Derek Welton

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), Klingsor (Parsifal), Herald (Lohengrin), 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), Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) and Créon (Œdipus Rex). Engagements for the 2022/2023 season include débuts at the Opéra National du Rhin as Der König in Der Schatzgräber and the Opéra de Lyon as Pangloss in Candide, returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Der Pförtner in Das Wunder der Heliane, the Vienna State Opera as Klingsor and Victorian Opera as Orest, as well as role débuts as Amfortas in Parsifal (as well as singing Klingsor) with the Orquesta de Extremadura, Wotan in extracts of Die Walküre with the Orchestre National de Lille, Wanderer in Act 3 of Siegfried Act 3 with the Sinfonieorchester Basel and as King Marke in Act 2 of Tristan und Isolde with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. He returns to the Bayreuth Festival in 2023 in the role of Amfortas in the new production of Parsifal. 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.