Barry Banks

Tenor

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“His tenor is white-hot, piercing through the orchestra, threatening to burst into flames as Hades, in his sleazy green leisure suit, leers at Eurydice and stretches the syllables of her name into a sinister design.”
(Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post)

In a prestigious career built on impeccable technique and innate musicality, Grammy-nominated tenor Barry Banks’ early career in a core repertoire of bel canto and classical roles took him to the major stages of the world including appearances as Don Narciso (Il turco in Italia) and the title role in Mitridate, re di Ponto at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Ernesto (Don Pasquale) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Idreno (Semiramide) at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Arnold (Guillaume Tell) at Welsh National Opera, Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at the Salzburg Festival, and the title role of Candide in his US stage debut at Chicago Lyric Opera.

In a relationship with Metropolitan Opera spanning more than 25 years, key roles have included Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Tonio (La fille du régiment), Elvino (La Sonnambula), Lindoro (L’italiana in Algeri), and Italian Tenor (Der Rosenkavalier). Banks’ triumphant return to Metropolitan Opera in the 2021/22 season as Hades in Matt Aucoin’s acclaimed new opera Eurydice, earned him the highest of praise from audiences and critics alike, the Washington Post writing, “his tenor is white-hot, piercing through the orchestra, threatening to burst into flames as Hades.” Further pathing the way into a new territory of repertoire, other recent appearances include a return to Los Angeles Opera in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abel’s new opera Omar conducted by Kazem Abdullah, and his role debut as Mime in Das Rheingold for Dallas Opera under the baton of Emmanuelle Villaume.

Other notable opera roles include 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, Oreste (Ermione) marked his debut at the Santa Fe Festival, and he made house debuts at Opéra de Monte-Carlo and Wiener Staatsoper as Narcisco in performances of Il turco in Italia opposite Cecilia Bartoli. During a long association with English National Opera, Banks has appeared in a string of new productions including Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) and the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto).

Barry Banks’ distinguished concert career has included Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts under Sir Colin Davis with London Symphony Orchestra and released to considerable acclaim on LSO Live, Britten’s War Requiem at the Teatro alla Scala under Xian Zhang to mark the 10^th Anniversary of 9/11, The Dream of Gerontius with Münchner Philharmoniker under Sir Andrew Davis, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti, Das Lied von der Erde with players from Utah Symphony Orchestra under Thierry Fischer, and Gurrelieder with Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España under the baton of David Afkham. Most recently he has performed Mahler’s Symphony No.8 in the closing concert of the Cincinnati Mayfest under Juanjo Mena, and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus with Athens State Orchestra.

An impressive discography includes three recordings of Mahler’s Symphony No.8 — with Utah Symphony Orchestra (Fischer), London Philharmonic Orchestra (Jurowski), and, soon to be released, Minnesota Orchestra (Vänskä). He has recorded variously with Sony, EMI, Phillips, Telarc, Teldec, Harmonia Mundi, Opera Rara, Erato and Classical Opera and has had a long and fruitful association with the Chandos label with a number of releases on the Opera in English series and a featured solo album of bel canto arias.

Highlights of Barry Banks’ 2023/24 season include a return to San Francisco Opera for performances of Omar conducted by John Kennedy and Das Rheingold in staged performances with Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.

Barry Banks joins the Peabody Conservatory as Adjunct Professor of Vocal Studies for the 2023/24 academic year.

Rossini: Duet from Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghliterra © Theater an der Wien

Rossini: ‘Le comte Ory’ (extract) © Seattle Opera

The Making of Mitridate conducted by Ian Page © Classical Opera

Mahler: Symphony No.8 © Utah Symphony Orchestra

Elgar: King Olaf - King Olaf's Return (excerpt) © Chandos

Mozart: Mitridate, Re di Ponto - Vado incontro © Signum Classics

Berlioz: Sanctus - Grande Messe des morts (excerpt) © LSO Live

Rossini: Bianca e Falliero (excerpt 1) © Opera Rara

Rossini: Bianca e Falliero (excerpt 2) © Opera Rara

Rossini: Count Ory (excerpt) © Chandos

“Mime, Alberich’s cowardly set-upon brother, brought a bit of levity through tenor Barry Banks’ portrayal. He was charmingly buoyant and light, denoting the role’s ever-constant timidity and fearfulness.”

Texas Classical Review, February 2023

“Barry Banks repeated his familiar rendition of Don Narciso, singing with vocal bravura… his virtuosity breathtaking.”

Opera Magazine, May 2022

“The high tenor Barry Banks had a star turn as the ‘interesting man’ who seduces Eurydice to her death; he turns out to be the flamboyant Hades himself”

Opera Magazine, February 2022

“Barry Banks is a stylistically remarkable Don Narciso, who transforms his second act aria into a beautiful and expressive piece of theatre.”

(Connessi all’Opera, January 2022)

“As often happens, the bad guy got the best role: Barry Banks’s creepy, piercing Hades dominated the scene every time he appeared. Celebrating the 25^th anniversary of his Met debut, Banks still wields his high tenor with fearless and penetrating accuracy and his wily seduction of Eurydice was a pithy highpoint of Ruhl’s libretto.”

(Observer, November 2021)

“Then we have our bad guy — not Orpheus but Hades, Lord of the Underworld. He was Barry Banks, the English tenor, who has been nailing high notes for … how long? Forty years? He is nailing them still, and I mean difficult ones, not ones you can slide up to or merely bellow. Banks showed magnificent technical skill, plus beauty of voice, and he was a hoot as Hades.”

(New Criterion, November 2021)

“Hades, sung with true Mephistophelean nastiness by the tenor Barry Banks. Each note is cut like a diamond to fit in Banks’s pealing upper register.”

(Vulture, November 2021)

“And then there’s the performance of Barry Banks as Hades. From start to finish, Banks’ rat-like Hades was a scene stealer. It helps that Aucoin’s music best defines his character and that Banks fully embraced the overindulgence of high notes to great comic and dramatic effect. He relished each one of these moments and his biting diction added snake-like qualities to his singing.”

(Operawire, November 2021)

“[In Aucoin’s Eurydice] Barry Banks was in excellent tenore contraltino form as a lounge-lizard Hades”

(Opera Magazine, June 2020)

“Barry Banks used his high-ranging tenor and natural comic instincts to excellent effect as Truffaldino.”

(Opera Mag, Jan 2020)

“The role of the Astrologer calls for a tenor who can dispatch stratospheric lines, and Barry Banks does so with heroic power and assurance.”

(Dallas Morning News, October 2019)

“As his sidekick Truffaldino, Barry Banks’ pliable tenor soared fearlessly, effortlessly to encompass the heights demanded by this role’s tessitura.”

(Opera Today, September 2019)

“Barry Banks, in the title role of Roberto Devereux, seemed to pace himself so as to rise to the occasion in his final, crucial aria, ‘Come uno spirito angelico’…this outpouring found Banks at his most authoritative and expressive.”

(Opera Magazine, May 2019)

“Barry Banks brings an appropriately plangent tone to the innocuous Idreno…He sings confidently the character’s two fiendishly difficult arias and makes his mark in the concertato numbers too, soaring with the soprano above the lower voices to exciting effect.”

(Opera Magazine, Disc of the month, January 2019)

“As the Duke, Barry Banks peeled off the high notes with impressive ease, extending the final note of ‘La donna è mobile’ with carefree nonchalance.”

(Opera Magazine, November 2018)

“Barry Banks sails through Idreno’s vocal flights with ease, and his Act 2 courtship of Azema, ‘La speranza più soave’, is beautifully shaped, shuddering with passion.”

(Opera Today, September 2018)

“Best of all was Barry Banks, who projected the Astrologer’s pronouncements, scored in the vocal stratosphere, securely, stylishly and with lovely tone.”

(Opera Magazine, October 2017)

“The solution to the Tsar’s problem is supplied by a mysterious Astrologer. This tenor altino role has stratospheric demands that include a full-throated high E, dazzlingly sung by Barry Banks”

(Classical Voice America, August 2017)

“Barry Banks is a stylish and formidable vocal artist and ideal as the villain Norfolk.”

(News.at, March 2017)

“Served well by the lighter, clearer textures of the period Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Barry Banks’ Idreno carried beautifully through the hall, his music shaped with a striking range of colours, and his aria “La speranza più soave” was a love song of tremendous poignancy.”

(Arts Desk, September 2016)

“As Idreno, Barry Banks scaled the wilder Rossinian peaks as if out for an afternoon stroll. He displayed lovely soft tone in his Act II aria “La spreanza più soave””

(Bachtrack, September 2016)

“The ever-reliable Barry Banks gave a notable rendition of the strenuous and demanding role of Idreno, culminating in a sterling account of ‘La speranza più soave’ and its fiendishly showy finish.”

(Classical Source, September 2016)

“Sunday’s cast presented Barry Banks, a tenor with handsome tone quality and adroit comic sense, in the title role.”

(Seattle Times, August 2016)

“There are few tenors around capable of doing justice to Arturo, and Barry Banks delivers another outstanding performance with not only remarkable agilità but also a distinctively pinging plangency at the top.”

(Opera Magazine, November 2015)

“Barry Banks assaults Arturo’s stratospheric notes fearlessly, and sings throughout with an idiomatic grasp of bel canto style”

(The Times, September 2015)

“Banks [has] passionate commitment, projecting this exceptionally difficult and high-lying music with the same combination of tonal sweetness and pinging clarity that made Pavarotti famous.”

(The Telegraph, September 2015)

“as Don Narcisco the tenor Barry Banks has pinging top notes to complement his hilarious, Elvis-meets-Trotsky portrayal of an unlikely ladies’ man.”

(The Telegraph, April 2015)