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. 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. He died in Vienna less than a month after his 79th birthday.