Günther Groissböck

The bass Günther Groissböck, who was born in Waidhofen in Lower Austria in 1976, completed his vocal studies at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts with Ralf Döring, Gerhard Kahry, and Robert Holl. Awarded first prize in the Gradus ad Parnassum Competition, he received his first engagement at the Vienna Chamber Opera in 2001 as Pluto in Peri’s Euridice. Groissböck was accepted into the ensemble of the Vienna Staatsoper the following year. In 2003, he took up an invitation to join Zurich Opera, where he remained for four years. Sarastro in Mozart’s Magic Flute became one of the signature roles of his early career, which he performed not only in Zurich but also at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Groissböck has been freelancing since 2007 and regularly appears at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Bavarian and Berlin Staatsoper companies, the Opéra national de Paris, and the National Opera in Amsterdam. He made his Bayreuth Festival debut as Landgrave Hermann in Tannhäuser in 2011, appearing there in the following decade as Fasolt in Das Rheingold, Pogner in Die Meistersinger, and Gurnemanz in Parsifal, among other roles. In addition to the great Wagner characters, his repertoire includes such parts as Orest in Strauss’s Elektra, Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. In 2014, Groissböck made his role debut as Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Salzburg Festival. He has since performed this role at La Scala in Milan, the Bavarian Staatsoper, the Berlin Staatsoper, and the Metropolitan Opera. In 2023, he will undertake the part of Filippo II in Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Met for the first time. Groissböck has also become active as a stage director, presenting Tristan Experiment at the Theater an der Wien in 2021.

August 2022