Deon van der Walt, a well-known South African opera singer, and his father were found shot dead at the family’s Veenwouden farm in northern Paarl on Tuesday, Western Cape police said.
Police spokesperson Captain Randall Stoffels said Van der Walt’s mother had returned to the farm and found her son in his bedroom with two gunshot wounds to his chest.
Stoffels said the incident took place about 2pm.
”On further investigation, the woman found her husband with a gunshot to the right side of his temple. A revolver was also found next to him,” Stoffels said.
He said the firearm was taken for forensic tests. The motive for the incident is not yet known.
An inquest docket has been opened.
”The mother is still very traumatised,” he said.
Van der Walt made his debut as Jaquino in Fidelio at the Kapstadt Opera House even before graduating. In 1981, he won the International Mozart-Competition in Salzburg.
He was invited to perform at Covent Garden in London in 1985 and there made his debut as Almaviva in Rossini’s Barber of Seville.
Since then, Van der Walt was counted among the leading tenors and has performed at all the world’s major opera houses, including La Scala in Milan, the Hamburg and Vienna State Opera, as well as the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Liceu in Barcelona and the Met in New York.
He was particularly successful in Mozart Year (1991) as Tamino in The Magic Flute under the direction of Sir Georg Solti. — Sapa