From: Staffordshire, England. LA Opera: tenor soloist in Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (2011, debut); Hades in Eurydice (2020). Upcoming: Auctioneer/Taylor in Omar (2022).
The tenor's outstanding facility in roles by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti has regularly taken him to the world’s leading opera houses. With the Metropolitan Opera he has partnered with Renée Fleming in Rossini’s Armida, Natalie Dessay in The Daughter of the Regiment and La Sonnambula, with Olga Borodina in L’Italiana in Algeri and with Anna Netrebko in Don Pasquale and L’Elisir d’Amore. Notable roles have included his 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 (The Barber of Seville) at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Idreno (Semiramide) at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and at Royal Danish Opera.
He has appeared as Iago in Rossini’s Otello at both Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Salzburger Festspiele. 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, and at the Teatro Real, Madrid as the Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel. During a long association with English National Opera he has appeared as Tamino (The Magic Flute), Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress), Edgardo (in David Alden’s acclaimed production of Lucia di Lammermoor), Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) and as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto.
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 Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Utah Symphony under Thierry Fischer. In the 2018/19 season, Barry Banks makes his role and house debuts as Pirelli in Andreas Homoki’s new production of Sweeney Todd at Operhaus Zurich. Bel canto roles include Roberto Devereux at Welsh National Opera under Carlo Rizzi and Rossini’s Sigismondo in concert with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Ulf Schirmer. Other highlights include Gurrelieder with Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España under the baton of David Afkham, and Berlioz’s Te Deum with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Kazuki Yamada. His discography includes Mitridate with Classical Opera Company (Ian Page), The Elixir of Love, The Italian Girl in Algiers, Don Pasquale, Don Giovanni, The Thieving Magpie and The Magic Flute in the Opera in English series for Chandos. DVD releases include Armida from the Metropolitan Opera. His solo recital disc for Chandos - Barry Banks sings Bel Canto Arias - received substantial critical acclaim.
