The Australian-born bass-baritone Derek Welton is a regular guest at companies such as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Opera, Bayreuth Festival, Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Hamburg State Opera, Paris Opera, Bolshoi Theatre, Dutch National Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, in roles such as Wotan (Das Rheingold), Wanderer (Siegfried), Amfortas and Klingsor (Parsifal), König Marke (Tristan und Isolde), Orest (Elektra), Father (Hänsel und Gretel), Duke of Albany (Lear), Voland (Der Meister und Margarita), Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle), Pizarro (Fidelio), Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), Prus (The Makropulos Case), Saint-Bris (Les Huguenots), Pandolfe (Cendrillon) and Mozart’s Figaro.

Following his return to the Bayreuth Festival in summer 2023 as Amfortas, Derek’s engagements for the 2023/2024 season will include 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. Other concerts in the 2023/2024 season will include Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Creon and The Messenger in Stravinsky’s Œdipus Rex with the Munich Philharmonic, and Amfortas in Act 3 of Parsifal at the Grafenegg Festival.

He has performed with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Hallé Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Concerto Köln in repertoire including Bach’s St Matthew Passion, St John Passion and Mass in B minor, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Tippett’s A Child of our Time.

Derek Welton’s discography includes performances as Wotan in Das Rheingold (Naxos), Orest in Elektra (Unitel Edition), Der Pförtner in Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane (Naxos), the Herald in Lohengrin (Deutsche Grammophon), Creonte in Haydn’s L’anima del filosofo (Pinchgut Live), in the title role of Martinů’sThe Epic of Gilgamesh (Supraphon Records), two recordings as soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 (Ondine and Brattle Media) and a solo CD of Vaughan Williams songs with Iain Burnside for Albion Records.

Derek Welton holds degrees in Linguistics and German from the University of Melbourne and Music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.





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