Education
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.
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. 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
Louisiana 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.
On video, he can be seen in Handel"s Semele as Jupiter, singing a long, beautifully shaped "Where"er you walk". In Donizetti"s Linda di Chamounix with Edita Gruberová.
And in Louisiana belle Hélène. Deon van der Walt died at 47 at his wine farm in South Africa.