there were some great artists.

And, as you mentioned, we had sun yesterday, so it helped for the Proms in the Park as well. They had about 39,000 people there.

ANDREW MARR: Yeah. And you were singing Rule Britannia, of course, in a great outfit. I don't know if we can quite see your...but you had this extraordinary jacket. There we are!

CLIP OF BRYN TERFEL SINGING RULE BRITANNIA

ANDREW MARR: And it's mainly Welsh, lot of dragon on it.

BRYN TERFEL: Yes Scotland, Ireland, England, which is all about the Proms, isn't it? And Amy Hopkins helped me design that jacket.

And you have to have something. I can't wear a dress or wear something different. You know I wore the Falstaff outfit and I think that was great for the occasion.

ANDREW MARR: Absolutely. One of the other things that happened was you gave this very lovely med... medley - oh I can't say it - medley of folk songs from different parts of the United Kingdom.

It felt as if it had been part of the Last Night ritual for years and years and years, beautifully orchestrated, but it's actually a new piece, isn't it?

BRYN TERFEL: Yes, it's from my new album...

ANDREW MARR: Yes.

BRYN TERFEL: ... which you just mentioned: First Love. You know, it tends to be at this time of one's career of the operatic repertoire in the recording studio has dried up, the well is dry at the moment, so you have to record some things that you love.

So First Love means these are the songs that I've sung from a very early age with male voice choirs you know all around the world. You've just seen it on the Last Choir Standing. Two Welsh choirs were in the final. It just shows the love of music in Wales.

ANDREW MARR: As you say, you've called it First Love and it's almost Victorian in a sense. It's quite lushly orchestrated - these old, traditional songs that a lot of people think they know or half know, so called "crossover" audience.

Do you hope you can bring in people who perhaps wouldn't have heard these songs for a long time?

BRYN TERFEL: Well, Andrew, I'm not the first to have recorded these and I certainly won't be the last one. But I used Chris Hazell as an orchestrator, so I give them a wonderful new cloak, a new feeling, very Celtic in a way.

And for me, it's to repeat these songs in different concerts around the world. I love singing these songs and people like to hear them.

ANDREW MARR: Yeah.

BRYN TERFEL: You know Danny Boy, Scarborough Fair.

ANDREW MARR: They're great songs- Carrickfergus, a great song.

BRYN TERFEL: Great song. And I... You know the discography I have at home have all these singers, you know from Van the Man, Van Morrison singing them...

ANDREW MARR: Yes.

BRYN TERFEL: ... from Paul Robeson. So I can hear them, how they were performed, and how people react to it. It's like the songs that your mother sang to you.

ANDREW MARR: Yeah. I wasn't sure about Ronan Keating, I have to say. He's not quite as good a voice as you, if I could put it that way - from Boyzone.

BRYN TERFEL: Well let me put it like this. I couldn't sing a pop song. He came in to sing Danny Boy. And it's that Irish connection.

ANDREW MARR: Yeah, of course. You mentioned recording. You're doing the great Wagner Meistersinger Von Nuremberg, Hans Sachs, probably the hardest role there is, or certainly one of the, certainly one of the most physically exhausting roles in the repertoire.

BRYN TERFEL: Yes.

ANDREW MARR: But you're not going to get a chance to record that on CD. It's terrible.

BRYN TERFEL: Well I think perhaps they're waiting for a new format, you know.

ANDREW MARR: Is it just too expensive these days?

BRYN TERFEL: Could be that it's very expensive...

ANDREW MARR: Yeah, yeah.

BRYN TERFEL: ... just to get all these powers together - orchestras, singers. But hopefully in the next decade or so, I will record the things that I'm learning now like Richard Wagner's Ring; and, as you mentioned, the role that I will be singing with the Welsh National Opera in a couple of years - Hans Sachs, which is six hours of singing.

ANDREW MARR: Six hours!

BRYN TERFEL: Yes, it's a ball and chain.

ANDREW MARR: You had a year off opera of course, didn't you, so you're...

BRYN TERFEL: Yes, I went back to the roots of concerts and learning songs, which was amazing, brilliant.

ANDREW MARR: Batteries, batteries absolutely brimming over again.

BRYN TERFEL: Now I've got a concert in Carnegie Hall on the 21st and, as you've been talking today, I will be thinking about that day. It's wonderful to bring it...

ANDREW MARR: To bring it.

BRYN TERFEL: ... and perhaps I'll mention it to the Carnegie Hall audience; that it's Peace Day, that we should all be thinking about it.

ANDREW MARR: Do. Do...That would be great. Well we'll be hearing from you in a little while, but for now thank you very much indeed for coming in.

BRYN TERFEL: Thanks, Andrew.

ANDREW MARR: Thank you.

INTERVIEW ENDS

Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy

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