Deon van der Walt

Who was Deon van der Walt?

Deon van der Walt, was a South African tenor.

Van der Walt studied singing at the University of Stellenbosch and made his debut as Jaquino in Beethoven's Fidelio at the Cape Town Opera before he had graduated. Numerous scholarships and awards allowed him to continue his studies abroad. In 1981, he won the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg. His first formal engagement took him to Gelsenkirchen's Musiktheater im Revier, then to the Staatsoper Stuttgart and Zurich Opera. He was invited to perform at the Royal Opera House in London in 1985 and there made his debut as Almaviva in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.

He was counted amongst the leading lyric tenors of his day and performed at all the world’s major opera houses, including

La Scala in Milan

the Hamburg State Opera

the Vienna State Opera

the Bavarian State Opera in Munich

the Zurich Opera, Switzerland

the Liceu in Barcelona

the Metropolitan Opera in New York

He also performed at numerous international festivals, especially at the Salzburg Festival, where he sang Belmonte in Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio and Ferrando in Così fan tutte under Riccardo Muti.