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In a prestigious career built on impeccable technique and innate musicality, Barry Banks’ performances of the leading bel canto roles by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti have taken him to the world’s leading opera houses including The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Salzburg Festival. He made his debut at the 2021 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in a revival of Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra.
Notable operatic roles have included Banks’ debut as Arnold (Guillaume Tell) at Welsh National Opera, the title role in Mitridate, re di Ponto and Don Narciso (Il turco in Italia) at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Ernesto (Don Pasquale) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Count Almaviva at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Idreno (Semiramide) at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) at the Metropolitan Opera. He has appeared as Iago in Rossini’s Otello at both Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Salzburg Festival. The role of Don Ramiro (La cenerentola) saw his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Oreste (Ermione) marked his debut at the Santa Fe Festival. He made his debuts in Vienna as Norfolk (Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra) at Theater an der Wien, at the Teatro Real as the Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel and at Opernhaus Zürich as Pirelli in Sweeney Todd.
During a long association with English National Opera he has appeared in a string of new productions and roles include Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) and the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto.
In the USA, Barry Banks’ 2019/20 season included house debuts at Opera Philadelphia (The Love for Three Oranges) and at Dallas Opera (The Golden Cockerel); and the world premiere of Matt Aucoin’s Eurydice at Los Angeles Opera.
In concert Barry Banks has performed Berlioz’ Grand Messe des Morts under Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra which was released to considerable acclaim on LSO Live. He sang in Britten’s War Requiem at the Teatro alla Scala under Xian Zhang, The Dream of Gerontius with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Sir Andrew Davis, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti and Gurrelieder with Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de Espana under the baton of David Afkham.
Barry Banks’ 2021/22 season starts at the Metropolitan Opera with performances of Aucoin’s Eurydice under Yannik Nézet-Séguin. He returns to the role of Pirelli in performances at Opera Omaha and he appears as Don Narciso at both Opéra de Monte Carlo and the Wiener Staatsoper under the baton of Gianluca Capuano. Concerts include Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä.