Monique Brynnel

Monique Brynnel is a Swedish Australian singer who started singing jazz at the early age of 13 and eight years later changed to Musicals, Operetta and Opera. She has also performed as an actress, speaker and tutor etc.

BIOGRAPHY

As a teenager Monique won numerous jazz competitions in Sweden and sang with bands like Ken Lains, Fredriks Glade Show (an "extension" of Svend Asmundsen's band) etc. After finishing "Realexamen" Monique started having daily singing lessons with Alice Sterner, operetta diva at Stora Teatern, and her husband and director/first conductor at Stora Teatern, Gothenburg, Styrbjörn Lindedal. They became her mentors and tutors. In 1962 Monique won a scholarship which took her to London, where she continued her singing education with the lyric soprano Mme Triguez and after that with Mme Prestel in Munich.

Later the same year Monique was invited to do auditions for Oscarsteatern, SVT, Hamburger Börs, Stockholm etc.,  resulting in contracts/engagements. After Oscarsteatern Monique was engaged by Riksteatern for Magnolia in The Show Boat. She stayed with Riksteatern for another five years before she decided to leave Sweden. Her first engagement was in Baden bei Wien, Austria, as the Csardasfuerstin. Then Germany and Kiel Opera House where she started off as the Merry Widow. Her next engagement was as the Merry Widow in Munich, which lasted for eight years. She did lots of guest performances in Musicals and Operettas during this time in other opera houses in Europe - Oslo, Basel, Hamburg, Gothenburg, Frankfurt etc., etc.,

Monique Brynnel married the Australian tenor, Jon Weaving, in 1969 in London.  They met in Kiel when they performed the leading couple in "The Merry Widow in the Opera House.  After their son, Jack, was born they decided to move to Australia.

In Australia Monique Brynnel was engaged by the Melbourne Opera Company and Queensland Opera Company during 1979 - 1982 for the leads in Die Fledermaus and the Merry Widow. She also performed concerts with all seven ABC Symphony Orchestras in Australia during this time.

In 1982 Richard Bonynge engaged her for the part of Adele in a production of Die Fledermaus with the Australian Opera Company at the Sydney Opera House - the first time Monique performed as soubrette. Dame Joan Sutherland sang Rosalinda. This was the first performance to be broadcasted live from the Sydney Opera House on TV and was a huge success. Monique Brynnel's performances at the Sydney Opera House 1982 - 1993 included the leading parts in The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus, Cosi fan Tutte - with Richard Bonynge as conductor - and seven New Years Eve Concerts with David Kram as conductor.

In 1992 Monique Brynnel and her husband, Jon Weaving, started Academy of Singing in Melbourne. Monique Brynnel was also tutoring and giving Master classes at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University, Melbourne, from 1993 till 2008.

Monique Brynnel performed in a new production of Lucky Stiff in Melbourne, 2000; Despina in Cosi fan Tutte in Christchurch, New Zealand, 2002; Follies in Melbourne, 2008.

Monique Brynnel and Erland Hagegård started touring and giving concerts 2014 in Sweden and Germany and are still performing as WE2.

Monique Brynnel has also worked as a producer, director, writer, designer and performed many cabaret shows both in Sweden and Australia.  Diva Class, Champagne Operetta, Monique Brynnel & Friends, Dare to Sing, The Gupps, Monique, Jon & The Merry Widows, Två Systrar, With a Song in my Heart, Vienna to Broadway, I Operettens Värld - to mention some.

DISCOGRAPHY

World of Operetta ... Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conductor Van Cavdarski
Die Fledermaus ....... Elisabethan Sydney Orchestra, conductor Richard Bonynge
Heart of Vienna ....... Australian Pops Orchestra, conductor Douglas Gamley
More Favourites .... Opera Australia, ABC
Maid in Sweden ..... acc. Angela Dahr, Christy Roth, Move Records
Kasper Lives..........Universal Music Productions of Australia

OPERAHOUSES/THEATRES

Oscarsteatern, Stockholm, 1963
Riksteatern, Stockholm, 1964 - 1968
Lisebergsteatern, Gothenburg, 1967
Baden bei Wien, Operetten House, 1968
Kieler Opera House, 1969 - 1971, 1974 - 1975, 1977 - 1978
Gärtnerplatztheater, Munich, 1970 - 1978
Augsburg Opera House, 1971 - 1973
Frankfurter Opera House, 1972
Essen Opera House, 1973 - 1975
Bielefeld Opera House, 1976 - 1978
Stora Teatern, Gothenburg, 1977
Basel Opera House, 1977
Hamburger Operetten House, 1978
Oslo Opera House, 1978
Melbourne Opera Company, 1981 - 1983
Queensland Opera Company, Brisbane,1981 - 1983
Opera Australia, Sydney, 1982 - 1985,
Christchurch Opera Company, Christchurch, N.Z., 2002

etc.,

DVD

Die Fledermaus ...... ABC, Sydney Opera House
Opera Favourites ... Opera Australia, ABC
More Favourites ..... Opera Australia, Sydney Opera House
The Essential Sutherland ... Opera Australia, Sydney Opera House
Encore .................... Opera Australia, Sydney Opera House
Act II ....................... Opera Australia, Sydney Opera House

DISTINCTIONS

Margit Rosengren's Scholarship, 1962
Svenska Riksteatern's Scholarship for Best new Artist, 1964
International Robert Stolz Society Award, 1992
MiG, Marknadsföreningen i Göteborg, Ambassadör, 1998