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| Walt Deon van der | | tenore
[ 1958 - 2005 ]
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| Deon van der Walt is today one of the world's leading lyric tenors, as well as a highly sought-after recitalist in both Europe and America. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, where he studied singing at the Stellenbosch University with Prof George van der Spuy. After being awarded an overseas scholarship in 1980, he furthered his training in Europe, where he was awarded the First Prize at the Summer Accademy of the renowned Salzburg Mozarteum. He was engaged as Principal Lyric Tenor at the Stuttgart Opera, from where he began to make increasingly important guest appearances in all the other first-class German theatres: Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich. His career took off in the rest of Europe from 1985, following a highly acclaimed debut in 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia' at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, to which he has regularly returned. This success was rapidly succeeded by engagements at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Milan and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as the Opera Bastille in Paris, the 'Maggio Musicale' Festival in Florence ant the famous Salzburg Festival. An early concentration on the lighter operas of Rossini and Mozart has made way for more dramatic roles, especially in the latter composer's oeuvre, the taxing name-parts in 'Idomeneo' and 'La Clemenza di Tito' having recently been brought off with great success. In the French and Italian lyric genres he has of late taken on Gounod's 'Roméo et Juliette', Donizetti's 'La Fille du Régiment', 'Linda di Chamounix' - partnering the renowned coloratura Edita Gruberova in the last two - and Massenet's 'Manon'. Among household names with whom he has consistently worked are conductors like the late Sir Georg Solti, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carlos Kleiber and Zubin Mehta, and stage-directors like Franco Zeffirelli, Jonathan Miller, Harry Kupfer, Marco Arturo Marelli, the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Johannes Schaaf, Dieter Dorn. Concerts and song-recitals have taken him to the Musikverein in Vienna, the Philharmonie in Berlin and London's Wigmore Hall. Recent engagements have included Offenbach's 'La belle Hélène' and 'La Perichole', both with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Zürich Opera, Mozart's 'Die Entführung aus dem Serail' and 'Don Giovanni' at the Vienna State Opera, as well as highly successful performances of Massenet's 'Manon', and Gluck's 'Iphigenie in Tauride' in the world famous Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Deon van der Walt was made an Honorary Professor in 1996 by the University of Port Elizabeth in South Africa, and records on compact disc for leading labels like Teldec, Nightingale, Chandos, BMG and EMI. He was also nominated for a Grammy Award for his portrayal of David in 'Die Meistersinger' under Wolfgang Sawallisch for EMI. |
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