Derek Welton, bass-baritone

Derek Welton

Derek Welton
© Simon Pauly
Derek Welton
© Simon Pauly
Derek Welton
© Simon Pauly

Biography

The Australian-born bass-baritone Derek Welton has established himself as a respected and versatile artist both on the concert platform and the opera stage, with a repertoire ranging from Bach and Handel to the present day.

 

Derek’s engagements for the 2023/2024 season will include a return to the Opéra de Lyon in the title role of a staged version of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, his début at the Teatro Real Madrid as Duke of Albany (Lear) and his role début as Wotan in Die Walküre at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a role which he will also sing in concert with Concerto Köln. Concerts will include Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, excerpts of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Der Ring des Nibelungen with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Stravinsky’s Œdipus Rex with the Munich Philharmonic and Act 3 of Parsifal at the Grafenegg Festival. Derek will return to the Bayreuth Festival in 2024 as Amfortas, and future plans include , and Mahler’s Symphony No 8 with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Pizarro in Fidelio at Washington National Opera.

Calendar

Upcoming performances

Sibelius · Stravinsky

Symphony No 7 in C major Op 105
Jean Sibelius

 

Œdipus Rex
Igor Stravinsky

 

Conductor · Santtu-Matias Rouvali

 

Œdipus · Paul Appleby
Jocasta · Ekaterina Semenchuk
Creon · Derek Welton
Tiresias · Shenyang
Shepherd · Gyula Rab
Messenger · Derek Welton
Narrator · Waltraud Meier

Die Walküre

Conductor · Kent Nagano

 

Wotan · Derek Welton
Siegmund · Maximilian Schmitt, Ric Furman
Sieglinde · Sarah Wegener
Brünnhilde · Åsa Jäger, Christiane Libor
Hunding · Patrick Zielke
Fricka · Claude Eichenberger

 

Locations
Prague State Opera, Prague, Czechia
Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Kölner Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany
Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany

News

Press and updates

Critical acclaim for Derek Welton’s début as Wotan in Die Walküre

Derek Welton’s recent début in the role of Wotan in Wagner’s Die Walküre has been met with critical acclaim. Reviews of the performances include:   ‘Frustration, authority, love, ego: there is no side of Wotan that bass-baritone Derek Welton does not portray wonderfully. The marital quarrel between him and Fricka is a theatrical highlight.’ – […]

Rehearsals begin for Die Walküre in Dresden

Following his house début at the Teatro Real Madrid in January, Derek worked for the first time with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Gustavo Gimeno, performing and recording Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, which will be released on the Harmonia Mundi label. Yesterday he began rehearsals in Dresden of Wagner’s Die Walküre with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln, conducted […]

Reviews of Elijah
Derek Welton – Elijah

Derek Welton’s performances in the title role of Elijah have been critically acclaimed by the press:   ‘The splendid hero turns out to be Derek Welton. The Australian baritone dominates the overwhelming title role and infuses it with all the colours of the Lieder singer that he also is.’ – Classique News   ‘The baritone Derek […]

Photos of Elijah
Derek Welton – Elijah

Some impressions of Calixto Bieito’s visually spectacular production of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, which opened last night (17 December) at the Opéra de Lyon (photos © Bertrand Stofleth | Opéra de Lyon):  

Audio and video

Featured recording

Wagner Das Rheingold
»Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge«

Play

© Charlie Kinross

Derek Welton in concert
© Susanne Diesner