Donald Shanks (bass-baritone) "Norma" with Dame Joan Sutherland, "La bohème" with Luciano Pavarotti, and Banquo in "Macbeth" with Sherrill Milnes. Other roles he became associated with were Zaccharia in "Nabucco", Rocco in "Fidelio", Osmin in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Boris in "Boris Godunov", Timur in "Turandot", Ramphis in "Aida", Pistol in "Falstaff", Kekal in "The Bartered Bride", Baron Ochs in "Der Rosenkavalier", Nourabad in "The Pearl Fishers", the Commendatore in "Don Giovanni", and a major role in Leoš Janáček's "The Cunning Little Vixen". He created the role of The Maestro in Alan John's 1995 opera "The Eighth Wonder" at the Sydney Opera
The Cunning Little Vixen to contain similarities to the music of French composer Claude Debussy. At Janáček's request, the final scene from " The Cunning Little Vixen" was performed at his funeral in 1928. Ursula Dubosarsky's 2018 novel for children, "Brindabella", is based on Rudolf Těsnohlídek's "Vixen Sharp Ears", the source story of the Cunning Little Vixen, relocated in the Australian bush, with the role of the Vixen played by a kangaroo. Broken down from the original Czech, the title is There is no mention in the Czech of a diminutive ("little"), although this idea is included in both the German "(Das schlaue Füchslein)"