Anton Dermota; Tenor Noted for His Roles in Mozart Operas

Anton Dermota, a Yugoslav tenor best known for his work in Mozart operas, died of heart failure June 22, the Vienna State Opera reported this week.

He was 79.

Dermota was born in the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia and moved to Vienna as a young man. He lived there until his death.

Dermota sang in some of the Vienna State Opera’s most noted productions, among them the 1945 premiere of Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio,” performed while the opera house was in ruins after heavy Allied bombing in the last days of World War II.

Dermota sang the role of Florestan in the same opera when the Vienna State Opera was reopened in November, 1955, six months after Austria gained postwar independence. That production was filmed and shown in the United States two years later.

In a register of names kept at the opera that spans 1945 to 1980, Dermota is mentioned as having sung 50 opera roles in works by Verdi, Mozart, Wagner, Richard Strauss and Gottfried von Einem.

Dermota’s prominence in Vienna and at the Salzburg Festival made him a much sought-after guest performer on operatic stages around the world.

He made about 20 recordings and was seen as Don Ottavio in a film made of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” at the 1954 Salzburg Festival.