Christa Ludwig (16 March 1928 – 24 April 2021) was a German singer known for her work as a mezzo-soprano and sometimes as a dramatic soprano. She performed in opera, lieder, oratorio, and religious music, including masses, passions, and solo pieces in symphonic works. Her career lasted about 50 years, beginning in the late 1940s and ending in the early 1990s.
She performed at many opera houses and festivals worldwide, including the Vienna State Opera from 1955 to 1994 and the Metropolitan Opera in several roles. She was known for singing characters such as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal, and Octavian and the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. In Vienna, she performed the main character in Gottfried von Einem’s opera Der Besuch der alten Dame in 1971.
She was considered one of the most important singers of the 20th century. The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music (2006) noted, "Ludwig had a voice with great richness and power when needed. She could make performances feel dramatic and urgent, a sign of a great singer."
Early life and education
Ludwig was born in Berlin to a family with a strong musical background. Her father, Anton Ludwig, began his singing career as a type of male singer called a baritone and later performed songs for tenors. He also worked as someone who helps manage opera productions. Her mother, Eugenie Besalla-Ludwig, was a mezzo-soprano who sang at the Aachen Opera during the time Herbert von Karajan was the conductor. Ludwig lived in Aachen, where her first teacher for singing was her mother. At the age of eight, she performed an aria from the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute.
At the Aachen Conservatory, she studied piano, cello, flute, and music theory. When their home was bombed in 1944, the family moved to Hanau. She later studied voice at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt.
Career
Ludwig made her first stage appearance in 1946 at age 18 as Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss at the Oper Frankfurt. She performed there until 1952. From 1952 to 1954, she was a member of the Staatstheater Darmstadt. In the 1954/55 season, she sang at the Staatsoper Hannover. She joined the Vienna State Opera in 1955, where she became a principal artist and was given the title Kammersängerin in 1962. She performed with the Vienna State Opera for over thirty years, taking on 43 opera roles in 769 performances. In 1954, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Karl Böhm. She performed there regularly until 1981. At the Vienna State Opera, she first performed the title role of Der Besuch der alten Dame by Gottfried von Einem on May 23, 1971, conducted by Horst Stein, with Eberhard Waechter as her lover Alfred Ill. The performance was recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and later released on CD by Amadeo and Orfeo.
She first performed in the United States at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in 1959. That same year, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in New York City as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. She later performed 121 times in 15 roles at the Met, becoming a favorite of the audience. Her next role was Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, in a live broadcast conducted by Leinsdorf, with Lisa Della Casa as the Marschallin, Elisabeth Söderström as Sophie, and Oskar Czerwenka in his Met debut as Ochs. Her repertoire at the Met included The Dyer’s Wife in the Met’s first performances of Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier (1969), Klytemnestra in Elektra, Ortrud in Wagner’s Lohengrin, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, Kundry in Parsifal, the title role in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Didon in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, and Amneris in Verdi’s Aida. In 1960, she performed as Adalgisa alongside Maria Callas as Bellini’s Norma for an EMI recording. She appeared at the Bayreuth Festival first as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde in 1966. She first performed at the Royal Opera House in London in 1968 as Amneris in Aida.
As Ludwig’s voice developed, she expanded her roles from lyric and spinto mezzo-roles to dramatic roles. Her repertoire eventually included Princess Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo, performed at La Scala in Milan, Salzburg, and Vienna; the title role in Bizet’s Carmen; Ulrica in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera; Octavia in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea; and contemporary roles by von Einem and Orff. She also performed briefly in spinto and dramatic soprano roles, including Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth, the Dyer’s Wife, the Marschallin, and Leonore in Fidelio.
In addition to opera, Ludwig gave regular recitals of lieder with pianists such as Sebastian Peschko, Gerald Moore, and Geoffrey Parsons, and occasionally with Leonard Bernstein. She performed as a soloist with orchestras, interpreting works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler, and Strauss. She was one of few women to perform and record Schubert’s Winterreise. She also sang Bach’s music and recorded many of his large vocal works, including the St Matthew Passion conducted by Otto Klemperer in 1961, with Peter Pears as the Evangelist and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Christ; the Mass in B minor the same year, with Leontyne Price, Nicolai Gedda, Gérard Souzay, and her husband Walter Berry; and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio conducted by Karl Richter in 1965, with Gundula Janowitz, Fritz Wunderlich, and Franz Crass. She performed Mahler’s Second Symphony with Bernstein in 1967 and Mahler’s Third Symphony with Bernstein in Vienna in 1972, with a video recording available on YouTube. In 1967, she recorded a definitive version of Das Lied von der Erde with tenor Fritz Wunderlich, conducted by Otto Klemperer. From September 1973 to January 1974, she participated in Karajan’s fourth recording of Bach’s Mass in B minor, with Gundula Janowitz, Peter Schreier, Robert Kerns, and Karl Ridderbusch.
In 1993 and 1994, she gave farewell recitals in many cities. Her last performance at the Met was as Fricka in Die Walküre. Her final live operatic performance was as Klytemnestra in Elektra for the Vienna State Opera in December 1994.
Personal life
In times when people are not common, there are top-quality musicians who are excellent but lack the ability to understand composers, imagine music, or feel the emotions in their work. These musicians must have courage to express their own feelings during performances, rather than telling the audience, "The composer wanted it this way, and no other way." However, singers must always remember that they are only helpers to the great minds who created the music we enjoy today.—Christa Ludwig
From 1957 to 1970, Ludwig was married to bass-baritone Walter Berry; they had a son. The couple often performed together, including as Dyer and his wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten. In 1972, she married French theatre actor Paul-Emile Deiber, who died in 2011.
Ludwig's first book, Und ich wäre so gern Primadonna gewesen (And I would gladly have been a primadonna), was published in 1994. An English version, In My Own Voice, was published in 1999 by Regina Domeraski. Her second book, Leicht muss man sein: Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (One must be lighter: memories of the future), written with Erna Cuesta and Franz Zoglauer, was published in 2018.
Ludwig died at her home in Klosterneuburg, Austria, in April 2021, at the age of 93.