The following is extracted from Volume III of the 1986 edition of South African Music Encyclopedia (J.P. Malan, ISBN 0 19 570363 4)
ØYSTEIN LILTVED, bass, born 20 January 1934 in Arendal (Norway)
His parents emigrated to South Africa when Øystein Liltved was four years old, lived in Durban until 1943 and then moved to Johannesburg. At the age of eighteen he was given a position with a commercial firm in Kenya, but in 1952, at the outbreak of the Mau-Mau rebellion, he became an assistant inspector in the Kenya Police Force. At this time he sang at the Kenya National Theatre in Ruddigore (Gilbert and Sullivan). When ordered on police duty to South America in 1953, he resigned and returned to Johannesburg, commenced voice training under Bruce Anderson and in 1954 sang the title role in The Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan). African Theatres appointed him cinema manager in Johannesburg but he persevered with his studies in voice production under Alessandro Rota's supervision, until February 1956 when he finally decided to become a professional singer. He left for the State Academy in Vienna and studied at the Opera School, where he was instructed by Josef Witt and, privately, by Maria Hittorff.
Liltved terminated his studies in 1958 to accept a two-year contract in Basle, also making guest appearances at the Düsseldorf Opera. In 1960 he was appointed principal bass at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, but he returned to South Africa for concert tours and operatic performances (1961-63). These were interrupted in 1962 for a visit to Trieste where he studied under Maestro Donaggio. From 1964 to 1966 he was first bass at the Cassel Opera in Germany, and then PACT brought him back to South Africa on a two-year contract. In 1967 he settled in Pretoria with his wife Virginia Oosthuizen (soprano), whom he had married in Gibraltar in 1959. Since that year he has sung in opera productions by PACT and the other Performing Arts Boards and has given concerts in all four provinces. In October 1969 he moved to Cape Town with his family, and sang for CAPAB in opera performances and on concert tours.
His repertoire includes fifty roles from operas by Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, Verdi, Mussorgsky, Beethoven, Britten and other composers. Some of these he sang in five different languages. Among those he favours, are Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, and Hagen in Götterdämmerung. Since 1978 he has also turned his talents to productions of operatic works and plays.
