Soprano Maria Ewing dies aged 71

The American soprano Maria Ewing has died aged 71. Her family confirmed, in a statement released yesterday, that the famed opera singer had died on 9 January 2022 in her Detroit home following a ‘brief illness’.

Born 27 March 1950 in Detroit to a Dutch mother and African American father, Ewing was the youngest of four daughters. Talking about her singing career in a 1990 BBC Radio interview, Ewing said: ‘In a way, it was decided for me. It is true that my mother was the one to say to me, 'You have a voice, you should do something about it.' Ewing graduated from high school in Detroit in 1968 before studying in Cleveland, Ohio and New York City.

She made her debut at the 1973 Ravinia Festival in Illinois and appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the first time in 1976 as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Her European debut at La Scala in 1977 saw her in the role of Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and in her first Glyndebourne performance in 1978 she was rapturously received in the role of Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. The production was directed by Peter Hall, who Ewing would later marry in 1982.

Following the birth of her daughter, actor and director Rebecca Hall in 1982, Ewing returned to the Met in 1986, appearing in Carmen under Halls’ direction. In the same year she caused a stir in Strauss’ Salome, also directed by Hall, at Los Angeles Opera by ending the Dance of Seven Veils completely nude. Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in February 1999, Ewing insisted: ‘Nudity isn't vulgar in this context, any more than the nudity we see in most classical paintings.’ Ewing and Hall divorced in 1990 but remained friends until his death in 2017.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2003 Ewing explained how she maintained such a high standard of performance: ‘I guess I have pretty high [standards], and I care desperately about maintaining those and working hard. That's always been my priority.’ In the same interview she also gave a charming insight into her own life: ‘Yes, you go to nice parties and people treat you well. But most of the time when I finish an opera, I come home, put on the telly or get the Hoover out.’

After making her final Met appearance in 1997 as Marie in Berg’s Wozzeck and stepping away from most full-scale productions, Ewing continued to record and perform at recitals. Her discography immortalises her celebrated roles spanning from her rendition of Donna Elvira in the Gramophone Award-winning recording of Don Giovanni conducted by Bernard Haitink, to her famous renditions of Carmen, Salome and Le nozze di Figaro as well as recordings of classical concert repertoire and crossover recordings of musicals and jazz.