Bernhard Landauer was born in
Innsbruck. He was a soprano soloist with the
Wilten Boys' Choir in his hometown, and then studied voice at the
University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, with Helene Karusso and
Kurt Equiluz. He studied further with Karl-Heinz Jarius in Frankfurt. He performed two roles in
Prodigal Son by
Sergei Prokofiev at the
Vienna State Opera in 1997. In 2000, he performed the role of Mercury in the first modern revival of
Giovanni Legrenzi's
La divisione del mondo at the
Schwetzingen Festival. Besides
early music and
Baroque music, he performed literature that unusual for a
countertenor. He has performed song cycles such as Schubert's
Winterreise and
Der Krämerspiegel by
Richard Strauss. He appeared as Fyodor in Mussorgsky's
Boris Godunov, and in
Kassandra by
Iannis Xenakis, originally written for
falsetto baritone. He performed in world premieres of compositions by
Alfred Schnittke and
Giorgio Battistelli, among others. From 1998 to 2004, Bernhard Landauer taught at the department of early music at the
Conservatory of Vienna, and since 2005 has been lecturer at the Austrian Master Classes. He has lived in
Salzburg. ==References==