© Eduardus Lee
Bass-Baritone
Derek Welton
"this prodigiously gifted young singer clearly is on the way to becoming a major international star"
- MusicOMH
Represented by
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Upcoming Past
Apr 2025
21.
16:00
16:00
Giulio Cilona, Conductor
Christian Spuck, Stage Director
Apr 2025
26.
19:30
19:30
Edward Gardner, Conductor
May 2025
23.
20:00
20:00
Cristian Măcelaru, Conductor
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Apr 2025
21.
16:00
16:00
Giulio Cilona, Conductor
Christian Spuck, Stage Director
Apr 2025
10.
18:00
18:00
Kent Nagano, Conductor
Apr 2025
4.
18:30
18:30
Kent Nagano, Conductor
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Biography Highlights
Upcoming
Pizarro Fidelio and Wotan Die Walküre at Washington National Opera, König Marke Tristan und Isolde and Holländer Der fliegende Holländer at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wotan Das Rheingold at Opéra national de Paris, Wanderer Siegfried with Concerto Köln and Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Journalist Ithaka at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Mahler Symphony No 8 with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra, Messiah at Musikverein Vienna, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem at Rome Opera, The Dream of Gerontius with WDR Symphony Orchestra, Bruckner Mass in F minor with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Recent
Regular guest at companies such as Royal Ballet and Opera, Salzburg Festival, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayreuther Festspiele, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Hamburg, Opéra national de Paris, Opéra de Lyon, Teatro Real Madrid, Dutch National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, in roles such as Wotan/Wanderer Der Ring des Nibelungen, Amfortas and Klingsor Parsifal, König Marke Tristan und Isolde, Orest Elektra, Altair Die ägyptische Helena, 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 Le nozze di Figaro.
Concerts
On the concert platform, Welton has performed with many prestigious orchestras including 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.
Portraits
© Eduardus Lee
© Eduardus Lee
© Eduardus Lee
© Eduardus Lee
© Eduardus Lee
© Eduardus Lee
Korngold - Das Wunder der Heliane Der Pförtner
Korngold - Das Wunder der Heliane Der Pförtner
Wagner - Das Rheingold - Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge (Wotan)
Wagner - Das Rheingold - Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge (Wotan)
Derek Welton - Handel - Messiah - The people that walked in darkness
Derek Welton - Handel - Messiah - The people that walked in darkness
Reviews & Press
Dresdner Musikfestspiele - Wagner - Die Walküre - Wotan
Derek Welton is unsurpassable as Wotan
- Markus Schwering , Kölner Stadtanzeiger
Derek Welton is a Wotan dazzling with power and presence
- Yves Jaunea , Forum Opéra
Wagner - Die Walküre - Wotan
Welton is superbly commanding as a distinguished-looking but troubled and disturbing, violently inclined Wotan
- Paul Selar , Limelight Magazine
Mendelssohn - Elias
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.
- Emmanuel Andrieu , Classique News
The baritone Derek Welton was the great star in this staged version of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. His presence, his projection, the intensity of his acting, allowed him to embody an ideal prophet, an angry man, permanently questioning: fulminant in this shadowy oratorio.
- Vincent Borel , Classica
Wagner - Parsifal - Amfortas
Derek Welton is a tender, vulnerable Amfortas
- Neil Fisher , The Times
Derek Welton was a superb Amfortas
- Mark Ronan , The Article
Derek Welton demonstrates great class as Amfortas: a deathly ill king with a wonderfully healthy voice.
- Bernhard Neuhoff , BR Klassik
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Wiener Staatsoper - Strauss - Elektra - Orest
Derek Welton sang the role of Orest in the celebrated Elektra production at the Salzburg Festival and once again performs very successfully, confident, very present and convincing, with clear diction.
- Helmut Pitsch , Opera Online
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Derek Welton was an Orest of extraordinarily beautiful singing and, on top of that, extremely clear diction. His technique allows him even with his entrance, “Ich muss hier warten…”, to project the precarious bass notes over the orchestra in a well-carrying piano.
- Karl Masek , Online Merker
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Deutsche Oper Berlin - Wagner - Das Rheingold - Wotan
Derek Welton has found his star role in the somewhat higher-lying part of the Rheingold Wotan. With declamatory brilliance together with confident vocal production and cultivated articulation, he portrayed this complex figure in all his multidimensionality.
- Philipp Richter , Das Opernmagazin
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Royal Opera House - Wagner - Lohengrin - Herald
Australian bass-baritone Derek Welton made an auspicious house debut as the Herald – a Wotan and Klingsor in Berlin, he used his rich, expressive voice to telling effect, turning this relatively small role into a major one, commanding attention whenever he appeared on stage. On the basis of this showing, he's richly deserved an invitation to return
- Keith McDonnell , Music OMH
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Derek Welton made for an uncommonly vivid Herald, hinting intriguingly at psychological complications from a wartime past.
- Mark Berry , Opera Today
Australian-born Derek Welton was striking as the Herald, a classy bass-baritone with plenty of dramatic charisma.
- Clive Paget , Musical America
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Opera North - Wagner - Parsifal - Klingsor
Australian bass-baritone Derek Welton has sung the role of Klingsor many times before, most notably in Bayreuth and in Berlin, and it showed. Not only was he thoroughly inside the character, but his singing was effortlessly produced. In a role that is so often ‘barked’ it was an unalloyed delight to hear it actually sung, and sung so well. I can’t think of a better interpreter of the role today — and he's certainly the best since Donald McIntyre sang it in the late ’60s. Having also sung Wotan (Das Rheingold) in Berlin, this prodigiously gifted young singer clearly is on the way to becoming a major international star.
- Keith McDonnell , Music OMH
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Derek Welton’s Klingsor proved another vocal highlight. His steely baritone made light work of Wagner’s dramatic Act two orchestration. His voice has a commanding – one might even say enchanting – fullness and heft that established his status and authority in this relatively spare staging, not least during a thrilling summoning of Kundry at the top of Act two.
- Benjamin Poore , OperaWire
Opéra national du Rhin - Schreker - Der Schatzgräber - King
With pleasure we rediscover the excellent Derek Welton, a young bass-baritone of generous projection who endows the King with an indisputable presence
- Bertrand Bolognesi , Anaclase
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An almost perfect cast, with the superb King of Derek Welton
- Didier van Moere , Díapason
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A great performance by Derek Welton, whose full and sonorous instrument perfectly suits the status of this King, unable to understand what is really at stake.
- David Verdier , Wanderer
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Opéra de Lyon - Bernstein - Candide - Pangloss
Derek Welton sings the role of Pangloss in a deep, ebony-sounding voice.
- Damien Dutilleul , Olyrix
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Derek Welton sings the arias of Pangloss with a sumptuous legato
- Emmanuel Dupuy , Díapason
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Orchestre National de Lille - Wagner - Walküre
The voice of Derek Welton then fills the space for a splendid moment
Nord Littoral
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It is Derek Welton, already heard in several Wagnerian roles in which he attracted positive attention, who makes his entrance onto the stage of the vast Lille auditorium to portray “Wotan’s Farewell”. Endowed with a magnificently dark and superbly steely tone, the Australian bass-baritone draws tears in the Wanderer’s farewell to his daughter Brünnhilde, which he concludes with a whisper, “Thus he takes away your divinity with a kiss!
- Emmanuel Andrieu , ConcertoNet.com
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Orquesta de Extremadura - Wagner - Parsifal
Australian bass Derek Welton took on the roles of Klingsor and Amfortas, and in addition to a luminous and resounding instrument, of indisputable authority, he demonstrated extraordinary expressive versatility, with a theatrical intensity that made any other stage device unnecessary.
- José María Marco , Opera Actual
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Derek Welton filled the entire room with the forcefulness and power of his voice in his double role of Amfortas and Klingsor. As the first character, in the first act, he combined the clarity of his luminous voice with the depth of his middle and low registers. But the most important thing was a masterful interpretation of all the psychological complexity of Amfortas, of the endlessness of his physical and spiritual pain, launching an “Erbarmen” that, due to his truly moving tones, made us participants in the anguish that invades him. And as Klingsor, he summoned up more dramatic tones, with an overwhelming sound and authentic evil in the way he said each sentence.
