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Wolfgang Bankl

Biography

Wolfgang Bankl is one of the leading bass-baritones when it comes to the music of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. In 1993 he joined the Vienna Opera where he always has the opportunity to sing his favourite roles including Dr. Bartolo (Il Barbiere of Sevilla), Graf Waldner (Arabella), Dikoi (Katja Kabanova), Klingsor (Parsifal), The Rock (Capriccio) and Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau (Der Rosenkavalier). During the last seasons, the latter became a "second skin" for Wolfgang Bankl. Not only did he sing the Baron in Vienna but also in a new production at the Opéra National du Rhin, at the Semperoper Dresden under the direction of Christian Thielemann, at the Graz Opera House and finally at the Copenhagen Opera House.

In May 2016, Wolfgang Bankl sang for the first time the role of Brighella in Richard Wagner's Das Liebesverbot at the Rhine National Opera. In 2017 he made his debut in the role of Boris Ismailov in Lady Macbeth von Mensk at the Vienna Opera, which he also sang at the German Opera, Berlin in 2018. Wolfgang Bankl took the role of Don Alfonso at the Vienna Opera in 2016 and on the stage of Magyar Allami Operahaz in Budapest in 2019.

In 2019 he interpreted Waldner in Strauss's Arabella at Vienna's Opera, and 2020 at The Leipzig Opera where he had already performed in 2016. In December 2017 Wolfgang Bankl made his debut in Berg's Lulu in the role of Schigolch at the Vienna State Opera and in addition to playing the part of Athlete and Animal Tamer, he takes on Schigolch's characteristic role. In 2017 he sang Gurnemanz in the world premiere of Mondparsifal as part of the Berlin and Vienna Festivities Weeks.

Wolfgang Bankl still enjoys maintaining his operetta repertoire, with roles such as such as Frank in La Chauve Souris at the Vienna Opera (2016 and 2017), Kalman Zsuppan in Zigeunerbaron at the Grand Théâtre de Genève (2017) and at an Operetta Gala in Ankara (2017).

A concert version of Parsifal, under the baton of Andris Nelsons, with Wolfgang Bankl in the role of Klingsor was named as Cultural Event of Great Britain of the year 2015.

Wolfgang Bankl's repertoire also includes the roles of Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer, Claggard in Billy Budd, and Gurnemanz and Klingsor in Parsifal.

Wolfgang Bankl is from Vienna and was initially trained as violinist. Later, he studied singing, opera, art songs and oratorio at the Vienna Conservatory.

With the conductor Norbert Pfaffelmeyer he is one of the founding members of the itinerant chamber music festival "Giro d'Arte". He regularly works with conductors such as Bertrand de Billy, Michael Boder, Franz Welser-Möst, Zubin Mehta, Philippe Jordan, Adam Fischer, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, Ingo Metzmacher and Marco Armiliato.
In 2014 Wolfgang Bankl received the title of "Singer of Chamber Music of Austria".

(2019_11)

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Schedule

01 04 2024

PARSIFAL (Titurel)

Wiener Staatsoper Vienna (AT)
03 04 2024

PARSIFAL (Titurel)

Wiener Staatsoper Vienna (AT)
09 05 2024

THE TEMPEST (Gonzalo)

Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna (AT)
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