Christa Ludwig

Christa Ludwig ( born March 16, 1928 in Berlin ) is a German opera and concert singer (mezzo- soprano).

Life

Christa Ludwig was born into a musical family. Her father, Anton Ludwig (1888-1957) was a singer and opera director (among other things in Aachen, Hanau, Gießen), their mother Eugenie Besalla - Ludwig ( 1899-1993 ) was contralto and voice teacher. The mother was the only singing teacher her daughter; until well into observed in the course of the career of their daughter and they encouraged their vocal development.

At the age of 17 years, Christa Ludwig made ​​her first public appearance in Giessen. A year later she joined the Frankfurt Opera and made his debut as Prince Orlovsky ( Die Fledermaus ). Until 1952 she stayed in Frankfurt. This was followed by engagements at the State Theatre Darmstadt ( 1952-1954 ) and Hanover ( 1954-1955 ). During the years in Frankfurt and Darmstadt Christa Ludwig worked regularly at the Donaueschingen Festival of Contemporary art of music and sang works by Luigi Dallapiccola, Pierre Boulez and Luigi Nono.

1955 Karl Böhm committed them to the Vienna State Opera. It was there one of the most important singers and 1962 appointed chamber singer. Almost 40 years she was a member of the ensemble. During this time she sang in 769 performances of 42 different roles. Also in 1955 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival and sang there until 1993 ( recital on August 9.) From the 1960s, she sang at the Bayreuth Festival ( Brangäne and Kundry ) and at La Scala ( with Maria Callas ) and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.

Even in countries outside Europe Christa Ludwig had success. After their performances at the Lyric Opera in Chicago, she was brought by Rudolf Bing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she made her debut in 1959 as Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro ). By 1993, she sang major roles as Leonore ( Fidelio ), Dido (Les Troyens ), Ortrud, Kundry, Marschallin, Walt diamond, Fricka. To their other repertoire also included the following games: Eboli ( Don Carlos ), Amneris ( Aida ), Lady (Macbeth ), Carmen, Brangäne ( Tristan und Isolde ), Venus ( Tannhäuser ), Octavian ( Der Rosenkavalier ), Composer ( Ariadne auf Naxos ), dyer's Wife ( Die Frau ohne Schatten ), Clytemnestra ( Elektra ), Marie ( Wozzeck ) and Judith ( Bluebeard's Castle ).

In addition to her opera career, Christa Ludwig gave recitals all over the world and worked as a soloist with choral and orchestral concerts. Your favorite song composers were Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler, Pfitzner and Strauss. Piano partners in their recitals and recordings were among other Sebastian Peschko, Erik Werba, Gerald Moore, Geoffrey Parsons, Irwin Gage and Charles Spencer. For individual projects, she also worked with the following musicians in their capacity as partners together piano: Daniel Barenboim, Tzimon Barto, Leonard Bernstein and James Levine.

With the Fricka ( Die Walküre ) had Christa Ludwig in 1993 her last appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 1993 and 1994 she gave her farewell tour with a song program worldwide. On December 14, 1994, she said goodbye after a nearly fifty-year career on the stage at the Vienna State Opera as Clytemnestra by her stage audience.

The main conductors who accompanied their career, were Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein.

In her career, Christa Ludwig coincided with the most important singers of the opera world, including with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Maria Callas, Anna Moffo, Franco Corelli, Ileana Cotrubas, Edita Gruberova, Placido Domingo, Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau, Luciano Pavarotti, etc.

From 1957 to 1970 she was with the singer Walter Berry ( 1929-2000 ) married, with whom she has a son. In 1972, she married French actor and director Paul -Émile Deiber ( 1925-2011 ). She lives near Vienna.

Awards

Discography

  • Béla Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle ( Judith, István Kertész below, Decca 1965)
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio ( Leonore, under Otto Klemperer, EMI 1962 DG 1962)
  • Vincenzo Bellini: Norma ( Adalgisa, under Tullio Serafin EMI 1960)
  • Leonard Bernstein: Candide ( Old Lady, under Leonard Bernstein, DG, 1989, as a DVD )
  • Georges Bizet: Carmen ( Carmen, under Horst Stein, EMI 1961 under Lorin Maazel, Orfeo 1966)
  • Claude Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande ( Genevieve, under Claudio Abbado, DG 1991)
  • Umberto Giordano: Andrea Chénier ( Madelon, under Riccardo Chailly, Decca )
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck: Ifigenie in Aulis ( Clytemnestra, under Karl Böhm, Orfeo 1962)
  • Engelbert Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel ( Gretel, conducted by Kurt Eichhorn, RCA 1971, under Sir Colin Davis Philips 1991)
  • Engelbert Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel ( Gertrud, under Sir John Pritchard, Sony 1977)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Cosi fan tutte ( Dorabella, under Karl Böhm, 1955 Decca and EMI, 1962)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni ( Donna Elvira, under Otto Klemperer, EMI 1967)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro ( Cherubino, under Karl Böhm, Philips 1956 Orfeo 1957)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Magic Flute ( Second Lady, under Otto Klemperer, EMI 1964)
  • Jacques Offenbach: Les Contes d' Hoffmann ( voice of the mother, under Seiji Ozawa, DG 1986)
  • Carl Orff: De temporum fine comoedia (voice, under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1973)
  • Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina ( Silla, under Robert Heger, RCA 1964)
  • Ildebrando Pizzetti: Murder in the Cathedral (2nd chorus leader, under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1960)
  • Giacomo Puccini: Madama Butterfly ( Suzuki, under Herbert von Karajan Decca 1974)
  • Giacomo Puccini: Suor Angelica ( Zia Principessa, under Richard Bonynge, Decca 1979)
  • Camille Saint- Saëns: Samson et Dalila ( Dalila, under Giuseppe Patané, RCA 1973)
  • Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus ( Prince Orlofsky, under Otto Ackermann, EMI 1959)
  • Richard Strauss: Elektra ( Clytemnestra, under Seiji Ozawa, Philips 1988)
  • Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten ( dyer, under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1964; Opera 1974)
  • Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier ( Marschallin, under Karl Böhm, DG 1969 under Leonard Bernstein, Sony, 1971)
  • Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera ( Ulrica, under Sir Georg Solti, Decca 1983)
  • Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff ( Mrs. Quickly, under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1980, also known as DVD)
  • Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth (Lady Macbeth, under Karl Böhm, Foyer 1970)
  • Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung ( Walt diamond, under Sir Georg Solti, Decca 1964; under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1970, under James Levine, DG, 1989, also on DVD )
  • Richard Wagner: Lohengrin ( Ortrud, under Rudolf Kempe, EMI 1964)
  • Richard Wagner: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg ( Magdalene, conducted by Eugen Jochum, DG 1976)
  • Richard Wagner: Parsifal ( Kundry, under Sir Georg Solti, Decca 1971)
  • Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold ( Fricka, under James Levine, DG, 1988, also on DVD )
  • Richard Wagner: Die Walküre ( Fricka, under James Levine, DG, 1988, also on DVD )
  • Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser (Venus, under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1963, under Sir Georg Solti, Decca 1971)
  • Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde ( Brangäne, under Karl Böhm, DG 1966 under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1972)
  • Richard Wagner: Die Walküre ( Fricka, under Sir Georg Solti, Decca 1965, under James Levine, DG, 1987, also on DVD )
  • Highlights from 1955 to 1974. Excerpts from performances at the Salzburg Festival, featuring works by R. Strauss, Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven. ( Orfeo )
  • Live Recordings 1955-1994. Excerpts from performances by the Vienna State Opera, with works by Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Bizet, Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Pfitzner, R. Strauss, Berg, Debussy, von Einem. ( Orfeo )
  • My conductors. Excerpts from recordings with Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein ( DG 2007)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion. BWV 244 ( under Otto Klemperer, EMI 1960; under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1972)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B Minor. BWV 232 ( under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1973)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Christmas Oratorio. BWV 248 ( under Karl Richter, DG 1965)
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Missa Solemnis in D major, Op 123 ( under Herbert von Karajan, EMI 1958, under Karl Böhm, DG 1974)
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op 125 ( under Otto Klemperer, EMI 1957 1968 Concerto )
  • Leonard Bernstein: Symphony No.. 1 " Jeremiah " ( under Leonard Bernstein, DG 1977)
  • Johannes Brahms: Alto Rhapsody, Op 53 ( under Otto Klemperer, EMI 1962 under Karl Böhm, DG 1976)
  • Joseph Haydn: The Creation ( under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1966)
  • Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor ( under Zubin Mehta Decca 1975 under Leonard Bernstein, DG, 1987, as a DVD )
  • Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor ( under Vaclav Neumann, Supraphon 1981, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, DG, 1987, as a DVD )
  • Gustav Mahler: The Song of the Earth ( under Otto Klemperer, EMI 1964 under Leonard Bernstein, Sony 1972 under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1973, also on DVD)
  • Gustav Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn ( under Leonard Bernstein, Sony 1968)
  • Gustav Mahler: Songs of a Wayfarer ( under Sir Adrian Boult, EMI 1958, under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1974)
  • Gustav Mahler: Five Songs by Friedrich Rückert ( under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1974 under Riccardo Muti, Sony)
  • Gustav Mahler: Kindertotenlieder ( under André Vandernoot, EMI 1958)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mass in C Minor. KV 427 (1956, Preiser )
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem in D minor. KV 626 (with Carlo Maria Giulini, EMI 1979)
  • Giuseppe Verdi: Messa da Requiem ( under Herbert von Karajan, EMI 1958, under Carlo Maria Giulini, EMI 1963, under Herbert von Karajan, DG 1972)
  • Selected songs. Brahms, R. Strauss, Mahler, Wolf, Schubert ( with Gerald Moore, EMI 1957)
  • Selected songs. Mahler, Schumann, Brahms ( with Gerald Moore, EMI 1959)
  • Selected songs. Brahms, Mahler, Strauss, Pfitzner, mountain ( with Erik Werba, Orfeo 1963/1968 )
  • Gustav Mahler: Lieder. Selection ( with Leonard Bernstein, Sony 1968)
  • Franz Schubert: Lieder. Selection ( with Geoffrey Parsons, EMI 1961)
  • Franz Schubert: Lieder. Selection ( with Irwin Gage, DG 1973/1974 )
  • Franz Schubert: Winterreise ( with James Levine, DG 1986)
  • Robert Schumann: Lieder op circuit 39 ( with Erik Werba, DG 1968)
  • Richard Wagner: Wesendonck - Lieder ( by Otto Klemperer, EMI 1962)
  • Hugo Wolf: Songs of Mignon ( with Erik Werba; DG 1968)
  • Hugo Wolf: Italian Songbook ( with Daniel Barenboim, DG 1975)
  • Les Introuvables de Christa Ludwig ( EMI 1957-1969 )
Macbeth (opera) Geoffrey Parsons (pianist) Edita Gruberová Plácido Domingo Walter Berry (bass-baritone) Knight's Cross The Complete Works Integrated Authority File
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