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BIOGRAPHY |
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The young American artist belongs to one of the most internationally sought-after heldentenors.
Engagements in the 2025/26 season took him as LOHENGRIN to Taiwan, as PRINCE in "Rusalka" to the Royal Opera House Stockholm, as ERIK in "Der fliegende Holländer" to the Opéra de Toulon, and once again as ERIK and HERMANN in "Pique Dame" to Leipzig Opera. Concert appearances include performances with Sir Antonio Pappano and the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Noord Nederlands Orkest, and "Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln" with the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava.
Future engagements include his debuts as FLORESTAN in "Fidelio" at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos Lisbon, as TRISTAN in "Tristan und Isolde" at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, and as the EMPEROR in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.
Previously, he appeared as LOHENGRIN at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, as COUNT OF KENT in "Lear" and HÜON in the new production of "Oberon" at the Bavarian State Opera Munich, ERIK in "Der fliegende Holländer" at the Komische Oper Berlin and the Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, PETER GRIMES at Cologne Opera and GöteborgsOperan, PRINCE in "Rusalka" at the Glyndebourne Festival and Bergen National Opera, JIM MAHONEY in "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, HANS in "The Bartered Bride" at Garsington Opera, SIEGMUND at GöteborgsOperan, and LOGE in "Das Rheingold" at the Birmingham Opera Company and in Gothenburg. He also appeared as IDOMENEO at Opéra National de Lorraine and Teatro La Fenice, and as LACA in "Jenůfa" at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna under Juraj Valčuha.
After successfully graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2006, Brenden Gunnell was a member of the ensemble at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck under the artistic direction of KS Brigitte Fassbaender from 2007 to 2011. From 2011 to 2013, he was a member of the ensemble of the Norwegian National Opera.
Since the 2022/23 season, Brenden Gunnell’s artistic home has been Leipzig Opera, where he has built a broad repertoire including PETER GRIMES, SERGEJ in "Lady Macbeth of Mzensk", HERODES in "Salome", HERMANN in "Pique Dame", FLORESTAN in "Fidelio", and the title role in "Tannhäuser".
Moreover, Brenden Gunnell appears regularly on international concert stages. In the 2023/24 season, he performed with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra under Sylvain Cambreling and sang "Das Lied von der Erde" with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Alpesh Chauhan. With the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, he performed Mahler’s "Das Lied von der Erde" under Matthias Foremny and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Andris Nelsons. Further engagements included Elgar’s "The Dream of Gerontius" with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra under Sir Jeffrey Tate at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth and at the Rheingau Music Festival, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Filarmonica della Scala under Riccardo Chailly and at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Fabio Luisi, Verdi’s "Requiem" with the Staatskapelle Halle under Hartmut Haenchen, and a concert performance of "Die Walküre" with Philharmonie Zuidnederland under Hartmut Haenchen.
In January 2024, he made his debut as SERGEJ in "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the musical direction of Andris Nelsons. Further concert engagements brought him to the BBC Proms with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and to Neuschwanstein Castle with Act II of "Tristan und Isolde". He performed Schönberg’s "Die Jakobsleiter" with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under Ingo Metzmacher, "The Dream of Gerontius" with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Mahler’s "Das Lied von der Erde" with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and AENEAS in "Les Troyens" with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. He also performed "Das Paradies und die Peri" with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Daniele Gatti, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Sir Antonio Pappano, "Das klagende Lied" with the RAI Torino under James Conlon, a concert performance of "Die Walküre" under Sir Jeffrey Tate, and "Oedipus Rex" at the Teatro San Carlo under Juraj Valčuha.
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| REVIEWS |
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| Opéra de Toulon – Der Fliegende Holländer - ERIK |
| Brenden Gunnell portrays Erik with a precise and melodic articulation. His initially gentle timbre takes on a darker tone in tense moments, while his expressiveness remains remarkably consistent. |
Classique News
classiquenews.com |
| Bratislava Music Festival – Das Buch mit den Sieben Siegeln Konzert - JOHANNES |
| The most demanding is the tenor part of Johannes, where there was a change due to the illness of the announced performer, but the American tenor Brenden Gunnel distributed his forces in such a way that after a more cautious introduction, he managed expertly the dramatic and more lyrical passages of the dominant role. |
Opera Slovakia
operaslovakia.sk |
| Opermhaus Leipzig – Pique Dame - HERMANN |
| Vocally, these music theatre worlds are in totally different galaxies. The male singers need definitively more power in an uncomfortable range. Yet Brenden Gunnell as Hermann doesn’t at all roar. His tenor voice is steadily warm and round no matter what range or dynamic. Xou can hardly find a recording with a vocal interpretation of this role with such a combination of beauty and expression. And as an actor, Gunnells continues where he had finishes as a fantastic Peter Grimes. A solitary misfit, whose loneliness and unsaid feelings drag him into perdition. A spectacular, surprisingly lyrical, sensationally intense and personal portrayal. |
LVZ
lvz.de |
| Brenden Gunnell, vocally sovereign, gives a vivid, rather lyrical portrayal of Hermann, with great scenic finesse. His performance totally convinces up to the pain threshold. |
Kunst und Technik
ktmagazin.de |
| Brenden Gunnell as Hermann and the French soprano Solen Mainguené as Lisa gave a very strong, stirring performance... |
BR-Klassik
br-klassik.de |
| 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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| RECORDINGS |
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Andrew Downes: The Marshes Of Glynn & Song Of The Prairies
Prima Facie
2026
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Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, Op. 29
Deutsche Grammophon
2025
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