Christa Ludwig

Christa Ludwig was born in Berlin in March 1928, the daughter of two singers — her mother the mezzo-soprano Eugenie Besalla, her father the bass-baritone Anton Ludwig. She studied with her mother, made her début at the Frankfurt Opera in 1946 as Prince Orlofsky in *Die Fledermaus*, and worked her way through the German provincial houses (Hamburg, Salzburg, Vienna’s Theater an der Wien) before her appointment to the Vienna State Opera in 1955 — the company in which she remained a leading principal for over four decades.

She was the central mezzo-soprano (and frequently, in her later career, dramatic soprano) of the international operatic stage from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. Her central roles spanned three areas: the Strauss heroines (Octavian, the Composer, the Marschallin, Ariadne — though she eventually sang the soprano parts as well), the Mozart roles (Dorabella, Donna Elvira, the Countess, eventually Donna Anna), and the Wagner mezzo-soprano repertoire (Brangäne, Ortrud, Kundry, Fricka, Sieglinde — and finally Brünnhilde and Isolde in her final period). Beyond opera she was a leading recitalist particularly in the Mahler symphonies and song cycles, the Brahms *Alto Rhapsody*, and the German lieder tradition. She was married first to the baritone Walter Berry, then to the actor Paul-Émile Deiber.

Ludwig retired from staged opera in 1994 with a farewell as the Marschallin at the Vienna State Opera. She died in Klosterneuburg in April 2021. Music Preserved’s archive includes a substantial range of her Strauss, Mozart, Mahler and recital work.