From: Warsaw, Poland. LA Opera: Melisso in Alcina (2021, debut).
Polish bass Wojtek Gierlach is a much in-demand singer with a wide-ranging career that has seen him perform at major venues across the world. His recent performances include role debuts as Sparafucile in Rigoletto, the Parson in The Cunning Little Vixen and Procida in David Pountney’s new production of Les vêpres siciliennes for Welsh National Opera. Also at WNO, Rocco in Fidelio, Giorgio in I Puritani and Alidoro in La Cenerentola, the latter a role he has also performed to great acclaim at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville. He also recently returned to the role of Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro and sang Zbigniew in Stanisław Moniuszko's The Haunted Manor at the Teatr Wielki Poznań, as well as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni for Opera Wroclawska. In concert, he appeared with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Dvořák’s Stabat Mater.
His other previous engagements include the Priest in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at Covent Garden, Talbot in Maria Stuarda at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Rocco in Fidelio and Count Rodolfo in Sonnambula in St. Gallen, Oroveso in Norma with the Teatre Principal Palma, a role he previously sang at the Teatro National de São Carlos Lisbon, and Melisso in Alcina (alongside Joyce DiDonato) with Harry Bicket and The English Concert at the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Theater an der Wien, and in productions at the Royal Danish Opera and the Opéra national de Bordeaux, as well as Giorgio in I Puritani and Alidoro at Danish National Opera, Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Assur in Semiramide at Royal Danish Opera, Mustafa in L’Italiana in Algeri at Minnesota Opera, Orbazzano in Tancredi in Seville, Leuthold in Guillaume Tell, Sydney and Profondo in Il Viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, and Leporello in Don Giovanni with Nico Opera Cape Town.
In Poland, his many appearances include Colline in La Bohème at Podlaska Opera, Escamillo in Carmen with the Warsaw National Philharmonic and, at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw he has also appeared as Hermes in Rozicky’s Eros i Psyche, Gessler Guillaume Tell, Talbot in Maria Stuarda, Colline, Figaro, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Duke Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia, and Escamillo. Elsewhere in Poland, roles also include Selim in The Turk in Italy and King of Clubs in The Love for Three Oranges at Krakow Opera, and the title role of Don Giovanni at the Warsaw Mozart Festival.
Wojtek is also much in demand as a concert performer, in repertoire spanning from the Baroque era to contemporary music. His performances at major venues across the world including the Dettingen Te Deum, Saul and Elijah at the Warsaw National Philharmonic Concert Hall, Bach Magnificat at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Bruckner Te Deum and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast and Missa solemnis with Helmuth Rilling at Konzerthaus Berlin, Salieri’s The Passion of Jesus Christ with Solisti Veneti and Claudio Scimone and Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Orquesta del Principado de Asturias and Alberto Zedda. He regularly performs Penderecki’s music under the baton of the composer, and has sung works including his Polish Requiem, Seven Gates of Jerusalem and Credo, plus a special performance of Penderecki’s Dies Irae with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Caracas.
Wojtek’s wide range of recordings includes Mose in Egitto and La Donna del Lago, Meyerbeer’s Semiramide with Richard Bonynge, Penderecki’s Magnificat and Janacek’s Glagolithic Mass (all on the Naxos label), G.S. Mayr’s Medea in Corinto, Luigi Mosca’s L’Italiana inAlgieri, Cherubini’s Lodoïska and Weber’s Euryanthe (both for Poslkie Radio), Guillaume Tell with Michele Mariotti (for Deutsche Grammophon), and a live recording of the world premiere of Il dissoluto punito by Ramón Carnice, conducted by Alberto Zedda.
He has won prizes in numerous international vocal competitions, including at the Francesco Viñas Competition in Barcelona.
His future plans include a return to Welsh National Opera to sing the role of Mephistophelès in Faust, and he will also sing the Gold Merchant in Cardillac with Polish National Opera, as well as appearing in productions of Boris Godunov and Rigoletto. In concert, he will also sing Père Laurence in Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with the Filharmonia Krakowska, as well the Dvořák Stabat Mater and the Kodaly Te Deum.
