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Opera singer Maria Ewing recently passed away on January 9 at the age of 71. She was most popular for her stage performances in Carmen and Salome.
She was the former wife of director Sir Peter Hall and mother of actress Rebecca Hall. Her family issued an official statement saying,
“She was an extraordinary gifted artist, who by the sheer force of her talent and will, catapulted herself to the most rarefied heights of the international opera world.”
Life and career of the opera legend Maria Ewing
Born on March 27, 1950, Maria was the youngest among four daughters. She was well-known for her naturalistic acting and voice.
In an interview with the BBC in 1990, she was asked why she became a singer. She replied by saying that it was decided for her when her mother said to her that she has a voice and should do something with it.
She made her debut at the 1973 Ravinia Festival in Illinois, followed by her first performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1976, where she sang Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
Controversial nude scene
The Detroit, Michigan native’s career took off at Glyndebourne in Sussex. Her performance as Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte in 1978 received decent feedback from the audience.
She then met Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and they tied the knot in 1982. Hall then directed her at the Met where she sang the title role in a new production of Carmen.
The pair then collaborated in 1988 on Strauss’s Salome at the Royal Opera House and caused a sensation while it was shown on Channel 4, since the artist finished her controversial Dance of the Seven Veils in the nude.
However, the decision to go nude was her own and Hall wanted her to wear a G-string under the seventh veil. She then spoke with BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs and said,
“But I think that’s dishonest and I think it’s vulgar. N*dity isn’t vulgar in this context, any more than the n*dity we see in most classical paintings.”
Ups and downs in her career
While appearing on the Radio 4 program, she refused to select any operatic music for her desert island playlist. She explained that what she chose there is the music she listens to. She continued and said,
“It’s too much a part of me. I’d probably be too critical. I’ll see productions that are full of ideas but are missing the point altogether.”
However, people soon found it difficult to work with her because of her perfectionism.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2003, she said that she is not the most patient person in terms of standards, and she has pretty high ones, because of which she cares desperately about maintaining those and working hard.
A similar incident forced her to disrupt her relationship with the Metropolitan Opera for six years when the company removed Carmen’s television broadcast and replaced it with a 1987 production of the same with Agnes Baltsa in the lead.
Maria and Hall divorced in 1990, although they remained friends until his demise in 2017.
The opera star continued to deliver her best performance as Katerina Ismailova in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at Opera-Bastille in Paris in 1993. However, she distanced herself from full-scale productions in 1997.
She then recorded and provided recitals, mixing opera tunes with jazz and popular ballads by George Gershwin, Noel Coward, and more. While speaking to the LA Times in 1992, she said,
“The voice reaches a certain peak in your mid-30s and from then on is the real singing. That’s when the real life happens, too. As your life progresses, it affects your work. Whatever emotion you’re going through, you can use all of it. I think that’s what theatre is about.”
Inspired by her mother, Maria’s daughter Rebecca Hall made her debut as a film director with 'Passing.' It is based on the story of two light-skinned African-American women, where one of them allows people to think she is white.
Rebecca recently told NPR that her mother tended to be what people chose to see, which is sometimes meant to be described as exotic by the opera community members.
Netizens pay tribute to Maria Ewing on Twitter
Maria Ewing became a familiar name in the public-eye because of her outstanding opera performances. The public immediately took to social media to pay tribute to her.
The 'Dialogues of the Carmelites' star is survived by her daughter Rebecca and sisters Norma Koleta, Carol Pancratz, and Francis Ewing.
