Martin Gantner

Biography

Martin Gantner was born in Freiburg. He began studying voice at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe with Prof. Kern and subsequently was awarded the first prize in the VDMK competition in Berlin. He made his debut in in Koblenz as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and was engaged by Götz Friedrich for the first performance of Das verratene Meer by Hans Werner Henze. Further engagements were Così fan tutte in Basel with Herbert Wernicke and Michael Boder and a new production of Henze’s Das verratene Meer at the Scala di Milano. He was invited to productions of Salome at the Salzburg Festival and in Brussels, followed by different projects in Barcelona, Dresden, Baden-Baden, Ludwigsburg, Zurich and Düsseldorf.

From 1993 until 2006/2007 Martin Gantner was a member of the ensemble at the Bavarian State Opera, where he sang roles such as Papageno, Guglielmo, Dr. Malatesta, Dr. Falke, Silvio, Ping, Harlekin, Ottokar, and Marcello and was appointed the title of Bayerischer Kammersänger in 2005. He had guest contracts at the State Opera Dresden where he appeared as Papageno, Guglielmo, Dandini, and Harlekin. He was invited as Dr. Falke to Zurich (Harnoncourt/Flimm), and made his debut in Vienna as Albert in Massenet’s Werther with great success.

He could be heard in Ariadne in Dresden with M° Bychkov, and as Heerrufer in Lohengrin (with Schneider, Seiffert, Studer, Marton) in Los Angeles. The role of Prince Jeletzki in the new production of Pique Dame in Munich (with Smith, Dalayman, Zaremba) turned out to be a great success. Subsequently he made his US debut at the Los Angeles Opera as Heerrufer in Lohengrin and sang concerts at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Zubin Mehta in the Teatro Comunale of Florence and in the Basilica of Assisi. Martin Gantner made his debut as Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier in Cologne (staging by G. Krämer, conductor Ph. Augin).

Numerous new productions and important role debuts (among others Amfortas, Beckmesser, Kurwenal, Telramund, Wolfram, Faninal, Jochanaan, Don Pizzarro, Posa, Eisenstein) followed, in Munich, Dresden, Amsterdam, Zurich, Paris, Chicago, San Francisco, at the MET in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and Tokyo. Recently Martin Gantner could be heard as Faninal in Munich, Chicago, Paris, Amsterdam and Zurich, Kurwenal in Florence and Turin, Telramund in Zurich, Beckmesser in Munich, at the MET and in San Francisco, Gyges in Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules, Wolfram in Tannhäuser and the title roles in Ullmann’s Kaiser von Atlantis and Krenek’s Diktator in Seville, Gunther in Götterdämmerung in Toronto as well as in Dresden (with Christian Thielemann), Dr. Schön/Lulu in Rome, Don Pizarro in Zurich. He had a huge success in Florence with his debut of the title part in Hindemith’s Cardillac as well as with his interpretation of Telramund in a new production of Lohengrin in Stuttgart. Recently he sang the role of Beckmesser (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) at the Bayreuth Festival.

In the season 2020/21 Martin Gantner was invited to Stuttgart for a scenic production of Mahler’s Lied von der Erde and as Musiklehrer in Strauss’ Ariadne, he sang Telramund at the Staatsoper Berlin, Beckmesser in Bayreuth and Musiklehrer/Ariadne at the Edinburgh International Festival. Projects of the 2021/22 season include Meistersinger at the Metropolitan Opera New York, Lohengrin/Telramund at the Staatsoper Berlin and at the Bolshoi in Moscow as well as Tristan/Kurwenal at the Opernhaus Zurich.

Martin Gantner is also regularly performing within the concert field. His repertoire includes Carmina Burana, Ein deutsches Requiem, Matthäus-Passion, Elias, Paulus and Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie. He also made recordings of Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the RAI Rome and a TV broadcast of Haydn’s Paukenmesse with Zubin Mehta. He has sung Brittens War Requiem under Mstislaw Rostropowitsch with huge success, which was captured on TV- and CD-recordings.

His recordings include furthermore Salome under the baton of von Dohnányi (Decca), the operetta Die lustigen Nibelungen (Gunther) (Capriccio), Così fan tutte (Guglielmo) under de Billy (Arte Nova Classics) as well as Schumann’s Faust-Szenen under Tate, CD “Best of Bayerische Staatsoper, 1997-2005” (‚Lied an den Abendstern’/Tannhäuser).

Photo by Tom Jasny