Salzburg Festival: Mourning the Death of Christa Ludwig

“Christa Ludwig was a legend, even during her lifetime. In opera, oratorio and lied alike, Christa Ludwig set inimitable standards with her vocalism and personality. The Salzburg Festival is infinitely indebted to her,” Artistic Director Markus Hinterhäuser expressed his grief at the wonderful singer’s death.

Christa Ludwig’s public master classes were sought-after lessons in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project. Photo: Marco Borrelli, 2018

Christa Ludwig gave the impressive number of 169 Festival performances – 126 opera appearances, 21 song recitals, 18 orchestral concerts and one matinee.

In 1955 she made her debut as Second Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. “Surprisingly good was the trio of ladies: Gerda Scheyrer, Christa Ludwig, who sounded excellent in the ensemble, and Hilde Rössel-Majdan,” remarked Karl Löbl in the Express newspaper.

That same year, she took over the role of the Composer in Karl Böhm’s legendary interpretation of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos from Irmgard Seefried, earning accolades from reviewers and audience alike. Walther Friedländer wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “What is heard and seen of Christa Ludwig begs comparison with the most important role models: most precise voice control, utmost balance of sound and command of even the most intricate nuances; plus a bearing which fully expresses the role’s impetuousness. Christa Ludwig has become a great singer.” 

Die Zauberflöte -The photo shows a scene on stage with Anton Dermota (Tamino), Erich Kunz (Papageno), Gerda Scheyrer (First Lady), Christa Ludwig (Second Lady) and Hilde Rössel-Majdan (Third Lady), Salzburg Festival 1955

During the following years, Christa Ludwig consolidated her reputation as the standard-setting personality in the Mozart and Richard Strauss fach. As Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, she enchanted Festival audiences. In 1969 she made her Festival role debut as Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier at the Großes Festspielhaus, and the reviewers were raving: “For the first time, Christa Ludwig now sings the Marschallin in Salzburg. Since her Vienna debut under Leonard Bernstein, she has grown into the role in two ways, making it her own. (…) Never has Ludwig sung more beautifully in all registers, more emotionally in the top range, more colourfully in the middle and lower range,” Hans Heinz Stuckenschmied rhapsodized in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The great conductor personalities of our times were Christa Ludwig’s artistic partners in Salzburg. Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm and Leonard Bernstein performed with her. All three loved, revered and cherished her as an artist. “She is simply the best, and the best of all possible human beings,” Leonard Bernstein said, speaking for millions of music lovers all over the world. 

In 1993 Christa Ludwig took her leave of the Festival stage with one last song recital. It was Gerard Mortier who found the right words for this moving occasion: “Hier gilt’s der Kunst” – borrowing a phrase from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg indicating absolute devotion to the arts. Christa Ludwig’s life as a vocalist might have been dedicated to this motto – in Vienna, in the world and in Salzburg, time and again.

Christa Ludwig and Charles Spencer – Farewell to Salzburg

Even after retirement from her active singing career, Christa Ludwig retained a close connection with the Salzburg Festival. Until recently, she shared her knowledge and experience with the younger generation, giving an annual master class as part of the Young Singers Project. The fact that she never avoided addressing the darker aspects of a singer’s life – for example the omnipresent fear for one’s vocal health – made her advice all the more precious and valuable in times in which casting shows suggest to young people that fame and riches are effortlessly attainable. Her next master class had been scheduled for 17 July 2021.

“The Salzburg Festival owes unforgettable artistic highlights to Christa Ludwig. She is one of the artists who ensured the Festival’s outstanding international reputation,” said Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler. “As a tiny mark of our immense grief and gratitude, the Festspielhaus will be flying a flag of mourning.” (Aftrer Press materials)

Christa Ludwig with flowers in Salzburg, photo SF/Marco Borrelli

Christa Ludwig, photo Wikiwand

Christa Ludwig (16 March 1928 – 24 April 2021) was a German mezzo-soprano and occasional dramatic soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses, passions, and solos contained in symphonic literature. Her performing career spanned almost half a century, from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. She appeared at the Vienna State Opera from 1955 to 1994, and at the Metropolitan Opera in many roles, among international opera houses and festivals. She is remembered for roles such as Mozart’s Dorabellsa, Beethoven’s Leonore in Fidelio, Wagner’s Kundry, and both Octavian and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss. 

She is widely recognised as having been one of the most significant and distinguished singers of the 20th century; The NPR Listener’s Encyclopedia of Classical Music (2006) stated “Ludwig possessed a voice of exquisite richness and, when needed, breathtaking amplitude. She had the ability to impart dramatic urgency to a performance, the hallmark of a great singer.”

Ludwig was born in Berlin to a musical family; her father, Anton Ludwig, was a tenor and an operatic administrator, her mother, Eugenie Besalla-Ludwig, was a mezzo-soprano who sang at the Aachen Opera during Herbert von Karajan’s period as conductor. Ludwig grew up first in Aachen, where her first voice teacher was her mother. At age eight, she sang an aria of the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

At the Aachen Conservatory she studied piano, cello, flute and music theory. The family moved to Hanau, when their home was bombed in 1944. She studied voice at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt.

Ludwig made her debut in 1946 at the age of 18 as Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss at the Oper Frankfurt, where she sang until 1952. She was a member of the Staatstheater Darmstadt from 1952 to 1954, then sang the 1954–1955 season at the Staatsoper Hannover. She joined the Vienna State Opera in 1955, where she became one of its principal artists and was awarded the title Kammersängerin in 1962. She performed with the company for more than thirty years in 43 opera roles and 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, and appeared there regularly until 1981.

She performed in the U.S. A. first at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte in 1959. The same year, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and subsequently sang 121 performances in 15 roles with the company until 1993, where she quickly became one of the audience’s favourites.

Christa Ludwig in Lyric Opera of Chicago as Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte in 1959, photo Nancy Sorensen

Her repertoire there included The Dyer’s Wife in the Met’s first performances of Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss, the title role and (in 1968) the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Klytemnestra in Elektra, Ortrud in Wagner’s Lohengrin, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, Fricka in both Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, Kundry in Parsifal, the title role in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Didon in Les Troyens by Berlioz, 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 Isoldein 1966. She first appeared at the Royal Opera House in London in 1968 as Amneris in Verdi’s Aida.

As Ludwig’s voice matured, she expanded her repertoire from lyric and spinto mezzo-roles to dramatic roles. Her vast repertory eventually grew to encompass Princess Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo which she sang at La Scala in Milan, in Salzburg and in 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 ventured briefly into the spinto and dramatic soprano repertoire with performances as Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth, the Dyer’s Wife, the Marschallin and Leonore in Fidelio.

In addition to her opera performances, Ludwig regularly gave recitals of Lieder, with pianists such as Sebastian Peschko, Gerald Moore, Geoffrey Parsons and on occasion Leonard Bernstein. She performed as a soloist with orchestras, including works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler and Strauss. She was one of few women to tackle and record Schubert’s Winterreise. She also sang Bach’s music and recorded many of his large vocal works.^[She performed Mahler’s Second Symphony with Bernstein in 1967.

Leonard Bernstein and Christa Ludwig, photo Twitter

In 1993–1994, she gave a series of farewell recitals in many cities and made her farewell appearance at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, as Fricka in Die Walküre. Her final live operatic performance was Klytemnestra in Elektra for the Vienna State Opera in 1994.

From 1957 to 1970, Ludwig was married to the bass-baritone Walter Berry; they had a son. The couple performed together frequently, notably the Dyer and his wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten. In 1972, she married the French theatre actor Paul-Emile Deiber, who died in 2011.

Christa Ludwig

In 1994, Ludwig published a memoir with Peter Csobádi; two English translations of the book are available, In My Own Voice. She also taught master classes after her retirement from the stage.

Ludwig died at her home in Klosterneuburg, Austria in 24 April 2021 at age 93. (After Wikiwand).

Marijan Zlobec