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.
He 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, 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), 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.
Derek 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 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 that 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.
Following his return to the Bayreuth Festival in 2024 as Amfortas, highlights of Welton’s 2024/2025 season will include Mahler’s Symphony No 8 with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Pizarro in Fidelio at Washington National Opera, King Marke in Tristan und Isolde and the title role of The Flying Dutchman at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Wanderer in Siegfried with Concerto Köln.
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’s The 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 in Music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
