Dermota made his debut at the opera in
Cluj in 1934, and was promptly invited by
Bruno Walter to perform at the
Vienna State Opera. Here he made his début as "First Man in Armor" in
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's
The Magic Flute in 1936 and got a contract immediately. His first leading role was Alfredo in
Giuseppe Verdi's
La traviata, which he sang in 1937. In the same year Dermota made his début at the
Salzburg Festival in a production of Wagner's
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, conducted by
Arturo Toscanini. Dermota quickly became a favorite of the Viennese audience and remained with the State Opera's company for more than forty years. He was a witness (and helped to save parts of the furniture) when the opera house burned down after an Allied air raid on March 13, 1945. After the war he stayed with the company in its provisional lodgings at
Theater an der Wien, and was one of the stars of the reopening of the original house in 1955 (as
Florestan in Beethoven's
Fidelio). As early as 1946 Dermota was honoured for his loyalty with the title of
Kammersänger. Anton Dermota sang as a tenor as Alfred in
Die Fledermaus in the 1950 London Gramophone recording LLP 305. For 20 years, Dermota sang at the
Salzburg Festival almost every summer. As guest he gave acclaimed performances at the
Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, in
Palais Garnier and
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, at
Teatro di San Carlo in Naples,
Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, in Australia, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Dermota was best known for his Mozart roles, especially his
Don Ottavio in
Don Giovanni. But he sang a good deal of the
lyric tenor repertory during his career, including more modern parts, such as
Oedipus in
Igor Stravinsky's
Oedipus rex, the title role of
Hans Pfitzner's
Palestrina and Flamand in Richard Strauss's
Capriccio. Later in life he ventured into
heldentenor territory, essaying parts such as the title role in Smetana's
Dalibor and
Florestan. All told, his repertoire included some 80 roles. , accompanied on piano by his wife Hilde An accomplished
Lieder singer, he gave many recitals accompanied by his wife, the pianist Hilde Berger-Weyerwald. He began a second career as a singing coach at the
Wiener Musikhochschule in 1966. To celebrate his 70th birthday, Dermota sang Tamino in
The Magic Flute at the Vienna State Opera. A popular anecdote states that when he spoke the line ''"Ist's Phantasie, dass ich noch lebe?"'' ("Is it a fantasy that I am still alive?") the audience broke into spontaneous applause. A year later he sang the Shepherd in
Carlos Kleiber's famous recording of Richard Wagner's
Tristan und Isolde, sounding astonishingly young. == Death ==