Monique Brynnel
Before becoming an International Star Monique studied with the world's best singing teachers in LONDON, STOCKHOLM and MUNICH.
Monique has a wealth of experience having performed leading roles in Musicals, Operettas and Opera in many of the major opera houses and concert halls in Europe, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand.
Monique is very versatile singer having performed everything from Jazz, Folksongs, Cabaret, Musical Theatre to German Operetta and Opera.
As a concert soloist Monique Brynnel has appeared in Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, New Zealand, Australia etc...
Awards / Prizes
1st Prize:
The Amateur Parade, Gothenburg ......................1953
Hvitfeldtska's Singing Competition .....................1954
GT's and Liseberg's Talent Competition .............1955
The Yearly Artist Competition, Eskilstuna ..........1955
Distinctions:
Margit Rosengren's Scholarship ...........................................1962
The best debutante, Riksteatern, Stockholm ....................1964
Diploma of Honour International Robert Stolz Society ..1992
Ambassador Marknadsföreningen in Gothenburg ...........1998
Monique has starred in numerous Productions:
Lock Up Your Daughters - Oscars Teatern, STOCKHOLM
Boing Boing, Lisebergsteatern, GOTHENBURG
Dial M For Murder - Riksteatern, STOCKHOLM
Merry Widow - Staatstheater an Gartnerplatz, MUNICH (8 years), Opernhaus FRANKFURT, Australian Opera SYDNEY, Queensland opera Company, BRISBANE
Gypsy Princess - Den Norske Opera OSLO, Stora Teatern, GOTHENBURG, Opernhaus, VIENNA, KIEL
Land of Smiles - Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, MUNICH, Opernhaus AUGSBURG, Operettenhaus, HAMBURG
Gypsy Baron, Night in Venice, Mariza, Gasparone - Opernhaus AUGSBURG
Can Can, Orpheus in the Underjord, Count of Luxemburg - Opernhaus KIEL, AUGSBURG
Frau Luna, Opernhaus BASEL
Die Fledermaus, Riksteatern STOCKHOLM,The Victorian State Opera MELBOURNE, Australian Opera, SYDNEY
Cosi fan Tutte, Sydney Opera House SYDNEY, CHRISTCHURCH, NZ etc., etc.,
Monique lectured and taught singing at the School of Music, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne Uni, MELBOURNE, between 1994 - 2007.
In 1992 Monique and her husband, Jon Weaving, started ACADEMY OF SINGING in Melbourne. AOS has become one of the best singing schools in Melbourne since 2012.
Read Monique's complete biography here.
MUSIC AND LOVE - AUDIOBOOK
My musical journey from Sweden to Sydney MUSIC AND LOVE AUDIOBOOK @ Libro.fm and MUSIC AND LOVE AUDIOBOOK @ Storytel.com is now available for purchase.
Music and Love Book Launch Melbourne 2017
By Monique Brynnel and Jon Weaving with Gillian Nikakis.
Excerpt from the book, page 135
"Kiel, 1969: the man with the voice
The conductor of The Merry Widow, Karl Eckert, greeted me when I stepped off the ferry from Gothenburg. It was 9.00 am and we went straight to the Opera House situated on a beautiful lake in the middle of Kiel. The original building was destroyed during the war and was not rebuilt until fifteen years later.
After breakfast, we went to room 320 to run through the music. I was relieved that it was just I and Karl to begin with. The tenor was due to arrive an hour later.
One hour later, Jon Weaving, my husband to be, walked in. I have thought about this moment a lot, and I’m not sure if it was love at first sight. I think I was too nervous for my hormones to activate, even though there was a stunning man standing next to me singing his heart out. I listened to the voice and something stirred in my mind. I knew I had heard that voice before, but couldn’t recall exactly where and when. It all fell into place during the break a couple of hours later.
While enjoying a cup of coffee together, it was as though I was suddenly hit by lightning! Was it the coffee, the surroundings or the man himself? We both found it incredible that our voices had already met through the Wigmore Hall’s studio walls some seven years earlier. Somehow we felt we were not strangers but that we already, in a way impossible to describe, belonged together. The two people who went back to the rehearsal were not the same people who had left thirty minutes earlier. We were a pair!
And now I could simply write ‘and the next is history’. And it is! But it is so rich, that I want to share it with you."
PURCHASE MUSIC AND LOVE E-BOOK
Available now at:
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CRITIQUES
DIVA CLASS
Melbourne
DIVA HITS ALL THE RIGHT KEYS
"Monique Brynnel is tall, svelte and as stately as a galleon.
She is also a vocal chameleon, able to move from a smoky jazz flavoured rendition of an aria from Fledermaus to a wonderful series of cameos as auditioning singers. Apart from her dazzling vocal pyrotechniques she also has the ability to shape the simplest of lines." Michael Easton, Herald Sun
UDDEVALLA
DIVA GIVES HER ALL
"Monique Brynnel entered the stage in a white, overwhelmingly beautiful dress and a glass of champagne in each hand. She embraced the audience with her charm and happiness. She radiated beauty and elegance and delivered her songs with delightful timbre in her voice." Bohuslänningen
DIE FLEDERMAUS
Brisbane
LADY OF THE OPERA
"Mistress of Stagecraft..." that's how one critic saw Monique Brynnel's performance as Rosalinda in Strauss the younger's 'Die Fledermaus', which opened at Her Majesty's on Friday night." Sunday Mail
"Monique Brynnel made a Rosalinda who was a model of vocal excellence and mistress of Stagecraft."
Sydney
"Monique Brynnel - making her Australian Opera debut as Adele - is ideal for operetta. Her sparkling interpretation of the parlourmaid who makes her way into high society will probably steal the show when Die Fledermaus is shown in Australia's first live telecast of a subscription performance at the Opera House." Sydney Morning Herald
"Monique Brynnel, as Adele, squeals her way through the Laughing Song, bringing the house down." The Age
THE MERRY WIDOW
Brisbane
"Jazz singer turned opera singer, Monique Brynnel, is an entrancing Anna Glawari - The Merry Widow herself.
Her voice filled the theatre and she captured the character of the widow admireably." Brisbane Times
Sydney
"As the Widow herself, Monique Brynnel ooozed sexy charm, looked pretty and sang with panach." Maria Prerauer, Sydney Herald
COSI FAN TUTTE
Christchurch, NZ
"Monique Brynnel, as Despina, displayed brilliant versatility and the vital contrasting levity". Christchurch Star
"In Monique Brynnel as Despina for once we had no subrette, rather a buxom tart without so much heart as hungry cleavage.
The voice is not that of a Hilde Gueden, rather more a Callas, and she was in her element as both bogus doctor and power-clad lady lawyer." The Dominion Post
CONCERT
Brisbane
MONIQUE - THE SOPRANO IS SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT
"In a scintillating concert of light classical music for Viennese Party night at Twin Towna Services Club, Swedish Operatic Soprano, Monique Brynnel, stood out as mistress of her craft.
Miss Brynnel earned a round of applaus just for her dramatic entry to the stage in a form-hugging white and gold dress and a cloak of white feathers.
She looked every bit a Merry Widow - a part she has played many times in Europé, with her mane of red hair, voluptuous figure and coquettish eyes.
Here is a woman who sings not just with her voice but with her whole body, as she demonstrated superbly in Johann Strauss's Schwipslied, an hilarious party song in which she insisted she was not int-ox-ic-ated. It was a performance demanding great theatrical talent as much as voice production.
By this time Miss Brynnel had changed into a black dress hugging her figure, or most of it, even more closely than the first.
Miss Brynnel showed her wide range of dramatic talents, and her superb voice, in the proud Mariza's entrance from Kalman's Countess Mariza." The Sunday Mail
"DAS FEUERWERK"
Bielefeld Operahouse
"IDUNA'S" CHARM ENRAPTURED US ALL
"The audience was mesmerised by this Iduna. They were all 'at her feet' - 'screaming' of joy -
Monique Brynnel, the 'main focus/star' of this production, has the splendour of a big Primadonna and radiating the personality of a true artist. A beautiful singer with a beautiful voice who knew how to give the public the story behind every song. She knew how to touch the hearts of the listeners." Die Glocke
"GYPSY PRINCESS"
Gothenburg, Stora Teatern
MONICA CAME, WAS SEEN, HEARD AND CONQUERED
"Monica has an enormous charm and an amazing and radiating stage presence. She performes with a "disarming" naturalness, that gives the public a wonderful feeling of being part of what's happening on stage. It actually feels as if everyone - the audience/the performers - is "one"!
Her voice has a beautiful timbre with a brilliant top register.
Her performance at Storan was a wonderful experience for the audience and her personality didn't just give an extra "touché" to the show- it was also noticeable that the whole cast was inspired." Gösta Berrman, Göteborgs Posten
VICTORY FOR MONICA BRYNNEL
"Monica Brynnel has without doubt the right "primadonne measurements". She is a gorgeous looking, long legged beauty, gifted with a beautiful, well projecting soprano voice and a very elegant stage presence." Olle Olsson, Göteborgs Tidningen
GASPARONE
Augsburg Opera House
"'Countess Carlotta' was performed by Monique Brynnel with tenderness and sweetness and one could easily say she sang the arias with 'gold in HER throat'".
Augsburg Zeitung
"MARIZA"
Augsburg Opera House
"Monique Brynnel, from Gartnerplatztheater, Munich, is a Dame with a slender figure, who, despite her narrow waist, has a strong voice. Her 'MARIZA' is elegant, has style and an attractive charm, that an operetta primadonna has to have to 'conquer' the audience.
She is a primadonna who knows her profession/work from 'the bottom up'." Dr. T.L, Augsburg Zeitung
" 'Lisa' is without question one of the hardest parts in operettas that has given many, many sopranos big worries. Monique Brynnel impressed with not only brilliant top notes but also beautiful phrasing. Her 'Lisa' also had charm and warmth." Dr. Thea Lethmair
"LAND OF SMILES"
Augsburg Opera House
Monique Brynnel gave the public the best singing 'presentation' of the evening. A primadonna with a brilliant voice, 'natural' personality and splendid 'looks', that any big opera house would be proud to have the opportunity to offer an audience. Augsburg Zeitung
"NIGHT IN VENICE"
Augsburg Opera House
"Monique Brynnel portrays Annina as sweet and lovely and has her big moment in this production, when she performs 'the Schwipslied'." wss, Suddeutsche Zeitung
"COUNT OF LUXEMBURG"
Augsburg Opera House
"Monique Brynnel as Angele Didier is a very elegant and charming primadonna with the splendour in her voice that makes a 'Diva' in a big Oper House a star." Dr. Thea Lethmair, Augsburg Zeitung,
"Monique Brynnel as Angele Didier comes across as a real and true singer from the big opera stages and shows us Angele as a cold/elegant instead of a sensitive Diva." Suddeutsche Zeitung
"CAN CAN"
Kiel Opera House
"Monique Brynnel is again wearing primadonne costumes - as only she can. She gets the key into our hearts through using a 'nightclub' timbre in her songs. A star for herself and a star for us." Rolf Gask
"A woman with unbelievable heartfelt feelings; a woman with charm; a fantastic woman; a woman with temperament, she is wonderful....." Elisabeth Schwencker, Kiel
"THE MERRY WIDOW"
Gärtnerplatztheater, Munich
MONICA BRYNNEL IS HAVING HUGE SUCCESS IN GERMANY
"Monica Brynnel has had new success in Germany, this time as "The Merry Widow" in Munich.
Gärtnerplatztheater is planning to have "the Widow" with Monica running in the repertoire for many years." Karl Henrik Karlsson, Expressen
""Monique Brynnel is a "Merry Widow" that one only can dream of. Her attractive 'Basta'-style, red hair, splendid singing made us all believe, without hesitation, that she is the focus/centre in the world of men." F.J. Weschli
"GYPSY PRINCESS"
Baden bei Wien
"Monique Brynnel, a young, beautiful 'Gypsy Princess' from Sweden, made us totally believe in her 'Sylva' whenever she appeared on stage. It was a pleasure to listen to her beautiful Sopran; she also brought her stage partners to higher levels.
We really hope to see Monique Brynnel soon again here in Baden bei Wien."
"KYSKA SUSANNA"
Riksteatern, Stockholm
SEDUCED BY SUSANNA!!!! Rollo
SUSANNA CONQUERS KARLSTAD
"Monica Brynnel is a lovely and charming as Susanna. She is one of the very few primadonnas, who is lucky enough to be able to share not only a beautiful and well placed voice with an audience but also a mesmerising personality. It was a new 'acquaintance ' one really is looking forward to experience again in the future." Alvar aril
"And - what a beautiful Susanna Monica Brynnel is! She is going to have a huge success in the future on the musical stage! Beautiful singing and 'sexy' - the men in the audience really had something special to keep their eyes on. She managed the part with elegance."
"SHOW BOAT"
Riksteatern, Stockholm
"Magnolia is magnifically performed by Monica Brynnel - an amazing looking and sweet 'angle' on stage - with a golden voice. The big star of the night was without any hesitation Monica Brynnel."
"The sweet looking Monica Brynnel has all you need to become a very big primadonna. She sang beautifully and presented her part with excellence."
"The young Monica Brynnel is an artist one can expect to hear/see much about in the future.
She sings well and her acting is magnificent."
"Monica Brynnel was excellent as Magnolia. She has a fantastic voice and is also very good looking. It's been a while since such a promising young girl entered the operatic stage."
"Monica Brynnel, primadonna, has depite her young age recieved nothing but praise in multitude which she - without hesitation - also deserves. She is an amazing artist."
HER DEBUT WAS A BIG SUCCESS!!!
"A new star was born last night in Oscarsteatern, Stockholm. Monica Brynnel, has many advantages. She sings beautifully, looks wonderful, well projecting and moves around the stage with grace. There is no risk that this girl will be out of "work" in the future." Kvällsposten
MONICA (BRYNNEL) HAS HER DEBUT ON THE THEATRE STAGE TOMORROW
Expressen
THE GIRL FROM GOTHENBURG IS OUR NEW BIG STAR
Aftonbladet
15 YEAR OLD GIRL FROM GOTHENBURG STARS IN COMPETITION
"A 15-year old singer from Gothenburg was the biggest surprise at the Musicfestival in Eskilstuna. It is obvious that the leading organisers for music events in Sweden are going to take notice/ engage this new star."
Göteborgs Handels och Sjöfartstidning
GOTHENBURG's NEW SINGING STAR
"Everybody feels the rhythm and joy in their bodies when Monica sings mambo and jazz, and professional agents start looking for pen and papers to sign her up.
Gothenburg's latest big young star is today sitting at school, Praktiska mellanskolan, learning how to type etc.,. We don't believe for a second that she'll be using an office chair in the future. More than likely will her future be on stage."
Aftonposten
