Christa Ludwig in Cannes in 2008. – LIONEL CIRONNEAU / AP / SIPA
- German singer Christa Ludwig passed away on Saturday at the age of 93.
- She was one of the few female singers capable of singing the repertoire of Mozart and Wagner brilliantly.
- She shared the stage with Maria Callas and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
She was considered one of the greatest voices of the second half of the 20th century. German singer Christa Ludwig passed away on Saturday at the age of 93, Austrian news agency APA reported on Sunday.
Under the direction of prestigious conductors such as Klemperer, Karajan, Böhm and Bernstein, the mezzo-soprano performed on the most important stages of the world for almost half a century, between 1946 and 1994, the year of his retirement.
“Singing was as natural for me as learning to walk”
An outstanding performer of Lieder by Schubert or Brahms, she was one of the rare female singers capable of brilliantly singing the repertoire of Mozart and Wagner.
The one who lived in the suburbs of Vienna was born in Berlin on March 16, 1928 into a family of musicians: her father was a tenor and conducted the Aachen opera; her mother was also a mezzo-soprano. “Singing was as natural to me as learning to walk,” she confided.
The opera singer was awarded the Legion of Honor in 2010 in France for her entire lyric career.
She “thinks only of her vocal cords, day and night”
After concerts by Lieder, the young brunette woman with the round face entered the Vienna Opera in 1955, where she took off with the interpretation of the character of Cherub (The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart), with Karl Böhm at the baton.
Christa Ludwig then triumphed, performing notably at La Scala in Milan, at the Royal Opera House in London but also at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
For 50 years, she “thinks only of her vocal cords, day and night”, and daily administers a discipline “similar to that of cosmonauts” to preserve her tone: no tobacco or alcohol … and not even a cinema, “because I should run away as soon as my neighbor coughs”.
In 1970, after 13 years of marriage, she divorced the Austrian bass-baritone Walter Berry, with whom she had a child, and remarried in 1972 with the French actor and director Paul-Emile Deiber (died in 2011).
“We are a legend if we are still known long after our death”
For its premiere at the Paris Opera in November 1971, it offers a recital of Lieder, marked by ten recalls. “I am afraid before, during and the pleasure which follows is so quickly spoiled by the thought of the next performance”, said the one which had for partners on stage Maria Callas and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
Endowed with an incomparable musicality, has a very large repertoire, she performs on all the major international stages: Vienna, Berlin, London, Milan, Bayreuth, Salzburg, New York, Buenos Aires, etc.
“The world of music loses with the death of Christa Ludwig the protagonist of a luminous and inimitable era”, reacted the theater of La Scala in a press release, while the Vienna State Opera welcomed on its website “the combination particular voice with a unique voice and an understanding of roles with intelligence and talent for interpretation ”.
After 49 years of career, she made a two-year farewell tour which ended naturally in Vienna, in 1994. A journalist who asked her how she lived her status as a diva, she replied, not without humor: “We are a legend if you are still known long after your death and, preferably, if you have had a tragic death! ”.