Deon van der Walt

Career overview

Deon van der Walt was a South African tenor born on July 28, 1958, in Cape Town, South Africa. He studied at Stellenbosch University and resided at Wilgenhof, making his operatic debut as Jaquino in Beethoven's Fidelio at the Cape Town Opera before he had graduated. Supported by numerous scholarships and awards, he continued his studies abroad and won the Internationaler Mozartwettbewerb in Salzburg in 1981. His first formal engagement took him to Gelsenkirchen's Musiktheater im Revier, followed by the Staatsoper Stuttgart and the Zurich Opera. In 1985, he was invited to perform at the Royal Opera House in London, where he made his debut as Almaviva in Rossini's The Barber of Seville.

Later in his career, van der Walt expanded his repertoire to include French music. He sang Romeo in Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Zürich Opera House and performed Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon for the first time at the Vienna State Opera in 1997. He also achieved great success as Tonio in La Fille in Zürich and Barcelona. As a screen actor, his credits included work on the television series Great Performances, as well as performances in the filmed productions La belle Hélène in 1996 and Die Zauberflöte in 1991. Van der Walt passed away on November 29, 2005, in Noorder-Paarl, South Africa.