Brenden Gunnell

Biography

American born Brenden Patrick Gunnell is a young “Heldentenor”. His repertoire includes the title role in Britten’s Peter Grimes, Siegmund in Die Walküre, Jimmy Mahoney in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, the title role of Idomeneo, Loge in Das Rheingold, Sergey in Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer and the title role in Lohengrin.

Recent and future engagements include: Count of Kent in Aribert Reimann’s Lear at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Loge in Das Rheingold at the Birmingham Opera Company, Prince in Rusalka at the Bergen Nasjonale Opera, the title role in Lohengrin at the Bolshoi, Moscow, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer at the Komische Oper Berlin, Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Saarebruck Opera, the title role in Peter Grimes at the Teatro la Fenice, Herodes in Salome and the title role in Peter Grimes at the Oper Leipzig.

During the last seasons Brenden sang Siegmund in Die Walküre at Göteborg’s Operaen, Prince in Rusalka the role of Mademoiselle Bouillabaisse in Offenbach’s Mesdames de la Halle and the 1st Man in Armour at the Glyndebourne Festival, Huon de Bordeaux in a new production of Weber’s Oberon at the Opera Festival of the Bavarian State Opera in June, 2017 (Ivor Bolton) a role he also sang for the Cologne Opera. He has been invited for his role debut as Sergey in Lady Macbeth von Mzensk to the Birmingham Opera Company, the role of Jenik in Prodaná nevěsta for the Garsington Festival Opera and Loge in Das Rheingold for Goteborgs Operan. At the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma he was a very successful Maler in Alban Berg’s Lulu (2017) and at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari Erik in Der fliegende Holländer (2018). He made his Chinese debut as David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (June 2018) for the National Centre for Performing Arts, Beijing. At the Saarebruck Opera he sang his role debut als Peter Grimes (2016), one of the most important roles of his repertoire. He was invited to sing Jimmy Mahoney in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonnyat the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma as well as the title role in Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Teatro La Fenice. He made his debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in summer 2015 in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail in a new production by David McVicar. This production was also performed in concert at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall and has been released on DVD in summer 2016. The role of Jenik in Prodaná nevěsta Brenden Gunnell sang at Opera North in Leeds, Königssohn in Humperdinck’s Königskinder at the Semperoper Dresden and Laça in Jenufa at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. He gave his London debut as Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw at the Opera Holland Park.

With Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, a central role of Brenden’s concert repertoire he was invited to the Rheingau Musikfestival the Hamburger Symphoniker under Paul McCreesh and to the King’s college festival in Cambridge. He performed in the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s The Judas Passion (Judas) with the Orchestra Age of Enlightenment to London as well as on a tour of the United States with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra San Franciso, both with Nicholas McGeghan. Brenden gave his London concert debut in Liszt’s Faust Symphonie with the London Symphony Orchestra (2017) under Antonio Pappano; In 2017 he also performed Das Lied von der Erde with the Hamburger Symphoniker; Mahler’s Das klagende Lied with RAI Torino under James Conlon; Mendelssohn’s Paulus at the Tonhalle Zürich, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with RAI Torino; Mahler’s 8th Sinfonie with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra (including CD recording) under Gabriel Feltz, with the Orchestra La Verdi Milano under Riccardo Chailly and at the Maggio Musicale, Firenze (Fabio Luisi) He was also invited for Strawinsky’s Oedipus Rex with Rai Torino (Juraj Valčuha) on tour throughout Italy, In 2015-2016 he performed in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the International Bach Academy, Stuttgart. „Königssohn“ in Die Königskinder and Candide in the Musikhalle Hamburg with the Hamburg Symphonic Orchestra (Sir Jeffrey Tate), excerpts from Die Walküre and Ariadne auf Naxos (Live broadcast) with Rai Torino (Sir Jeffrey Tate), Beethoven’s 9th in Caserta and Rome (Antonio Pappano), and Frank Martin’s Golgotha in Basle and Zürich.

From 2007-2011 he was a member of the ensemble of the Tiroler Landestheater, Innsbruck under KS Brigitte Fassbaender. There he sang important roles in over thirty fully staged productions. From 2011-2013 he was an ensemble member of the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo.

Brenden Gunnell is born in 1983 in Patuxent River, Maryland, USA. In 2006 he received his diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Discography

On CD, Brenden Gunnell had recently two important releases: The Judas Passion (Sally Beamish) with the Philharmonia Baroque and Nicholas Mcgeghan, as well as the tenor soloist in Mahler’s 8th Symphony with Gabriel Feltz and the Dortmund Philharmonic. He also features in the Complete Songs for Voice and Piano of Richard Strauss, singing 32 songs including Krämerspiegel, Cäcilie and Heimliche Aufforderung, and accompanied my Malcolm Martineau on the Two Pianists Label.

Photo by Cameron Becker