Though they’ve been out of touch ever since, the tenor Gran Wilson still remembers giving a student named Curtis Bannister his grounding as a classical singer nearly 20 years ago. Championed in his heyday by the likes of Beverly Sills and Joan Sutherland, Wilson now coordinates the University of Maryland’s highly respected opera studio. “Curtis was a real talent,” Wilson says. “He was a wonderful performer, with good body control, great stage savvy. He had the things you can’t teach. And he could sing. But these kids are so mercurial. Who ever knows what direction they’re going to take? I thought, If I teach him some technique, he’ll survive whichever way he wants to go.”
Sure enough, Bannister’s credits today are all over the place, ranging from a precocious run in the punishing title role of Verdi’s Otello (at 28!) to musicals such as Sweeney Todd, The Pajama Game, The Gospel at Colonus, and Ragtime, not to mention an appearance in the ensemble of Maurice Béjart’s seething Boléro with the touring Paris Opera Ballet. Now 36, Bannister made waves in February as the wrongfully imprisoned Florestan in Heartbeat Opera’s #BLM reboot of Beethoven’s Fidelio.
