The world of opera has lost another of its greats - Fräulein Christa Ludwig, a lady who possessed an outstanding mezzo-soprano (and occasionally, dramatic soprano) voice that could hold its own against the likes of Maria Callas, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland [we have a copy of her and Dame Joan's definitive interpretation of Suor Angelica by Puccini in our collection here at Dolores Delargo Towers], Anna Moffo or Lucia Popp, and who worked with many of the great conductors of the world such as Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Georg Solti, Lorin Maazel, Karl Böhm and Leonard Bernstein. She made her stage debut in 1946 at the Oper Frankfurt, and her final live operatic performance was for the Vienna State Opera in 1994 - during which time she was lauded for her varied and wide-ranging roles in opera, lieder and oratorio, which she sang in all the great opera houses of the world, and won numerous accolades and awards for her performances.
I listened to a tribute to her by Sean Rafferty on Radio 3's In Tune programme today, in which he recounted an interview when the great lady was asked which music she would choose for her funeral. She immediately responded with the following, but "MY version, of course!"...
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,
Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben,
Sie hat so lange nichts von mir vernommen,
Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben!
Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen,
Ob sie mich für gestorben hält,
Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen,
Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt.
Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel,
Und ruh’ in einem stillen Gebiet!
Ich leb’ allein in meinem Himmel,
In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied!
English Translation by Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder:
I am lost to the world
With which I used to waste much time;
It has for so long known nothing of me,
It may well believe that I am dead.
Nor am I at all concerned
If it should think that I am dead.
Nor can I deny it,
For truly I am dead to the world.
I am dead to the world’s tumult
And rest in a quiet realm!
I live alone in my heaven,
In my love, in my song!
That's all a bit maudlin, I have to admit - so let's remember the lady in a far more jolly way, with a soupçon from her long collaboration with Lenny Bernstein:
RIP, Christa Ludwig (16th March 1928 – 24th April 2021)
Thank you for the culture. I must admit, I am no opera buff. I appreciate it and have been... but it's a curious art form. Have a lovely day.
ReplyDelete"Opera" covers a multitude of genres, from the frivolous (like Lehar or Gilbert & Sullivan) to the tragic/melodramatic (such as Puccini and his doomed heroines or Mozart's Magic Flute) to the downright OTT (anything by Wagner or Richard Strauss). I like some, but I'm not such a fan as to go regularly - in general I prefer musicals. Christa Ludwig did have a lovely voice, however. Jx
DeleteAn exceptional voice and a very long career.
DeleteR I P. to another great.
Indeed - and I hadn't realised until I checked that it was she who played the "villainous" Princess against Dame Joan's Suor Angelica... Jx
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