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BIOGRAPHY |
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Brenden Gunnell belongs to one of the most internationally sought-after helden tenors.
International engagements brought him as LOHENGRIN to the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, as COUNT OF KENT in Lear and HÜON in the new production Oberon to the Bavarian State Opera Munich, as ERIK in Der fliegende Holländer to the Komische Oper Berlin and the Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, as PETER GRIMES to the Cologne Opera and the GotenburgsOperan (2025), as PRINCE in Rusalka to the Glyndebourne Festival and the Bergen National Opera, as JIM MAHONEY in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, HANS in The Bartered Bride to the Garsington Opera , SIEGMUND and LOGE to the GotenburgsOperan, as LOGE in Rheingold to the Birmingham Opera Company. As IDOMENEO he was liked at the Opéra National Lorraine and the Teatro La Fenice. At the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli he could be seen in OEDIPUS REX, at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in concerts and at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna as LACA in Jenufa.
After successfully graduating at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2006, Brenden Gunnell was a member of the ensemble at the Innsbruck Theatre under the artistic direction of KS Brigitte Fassbaender from 2007 to 2011. From 2011 to 2013 he was a member of the Norske Opera ensemble.
Since the season 2022/23 Brenden Gunnel’s artistic base is the Leipzig Opera House, where he sings a vast repertoire, including PETER GRIMES, SERGEJ in Lady Macbeth of Mzensk, HERODES in Salome, HERMANN in Pique Dame, SIEGMUND in Die Walküre…
Moreover, Brenden Gunnell can be seen on international concert stages.
He performs with renowned conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Juraj Valcuha, Riccardo Chailly, Fabio Luisi, Sylvain Cambreling, Jeffrey Tate, Andris Nelsons, Hartmut Haenchen, Ingo Metzmacher, Daniel Gatti, James Conlon and orchestras such as the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra , the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, the Staatskapelle Halle ,the Southern Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, NDR Hamburg, Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, at the Rheingau Music Festival or at the BBC Proms concerts like 9th Symphony, Mahler 8, Dream of Gerontius, Das Lied von der Erde, Verdi-Requiem , Das Paradies und die Peri, Schönberg’s Jakobsleiter, excerpts of Tristan und Isolde, and many more.
Future engagements bring him a.o. as ENEÉ in Les Troyens to the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, as ERIK in Der Fliegende Holländer to the Opéra de Toulon, as LOHENGRIN to Taiwan, or for concerts with Mo. Antonio Pappano to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra,...
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| REVIEWS |
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| Das Lied von der Erde – City of Bermingham Symhony Orchestra |
| Turning to Mahler was quite the gear change, and for a time it seemed as if the players’ relish in tackling its luscious complexity would drown out Brenden Gunnell completely. However, they soon got the measure of each other, leading to a trio of compelling performances from him. Electricity coursed through Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde, focused and radiated from Gunnell, while in Von der Jugend they all tapped into something of the same rustic tone heard in the first half, here given a mischievous twist. Its shift into introspection was superb, especially as Gunnell suddenly shrugged it off with authentically youthful abandon. He was at his best in his final song, as the drunkard in springtime, leaning into its boorish attitude. Here too, the shift when meeting the bird was beautifully handled, becoming a transfixed reverie, before Gunnell rudely shoved beyond it, producing a flask after his closing line to take a large swig. |
bachtrack
bachtrack.com |
| No problem here for the soloists, mezzo soprano Karen Cargill and tenor Brenden Gunnell, who encompassed all the challenges the work entails. (…) Gunnell was a passionately heroic Gerontius in Elgar’s oratorio in 2023, (…) Gunnell’s heldentenor was ideal for the rousing opening blaze of ‘Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde’ (‘The drinking-song of the Earth’s sorrow’) which has something of Dylan Thomas’s “Rage, rage against the dying of light,” in its refusal to abjectly capitulate to death. (…) Gunnell sang its thrice-repeated line ‘Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod,” (‘Dark is life, dark is death’) acknowledging its bleak existential weight and wryly gave ’life's long vanity’ its due. But there was death-defying bravado in the exhortation for his companions (all of us) to ‘raise your cups’ and drain them down’. |
Midlands Classical Music Making
midlandsmusicreviews.co.uk |
| BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - Der Traum des GERONTIUS |
| Much of that was down to a well-matched solo team. As Gerontius – the sinning soul whose final journey takes him before his God before finding eventual peace through redemption – tenor Brenden Patrick Gunnell was a towering protagonist. His eye-contact with the audience – he sang predominantly off the book – was as compelling as the calculated vocal engineering and nuanced phrasing that together ensured such a commanding portrayal. |
Ken Walton, Vox Carnyx
voxcarnyx.com |
| In the central tenor role of Gerontius, Brenden Patrick Gunnell struck an effective balance between anguished vulnerability and radiant intimacy.
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The Scotsman 28.02.2025
scotsman.com |
| As Gerontius himself, we heard the American-British tenor, Brenden Patrick Gunnell, and he was immensely impressive. Singing largely from memory, and able to switch from floaty head voice to full throated heroic tenor, Mr Gunnell was something of a revelation.
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Edinburgh Music Review, Brian Bannatyne-Scot 04.03.2025
edinburghmusicreview.com |
| Opernhaus Köln – Peter Grimes - PETER GRIMES |
| New to the cast is tenor Brenden Gunnell, who is so strongly cast that he is chiefly the one who remains in the memory, causing the production of Wake-Walker to somewhat fade . After seeing Gunnell as the title character, it's hard to imagine another tenor as Grimes. It's as if Gunnell has captured a monopoly in our mind. Gunnell is vocally very fine, but he prioritises the theater... The frustration that his character has to deal with from the beginning of the opera, which often expresses itself in aggression, is supremely believable and lived out by Gunnell. [...] The unpolished character of the brutish fisherman and the almost insane desperation at the end: it's all there. The interpreter has to mix the lyricism that could invite sympathy with the dangerous side of Grimes, and Gunnell does a great job of this. He is extremely flexible vocally, occasionally even less strictly attentive, but rather: not cautious but direct and then again lyrical. [...] Very beautiful too, the opening scene of the third act (interlude Moonlight), which is without singing, and where we see Gunnell from his back perspective for several minutes in this staging, and the emotional charge still reaches us. |
Opera Magazin
operamagazine.nl |
| Oper Leipzig – Die Walküre - SIEGMUND |
| Brenden Gunnell is growing into a notable Heldentenor as a member of the Leipzig company. He sings rather than recites the longer passages about his past, renders ‘Winterstürme wichen den Wonnemond’ very movingly, and his ‘Wälse!’ compares very well to that of his peers. |
Opera Magazin
operamagazine.nl |
| District Boston Symphony Orchestra - Lady Macbeth of Mzensk - SERGEJ |
| Brenden Gunnell molded a delightfully comic portray of Sergei, the callow, self-centered, skirt-chasing servant who leads the tragic heroine astray. His hefty heldentenor was most effective in his early scenes with Katerina and in his later duets with Maria Barakova as Sonyetka. |
bachtrack
bachtrack.com |
| One hopes that [Opolais] can ultimately realize her strong instincts one day. And when she does, I hope she’ll bring Brenden Gunnell, who brought a virile tone to Sergei’s taxing music. |
PARTERRE BOX
parterre.com |
| As my colleague noted in his Boston review, Gunnell stripped any masculine quality from Sergey and instead, one was left with a weak man who couldn’t quite figure out what he wanted. By the end of the opera, when he abandons Katerina, there was not much surprise and that was what made Opolais’ Katerina all the more of a tragic figure. Vocally, the tenor was fantastic as he performed with ample high notes and a lyrical and flexible voice. Sometimes he would be overpowered by the orchestra but it was still an impressive performance. |
Opera Wire
operawire.com |
| Oper Leipzig – Peter Grimes - PETER GRIMES |
| Brenden Gunnell’s interpretation of the title role is tremendously impressive. He sings and plays a broken, hounded character. In his stocky stature, he is a head smaller than his apprentice John. Vocally, he also performs the part with suppressed power. He doesn’t sing brilliantly or „beautifully“ but with great intensity. |
Kunst und Technik
ktmagazin.de |
| The part of Peter Grimes requires a singer, who should be able to withstand extreme strains. With impressive physical presence Brenden Gunnell succeeded into drawing the psycho dramatical portrayal of Peter Grimes in his tragical brokenness as a lone wolf and protector in search of love. He met the challenges in the role with heldentenoral power and revealed a full sound, which gave an eruptive power to the misery of the marginalized figure. He disposed of both lyrical intimacy and subtle color, that emerged from the words. |
Der Opernfreund
deropernfreund.de |
| A performance of Peter Grimes naturally rises and falls with the performer of the title character. Leipzig is fortunate to have a member of the ensemble who is the perfect cast: the American tenor Brenden Gunnell. On the one hand, his Grimes is in some passages a deeply feeling poet with ravishingly tender tones: “Now the Great Bear and Pleiades”. On the other hand, however, he is not only impetuous and rough in his demeanor, but also in his voice. Just think of the harsh words with which he rejects Ellen: “Take away your hand! “Gunnell’s final monologue, when Grimes realizes that there is no place for him in society, is somewhere between turmoil and resignation – it is shattering and has stayed with me long after the opera was over.” |
Opernglas
opernglas.de |
| Brenden Gunnell is a first class Grimes |
Freie Presse
freiepresse.de |
| First and foremost in the title role is the American Brenden Gunnell, a grumpy, gnarly, red-haired tenor who comes across as a picture book Brit and fisherman. Not only in his acting, but also in his singing, he spans a wide arc from the lyrical to the heroic. |
NMZ
nmz.de |
| …With him, his scenic presence as well as with his wonderfully bright, powerful, clear and phonetically flawless tenor, the musical threads of this impressive production come together. |
LVZ
lvz.de |
| Birmingham Opera Company – Rheinhold - LOGE |
| Supreme in that respect was Brendan Gunnell’s Loge. As good a devious demi-god as I’ve seen anywhere, a heroic edge to the tenor voice bringing beauty to passages like the one in which he sings of women’s beauty on earth as a thing not to be traded for gold. Fire implicit in the red string vest and glasses, leathers setting him apart, a brilliant thinker. |
the arts desk
theartsdesk.com |
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