Bass

Benoît / Alcindoro

(xx., xx., xx., xx., xx. Juli)

Bass-baritone Wolfgang Bankl has been a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble since 1993, where he has appeared in roles ranging from Leporello, Papageno, Don Alfonso, Count Waldner (Arabella), Klingsor (Parsifal), La Roche (Capriccio), the Doctor (Wozzeck), Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau to Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), the Animal Tamer, the Athlete, and Schigolch (Lulu), Astradamors (Le Grand Macabre, Ligeti), and Dr. Bartolo (in both The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville). Bankl was cast in the lead role of Napoleon for the 2024 world premiere of Alexander Raskatov’s opera Animal Farm.

Among his numerous guest appearances from New York to Tokyo, the most notable highlights of recent years include: Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau (Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg; Semperoper, Dresden, under Christian Thielemann; Staatsoper Berlin, under Zubin Mehta; Graz Opera House; Royal Opera, Copenhagen), Baron Zeta (La Scala, Milan), Boris (“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” Deutsche Oper Berlin), Don Alfonso (Budapest), the Doctor (“Wozzeck,” Munich, New York), Count Waldner (Leipzig, Zurich), Gurnemanz (“Moon Parsifal,” Vienna and Berlin Festivals), and Papageno (Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona).

A concert performance of “Parsifal” conducted by Andris Nelsons, with Wolfgang Bankl as Klingsor, was named the British cultural event of the year in 2015 in Birmingham. In 2019, he made his debut as Oberlin in “Jakob Lenz” at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. This production was selected as the “Best European Opera Co-production” of 2019.

In addition to his career as an opera singer, Bankl is active as a concert singer and song interpreter. His repertoire encompasses the entirety of his vocal range. In addition, he performs at some of the world’s greatest venues, from the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Gasteig in Munich, and Carnegie Hall in New York City to the Schoenberg Hall in Los Angeles.

Wolfgang Bankl began learning to play the violin as a child. After switching to the bass guitar and studying physics, he enrolled at the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied voice, opera, art song, and oratorio under Professors Dominique Weber, Waldemar Kmentt, and David Lutz. Along with conductor Norbert Pfafflmeyer, he is one of the founding members of the traveling chamber music festival Giro d’Arte. He regularly collaborates with conductors such as Bertrand de Billy, Michael Boder, Franz Welser-Möst, Zubin Mehta, Philippe Jordan, Adam Fischer, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, Ingo Metzmacher, Martin Haselböck, and Marco Armiliato.

Since 2007, Wolfgang Bankl has been a lecturer at the Allegro Vivo Festival, and additionally he has held the title of “österreichischer Kammersänger” since 2014.