Wolfgang Bankl, bass,
was born in Vienna in 1960 and at first educated as a violinist at the Music School of Baden near Vienna. While attending grammar school he developed his musical skills playing the violin in several orchestras and electronic bass guitar in a jazz band. Those activities were continued during his education as a physicist at the Technical University of Vienna. In 1984, he began his singing studies with Dominique Weber at the Vienna Conservatory, and in addition, was trained in lied and oratory singing by David Lutz and in opera singing by Waldemar Kmentt. He completed his singing studies with destinction in 1989. His first engagements were at the Vienna Chamber Opera where he performed as Masetto in Don Giovanni and as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. Between 1989 and 1993 he worked at the Opera House in Kiel performing among others as Figaro, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, Don Pasquale and Leporello. In 1992, he was entrusted by Brigitte Fassbaender to sing the Tierbändiger and the Athlet in her production of Lulu at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck. Since 1993 Wolfgang Bankl has been a member of the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera where he was and is to be heard as Leporello, Papageno, Great Inquisitor, Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. In addition, he participated in the following opening nights as Geisterbote in Die Frau ohne Schatten, as Tierbändiger/Athlet in Lulu, as Ringender in Die Jakobsleiter, als Geronte de Ravoir in Puccini’s Manon, as Klingsor in Parsifal (conductors Christian Thielemann, Sir Simon Rattle and Donald Runnicles) and as Zirkusdirektor in the premiere of Der Riese vom Steinfeld by Friedrich Cerha and Peter Turrini. Guest contracts led him to perform among others at the Opera Houses and festivals in Zurich, Hamburg, Cologne, Barcelona, Milano, Savona, Salzburg, Lübeck, Bregenz, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Salamanca und Paris.
Off the beaten track of the opera stage Wolfgang Bankl is in great demand as a singer in concerts and of lieder. The highlights in that respect were among others his appearances in last season’s performances of Massenet’s Marie Magdeleine conducted by Bertrand de Billy at the Wiener Osterklang, Bach’s St. John Passion in Rome (Santa Cecilia), Bach’s Mass in B minor, Haydn’s The Creation conducted by Richard Hickox und Adam Fischer who also engaged him to sing in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and in Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons. Further highlights were Schönberg’s Gurrelieder, given on the occasion of the opening of the newly renovated Wiener Konzerthaus, his New York debut at the Austrian Culture Forum, as well as in Händel’s La Resurrezione at the Wiener Osterklang and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion conducted by Martin Haselböck.
Together with the pianist and conductor Norbert Pfafflmeyer, the writer Harald Kollegger and the composer Schmerzhelm von Solchgemut he founded in the year 2000 the pedaling chamber music festival GIRO D´ARTE that is mainly dedicated to the performance of contemporary music in addition to works by Bach and Schubert.
Among the numerous CD productions he contributed to the following deserve to be specified: Der Rosenkavalier (conducted by Carlos Kleiber), Winterreise (piano Norbert Pfafflmeyer), Der Riese vom Steinfeld (music by Friedrich Cerha, libretto by Peter Turrini, conducted by Michael Boder, co-staring Thomas Hampson and Diana Damrau) and Klingsor in Parsifal, conducted by Christian Thielemann, with Placido Domingo and Waltraud Meier.
Translation: Harald Kollegger
