Martin Gantner

Martin Gantner is regarded as one of the leading heroic and character baritones of his time. His interpretation of Telramund in Wagner’s Lohengrin — which he has performed in Zurich, Salzburg, Bayreuth, Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart, and most recently at the Vienna State Opera — sets standards and consistently receives the highest acclaim from both the press and audiences.

His extensive repertoire also includes roles such as Amfortas, Beckmesser, Klingsor, Kurwenal, Wolfram, Gunther, Barak, Faninal, Jochanaan, the Music Teacher, Don Pizarro, Dr. Schön, as well as the title roles in Hindemith’s Cardillac, Krenek’s Der Diktator, Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis, Eisenstein, and Danilo.

Highlights of the 2025/26 season include his role debuts as Rigoletto and Hans Sachs at the Stuttgart State Opera. He also returns to the Hamburg State Opera as the Music Teacher (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Telramund (Lohengrin).

Martin Gantner’s career has taken him to prestigious houses such as the Bavarian State Opera — where he was named Bavarian Kammersänger in 2005 — as well as the state operas of Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Semperoper Dresden, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, the Zurich Opera House, the Opéra national de Paris, La Scala in Milan, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, the New National Theatre in Tokyo, and the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals.

He works regularly with renowned conductors such as Alexander Soddy, Axel Kober, Semyon Bychkov, Daniele Gatti, Thomas Guggeis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Jordan, Vladimir Jurowski, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Cornelius Meister, Kent Nagano, Gianandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano, Kirill Petrenko, Donald Runnicles, Peter Schneider, Christian Thielemann, Juraj Valčuha, Lorenzo Viotti, Sebastian Weigle, and Simone Young.