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Johan Botha (born 19 August, 1965, in Rustenburg, South Africa) is a South-African/Austrian tenor.

Biography
Botha began his musical education in South Africa at the age of 13, and made his debut in Roodepoort in 1989. In the middle of 1990, he sang in the Bayreuther Festspielchor and made his debut in the same year as Gustavo in Un Ballo in Maschera in Kaiserslautern. From there, he moved through a number of opera houses, including Stadttheater Hagen and Dortmund to Oper Bonn.

Since the 1993/94 season, Botha has worked freelance. His international breakthrough came in 1993 when he sang the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Paris Opera Bastille; he also debuted at La Scala in Milan in this role. He subsequently performed as a guest artist at the Komische Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg and Berlin State Opera. At the Volksoper Wien, he performed a set of roles in a number of operas, including La Boheme, The Land of Smiles, Norma and Meistersinger.

The Vienna State Opera has been his artistic home since 1996, where he has performed in the premieres of Lohengrin, Die Frau ohne Schatten, I Vespri Siciliani, Daphne, Parsifal, Otello and Walküre. He has also sung almost his entire repertoire there, including roles in Don Carlos, Aida, I Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, Tosca, Der fliegende Holländer, Meistersinger and Fidelio.

In January 1997, Botha made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he has since sung in Lohengrin, Meistersinger, Turandot, Aida, Don Carlos and Otello. Since mid-1998, Botha has also appeared at the Salzburger Festspiele. He is also a regular guest at Covent Garden in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, and from 2009 in Munich.

He has performed in concert with all the prominent conductors and orchestra, and has made a number of recordings.

In June 2003, Botha became the youngest Austrian Kammersänger at the Vienna State Opera.

Botha gilt auf Grund seiner technischen Beherrschung als Stimmphänomen, das heute praktisch ohne Vergleich ist. Trotz seiner großen dramatischen Stimme kann er auch die schwierigsten Dynamischen Vorschiften einer Partie im Pianobereich mpühelos befolgen und reüssiert gleichermaßen im italienischen und deutschen Repertoire wie sonst kein Sänger in der heutigen Opernwelt.

Johan Botha ist seit 1992 verheiratet mit Sonja, das Paar hat zwei Söhne und lebt seit 1996 in Wien. Im Jahr 1999 nahm er auch die österreichische Staatsbürgerschaft an.

Weblinks

 * johan-botha.com – Offizielle Homepage
 * Ich bin ein C-Tenor bei Österreich 1