Classical music fans are mourning the loss of Christa Ludwig, the beloved German mezzo-soprano celebrated both for her versatility and the warmth of her voice. She died at her home in Austria on April 24 at age 93.
Ludwig embraced a broad range of opera roles, with her warm musical tones, from the battered mistress Marie in Alban Berg’s modernist Wozzeck, to the cheeky pageboy Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
In a career that lasted nearly fifty years, Ludwig made singing sound easy, says Anne Midgette, former classical music critic at The Washington Post. “When you listen to Ludwig it sounds like effortless pure music, and that is the byproduct of an exemplary technique. There’s a tremendous amount to be learned from that alone.”
Here for your enjoyment is Christa Ludwig’s last concert in Vienna:
