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Maria Ewing

February 16, 2024

Maria Louise Ewing (March 27, 1950 – January 9, 2022) was an American opera singer. In the early part of her career she performed solely as a lyric mezzo-soprano; she later assumed full soprano parts as well. Her signature roles were Blanche, Carmen, Dorabella, Rosina and Salome. Some critics regarded her as one of the most compelling singing actresses of her generation.[1]

Maria Ewing
Ewing in 1968
Born(1950-03-27)March 27, 1950
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
DiedJanuary 9, 2022(2022-01-09) (aged 71)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Alma materCleveland Institute of Music
OccupationOpera singer
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1982; div. 1990)​
ChildrenRebecca Hall
RelativesBazabeel Norman (great-great-great grandfather)

Early life and education edit

Maria Louise Ewing was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 27, 1950.[2] She was the youngest of four daughters of Hermina Ewing, née Veraar, a Dutch-born homemaker, and Norman Isaac Ewing, an electrical engineer at a steel company.[2][3] Her father claimed to be of Sioux descent,[2][3] but he was the son of parents who were both part European, part African; an episode of the genealogical television show Finding Your Roots devoted to Ewing's daughter, the actress Rebecca Hall, revealed that he was the son of John William Ewing, born into slavery, a prominent figure in the African-American community of Washington DC, and a descendant of Bazabeel Norman, a notable African-American veteran of the American Revolutionary War.[4] (Rebecca Hall's interest in her mother's ethnicity inspired her to make a film, Passing, the protagonist of which is an African-American woman whose skin is light enough for her to be perceived as white.[2]) According to Ewing's former husband, her father's African roots caused her family so much anxiety that a particularly dark-skinned relative of theirs was forbidden from visiting their home during the hours of daylight.[5] Ewing herself was unembarrassed by her racial make-up, regarding her African roots not with shame but with pride.[5]

Ewing's parents were both musical enthusiasts: her mother was a keen collector of classical recordings, and her father played the piano well enough to attract an audience of admiring neighbors.[6] Ewing's own musical education began with piano lessons when she was thirteen.[6] As well as playing solo piano pieces, she sometimes acted as an accompanist for one of her sisters, Frances, occasionally singing duets with her; their mother was sufficiently impressed by her voice to encourage her to complement her keyboard work by studying singing too.[6] Coached by a local voice teacher, Ewing joined the alto section of the chorus at her Detroit high school—Jared W. Finney High School[3]—and was soon participating in and winning singing competitions.[6] When she was seventeen, she became a pupil of Marjorie Gordon, a coloratura soprano (not to be confused with an English Gilbert and Sullivan soprano of the same name).[6] After only a year of teaching her, Gordon suggested that she should apply to take part in Oakland University's Meadow Brook Music Festival.[6] She auditioned for the role of Maddalena in a production of Rigoletto that was to be conducted by a young James Levine.[6] Their meeting proved to be wonderfully serendipitous: Levine was so struck by her expressive power that he assured her that she had the potential to become a major artist,[6] while for her part, she found in him a teacher, mentor, guide, champion and friend.[6] It was in order to study with Levine that she sought and won a scholarship at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where her other instructors included the soprano Eleanor Steber.[6] And after her graduation in 1970, it was at Levine's urging that she continued her training in New York City as a private pupil of the great mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel, supporting herself by working in offices and clothing stores.[6]

Career edit

 
James Levine in 2013

Ewing began her professional life as a lyric mezzo-soprano. Her debut was as Rosina in an English-language production of Il barbiere di Siviglia in Detroit in 1970, staged by a company now known as the Michigan Opera Theatre.[7] (She returned to the role many times, including at Houston Grand Opera in 1976 and 1983,[8] at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1981 and 1982[9] and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1982.[10]) After three years of gradually building a career as a recitalist, concert artist and opera performer, she made her first appearance at a high-profile venue on June 29, 1973, when she starred at the Ravinia Festival singing a program of songs by Alban Berg accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Levine. "I cannot remember a young singer who has excited me more on a first hearing", wrote the Chicago Tribune's Thomas Willis. "Still in her early twenties, she has the clear stamp of greatness in every movement and tone".[11]

The first leading opera company that engaged Ewing was San Francisco's. She was their Mercédès in Carmen in 1973, and their Sicle in Francesco Cavalli's Ormindo in 1974.[12] In 1975, Santa Fe Opera presented her in Così fan tutte as Dorabella,[13] one of the parts with which she became most closely associated: she was highly praised in the role both at Glyndebourne in 1978[9] and at the Metropolitan Opera, with Levine on the podium, in 1982.[10] In his history of Glyndebourne, Spike Hughes remembered Ewing's Dorabella as "a particular joy, with a natural gift of timing and an enchantingly comical face",[14] while for Levine, Ewing was "the funniest, most stylish Dorabella you could imagine, absolutely sensational".[15]

It was as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro that Ewing first appeared in Europe, playing the farfallone amoroso at Salzburg in 1976; she repeated the role there in 1979 and 1980.[16] It was as Cherubino too that she first sang at the Metropolitan Opera on October 14, 1976 in a production to which she returned in 1977.[10] In his autobiography, the director Lotfi Mansouri remembered Ewing at this stage in her career as "an alluring mezzo who could convince audiences possibly better than anyone else that her enchantingly sung Cherubino was really a boy".[17] She offered another Mozart trousers role in 1977, when she sang Idamante in his opera seria Idomeneo at the San Francisco Opera.[12] In 1980 and 1984, she appeared in his second da Ponte work when she was Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Geneva Opera[18] and the Met respectively.[10] Her other bel canto mezzo-soprano role was Angelina in La Cenerentola (Houston Grand Opera, 1979;[19] Geneva Opera, 1981[18]).

As Ewing's career in opera progressed, her choice of parts became ever more eclectic, spanning the gamut from seventeenth century works by Monteverdi and Purcell to twentieth century pieces by Shostakovich and Poulenc. Ultimately she went so far as to adventure beyond the boundaries of her mezzo Fach and sing as a soprano too. Among the parts that she assumed were the title role in La Périchole (San Francisco Opera, 1976;[12] Geneva Opera, 1982 and 1983[18]); Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites (Metropolitan Opera, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1987[10]); Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande (La Scala, 1977;[20] San Francisco Opera, 1979[12]); Charlotte in Werther (San Francisco Opera, 1978[12]); the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos (Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1981;[9] Metropolitan Opera, 1984 and 1985[10]); Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro (Geneva Opera, 1983;[18] Lyric Opera of Chicago, 1987[21]); Poppea in L'incoronazione di Poppea (Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1984 and 1986[9]); the title roles in Carmen (Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1985 and 1987;[9] Metropolitan Opera, 1986;[10] Royal Opera House, 1991[22]), Salome (Los Angeles Opera, 1986;[23] Royal Opera House, 1988;[22] Lyric Opera of Chicago, 1988;[21] San Francisco Opera, 1993[12]), Die lustige Witwe (Lyric Opera of Chicago, 1986 and 1987[21]), Tosca (Royal Opera House, 1991[22]) and Madama Butterfly (Los Angeles Opera, 1991[1]); Didon in Les Troyens (Metropolitan Opera, 1993 and 1994[10]); Katerina Ismailova in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Metropolitan Opera, 1994[10]); Dido in Dido and Aeneas (Hampton Court, 1995[24]); Marie in Wozzeck (Metropolitan Opera, 1997[10]); the title role in Fedora (Los Angeles Opera, 1997[1]); and the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe (Gielgud Theatre, London, 2008[3]). It was for her performance in Salome that she attracted the warmest plaudits, not least for the succès de scandale that she achieved in the opera's notorious Dance of the Seven Veils. At Los Angeles in 1986, she ended Salome's strip-tease with her modesty protected by a gold lamé G-string, but at Covent Garden two years later, she dispensed with even that minimal concession to prudery and became one of the few opera singers to dare full-frontal nudity.[3] "I felt the G-string was vulgar," she said. *I think the nudity is more pure. It's a mixture of purity and decadence, that's what's so fascinating."[3]

The non-operatic music that Ewing performed was as diverse as her theatrical repertoire: it included Berg's Sieben Frühe Lieder,[16] Berlioz's La damnation de Faust,[20] Debussy's La damoiselle élue and Trois ballades de François Villon,[16] Mozart's Great Mass in C minor[25] and Verdi's Quattro pezzi sacri.[25] She could be as dramatic in concert as when performing as a singing actress—the conductor Simon Rattle recalled her interpretation of Ravel's Shéhérazade as "easily the most X-rated Shéhérazade you can imagine".[3] Her recital repertoire extended from an aria by Handel to art songs by Debussy, Duparc, Schubert and Wolf.[18] As regards genres of music outside the classical realm, she had an especial affection for jazz ever since being introduced to it by Dave Brubeck's Take Five at the age of eight;[3] she sometimes spent an entire night compulsively listening to one jazz record after another.[26] During the BBC Proms festival of 1989 she performed cabaret numbers with Richard Rodney Bennett,[3] and her videography includes a DVD of her performing with the band Kymaera at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.[27]

Personal life edit

Ewing's relationship with the English director Peter Hall began when they worked together in a production of Così fan tutte at Glyndebourne in 1978.[5] He found her "delightful, provocative and very, very attractive; formidable too, but wonderfully funny".[26] For her, "it was a meeting of minds and sympathies".[6] "We played piano duets", Hall recalled, "and found that we both hated the dead conventions, the laziness and the silliness of much opera production".[26] When Hall visited her in New York the following year, their friendship metamorphosed into romance:[28] "I am deeply in love with Maria Ewing", he confided to his diary on Christmas Day. "We plan to make our life together in the new year when she will come to London".[29] They married on Long Island on Valentine's Day, 1982.[6] Their only child, Rebecca, was born three months later.[30] Hall described his time with Ewing as "years of passion, of highs and lows, excitements and despair".[28]"Her blazing integrity and refusal to compromise do not make her an easy person to live with", he wrote.[28] "The mixture of our two volatile natures and our two careers... made for a turbulent life, sometimes gloriously happy, sometimes acutely miserable".[31] They separated in 1988 and Hall began a relationship with Nicki Frei, a press officer at London's National Theatre.[3] Hall and Ewing were divorced in 1990.[32] Ewing never remarried, but in her later years she had a platonic relationship with Amir Hosseinpour, a Tehran-born director and choreographer.[3]

In 2003, Ewing lived in Sussex, England.[33]

Reputation edit

Opinions of Ewing were extremely diverse. Lotfi Mansouri thought her "highly gifted", but described her conduct in San Francisco Opera's 1993 production of Salome as "a nightmare...She became difficult, stubborn, and wrongheaded. In the easier sections, she would drag the rhythms, then rush like crazy in the more difficult parts... Married to Sir Peter Hall at the time, she expected to be addressed as 'Lady Hall', then put a sign on her dressing room saying that she was not to be spoken to at all".[17] The critic and musical historian Peter G. Davis condemned her 1986 Metropolitan Opera Carmen as "a loopy Gypsy who might have just landed from the moon as she lurched spastically from one scene to the next without allure, consistency, credibility, or vocal distinction. That Ewing continued to be taken seriously over the next decade in the face of ongoing vocal collapse, whooping and scooping through one part after another, only indicated how decadent the Farrar-Garden tradition had become".[34] On the other hand, Simon Rattle praised her as "the most interesting singing actress of the stage",[6] and despite a six-year hiatus in their friendship when he broke a promise to cast her in a new production of Carmen at the Met,[6] James Levine never ceased to admire her: "She had the whole gift: brilliant on the stage, brilliant musician, brilliant linguist, very striking timbre. Maria started off with maybe the most full-scale and versatile gifts of any artist I ever worked with, able to sing every language, every style, recital, oratorio, opera, the whole business".[15] Peter Hall too always remained as enthusiastic about Ewing's art as he was when he first collaborated with her. "Her whole being is about performing, and truthful performing. She can only work with complete commitment and honesty... Her performances are incandescent. Even if you don't like them you cannot ignore them... Some people cannot take her highly personal approach; they say she pulls the music about, remaking it in her own image. This is not true; she is a meticulous musician. But her need to express leads her to emphasise and inflect outside the well-bred norm...She is a disturbing performer, a star".[28] "She is not a well-mannered artist and does not live her life calmly. I love her for that."[31]

Death edit

Ewing died of cancer at her residence near Detroit on January 9, 2022, at the age of 71.[2][35]

Recordings edit

Videography edit

Discography edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Millington, Barry (January 12, 2022). "Maria Ewing obituary". The Guardian.
  2. ^ a b c d e Genzlinger, Neil (January 12, 2022). "Maria Ewing, Dramatically Daring Opera Star, Dies at 71". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anonymous (January 11, 2022). "Maria Ewing obituary". The Times.
  4. ^ "Hidden in the Genes". Finding Your Roots. PBS. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Hall, Peter (2000): Making an Exhibition of Myself; Oberon Books; p. 247; ISBN 978-1-84002-115-8
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Moritz, Charles, ed. (1991). Current Biography Yearbook 1990. H. W. Wilson Co. pp. 227–230. OCLC 719673253.
  7. ^ Stewart, Henry (January 10, 2022). "Maria Ewing, 71, One of Her Generation's Most Charismatic and Versatile Opera Singers, has Died". Opera News.
  8. ^ Giesberg, Robert I., Cunningham, Carl, Rich, Alan and Sanders, Jim (2005): Houston Grand Opera at Fifty; Herring Press; pp. 272 and 275; ISBN 0-917001-24-9
  9. ^ a b c d e "Maria Ewing". Glyndebourne Festival Opera archive.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Home". Metropolitan Opera archive.
  11. ^ Willis, Thomas (July 2, 1973): A weekend of wonders at Ravinia; Chicago Tribune.
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Maria Ewing". San Francisco Opera archive.
  13. ^ Huscher, Phillip (2006): The Santa Fe Opera: An American Pioneer; The Santa Fe Opera; p. 144; ISBN 978-0-86534-550-8
  14. ^ Hughes, Spike (1981): Glyndebourne: A History of the Festival Opera, 2nd edition; David & Charles; p. 269; ISBN 0-7153-7891-0
  15. ^ a b Metropolitan Opera (2011): James Levine: 40 Years at the Metropolitan Opera; Amadeus Press; p. 84; ISBN 978-1-57467-196-4
  16. ^ a b c "Maria Ewing". Salzburg Festival archive.
  17. ^ a b Mansouri, Lotfi and Arthur, Donald (2010): Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey; Northeastern University Press; p. 261; ISBN 978-1-55553-706-7
  18. ^ a b c d e "Home". Geneva Opera archive.
  19. ^ Giesberg, Robert I., Cunningham, Carl, Rich, Alan and Sanders, Jim (2005), p. 273
  20. ^ a b "Maria Ewing". Teatro alla Scala archive.
  21. ^ a b c Skrebneski, Victor (1994): Bravi: Lyric Opera of Chicago; Abbeville Press; ISBN 978-1-55859-771-6
  22. ^ a b c "Maria Ewing". Royal Opera House archive.
  23. ^ Bernheimer, Martin: Music Center stages a dazzling 'Salome'; Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1986
  24. ^ "Dido and Aeneas, BBC Two, November 4, 1995". BBC Genome Project.
  25. ^ a b "Home". Boston Symphony Orchestra archive.
  26. ^ a b c Hall, Peter (2000), p. 248
  27. ^ "Kymaera DVD". www.kymaera.co.uk. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  28. ^ a b c d Hall, Peter (2000), p. 249
  29. ^ Goodwin, John, ed. (2000): Peter Hall's Diaries: The Story of a Dramatic Battle; Oberon Books; p. 464; ISBN 1-84002-102-0
  30. ^ Hall, Peter (2000), p. 325
  31. ^ a b Hall, Peter (2000), p. 250
  32. ^ Hall, Peter (2000), p. 353
  33. ^ Jeal, Erica (March 11, 2003). "I feel I belong". The Guardian. Retrieved September 14, 2008.
  34. ^ Davis, Peter G. (1997): The American Opera Singer; Anchor Books; p. 545; ISBN 0-385-42174-5
  35. ^ "Opera singer Maria Ewing, wife of Peter Hall, dead at 71". Edwardsville Intelligencer. January 10, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2022.

External links edit

February 16, 2024
maria, ewing, maria, louise, ewing, march, 1950, january, 2022, american, opera, singer, early, part, career, performed, solely, lyric, mezzo, soprano, later, assumed, full, soprano, parts, well, signature, roles, were, blanche, carmen, dorabella, rosina, salo. Maria Louise Ewing March 27 1950 January 9 2022 was an American opera singer In the early part of her career she performed solely as a lyric mezzo soprano she later assumed full soprano parts as well Her signature roles were Blanche Carmen Dorabella Rosina and Salome Some critics regarded her as one of the most compelling singing actresses of her generation 1 Maria EwingEwing in 1968Born 1950 03 27 March 27 1950Detroit Michigan U S DiedJanuary 9 2022 2022 01 09 aged 71 Detroit Michigan U S Alma materCleveland Institute of MusicOccupationOpera singerSpousePeter Hall m 1982 div 1990 wbr ChildrenRebecca HallRelativesBazabeel Norman great great great grandfather Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Reputation 5 Death 6 Recordings 6 1 Videography 6 2 Discography 7 References 8 External linksEarly life and education editMaria Louise Ewing was born in Detroit Michigan on March 27 1950 2 She was the youngest of four daughters of Hermina Ewing nee Veraar a Dutch born homemaker and Norman Isaac Ewing an electrical engineer at a steel company 2 3 Her father claimed to be of Sioux descent 2 3 but he was the son of parents who were both part European part African an episode of the genealogical television show Finding Your Roots devoted to Ewing s daughter the actress Rebecca Hall revealed that he was the son of John William Ewing born into slavery a prominent figure in the African American community of Washington DC and a descendant of Bazabeel Norman a notable African American veteran of the American Revolutionary War 4 Rebecca Hall s interest in her mother s ethnicity inspired her to make a film Passing the protagonist of which is an African American woman whose skin is light enough for her to be perceived as white 2 According to Ewing s former husband her father s African roots caused her family so much anxiety that a particularly dark skinned relative of theirs was forbidden from visiting their home during the hours of daylight 5 Ewing herself was unembarrassed by her racial make up regarding her African roots not with shame but with pride 5 Ewing s parents were both musical enthusiasts her mother was a keen collector of classical recordings and her father played the piano well enough to attract an audience of admiring neighbors 6 Ewing s own musical education began with piano lessons when she was thirteen 6 As well as playing solo piano pieces she sometimes acted as an accompanist for one of her sisters Frances occasionally singing duets with her their mother was sufficiently impressed by her voice to encourage her to complement her keyboard work by studying singing too 6 Coached by a local voice teacher Ewing joined the alto section of the chorus at her Detroit high school Jared W Finney High School 3 and was soon participating in and winning singing competitions 6 When she was seventeen she became a pupil of Marjorie Gordon a coloratura soprano not to be confused with an English Gilbert and Sullivan soprano of the same name 6 After only a year of teaching her Gordon suggested that she should apply to take part in Oakland University s Meadow Brook Music Festival 6 She auditioned for the role of Maddalena in a production of Rigoletto that was to be conducted by a young James Levine 6 Their meeting proved to be wonderfully serendipitous Levine was so struck by her expressive power that he assured her that she had the potential to become a major artist 6 while for her part she found in him a teacher mentor guide champion and friend 6 It was in order to study with Levine that she sought and won a scholarship at the Cleveland Institute of Music where her other instructors included the soprano Eleanor Steber 6 And after her graduation in 1970 it was at Levine s urging that she continued her training in New York City as a private pupil of the great mezzo soprano Jennie Tourel supporting herself by working in offices and clothing stores 6 Career edit nbsp James Levine in 2013Ewing began her professional life as a lyric mezzo soprano Her debut was as Rosina in an English language production of Il barbiere di Siviglia in Detroit in 1970 staged by a company now known as the Michigan Opera Theatre 7 She returned to the role many times including at Houston Grand Opera in 1976 and 1983 8 at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1981 and 1982 9 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1982 10 After three years of gradually building a career as a recitalist concert artist and opera performer she made her first appearance at a high profile venue on June 29 1973 when she starred at the Ravinia Festival singing a program of songs by Alban Berg accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Levine I cannot remember a young singer who has excited me more on a first hearing wrote the Chicago Tribune s Thomas Willis Still in her early twenties she has the clear stamp of greatness in every movement and tone 11 The first leading opera company that engaged Ewing was San Francisco s She was their Mercedes in Carmen in 1973 and their Sicle in Francesco Cavalli s Ormindo in 1974 12 In 1975 Santa Fe Opera presented her in Cosi fan tutte as Dorabella 13 one of the parts with which she became most closely associated she was highly praised in the role both at Glyndebourne in 1978 9 and at the Metropolitan Opera with Levine on the podium in 1982 10 In his history of Glyndebourne Spike Hughes remembered Ewing s Dorabella as a particular joy with a natural gift of timing and an enchantingly comical face 14 while for Levine Ewing was the funniest most stylish Dorabella you could imagine absolutely sensational 15 It was as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro that Ewing first appeared in Europe playing the farfallone amoroso at Salzburg in 1976 she repeated the role there in 1979 and 1980 16 It was as Cherubino too that she first sang at the Metropolitan Opera on October 14 1976 in a production to which she returned in 1977 10 In his autobiography the director Lotfi Mansouri remembered Ewing at this stage in her career as an alluring mezzo who could convince audiences possibly better than anyone else that her enchantingly sung Cherubino was really a boy 17 She offered another Mozart trousers role in 1977 when she sang Idamante in his opera seria Idomeneo at the San Francisco Opera 12 In 1980 and 1984 she appeared in his second da Ponte work when she was Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Geneva Opera 18 and the Met respectively 10 Her other bel canto mezzo soprano role was Angelina in La Cenerentola Houston Grand Opera 1979 19 Geneva Opera 1981 18 As Ewing s career in opera progressed her choice of parts became ever more eclectic spanning the gamut from seventeenth century works by Monteverdi and Purcell to twentieth century pieces by Shostakovich and Poulenc Ultimately she went so far as to adventure beyond the boundaries of her mezzo Fach and sing as a soprano too Among the parts that she assumed were the title role in La Perichole San Francisco Opera 1976 12 Geneva Opera 1982 and 1983 18 Blanche in Dialogues des Carmelites Metropolitan Opera 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 and 1987 10 Melisande in Pelleas et Melisande La Scala 1977 20 San Francisco Opera 1979 12 Charlotte in Werther San Francisco Opera 1978 12 the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos Glyndebourne Festival Opera 1981 9 Metropolitan Opera 1984 and 1985 10 Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro Geneva Opera 1983 18 Lyric Opera of Chicago 1987 21 Poppea in L incoronazione di Poppea Glyndebourne Festival Opera 1984 and 1986 9 the title roles in Carmen Glyndebourne Festival Opera 1985 and 1987 9 Metropolitan Opera 1986 10 Royal Opera House 1991 22 Salome Los Angeles Opera 1986 23 Royal Opera House 1988 22 Lyric Opera of Chicago 1988 21 San Francisco Opera 1993 12 Die lustige Witwe Lyric Opera of Chicago 1986 and 1987 21 Tosca Royal Opera House 1991 22 and Madama Butterfly Los Angeles Opera 1991 1 Didon in Les Troyens Metropolitan Opera 1993 and 1994 10 Katerina Ismailova in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Metropolitan Opera 1994 10 Dido in Dido and Aeneas Hampton Court 1995 24 Marie in Wozzeck Metropolitan Opera 1997 10 the title role in Fedora Los Angeles Opera 1997 1 and the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe Gielgud Theatre London 2008 3 It was for her performance in Salome that she attracted the warmest plaudits not least for the succes de scandale that she achieved in the opera s notorious Dance of the Seven Veils At Los Angeles in 1986 she ended Salome s strip tease with her modesty protected by a gold lame G string but at Covent Garden two years later she dispensed with even that minimal concession to prudery and became one of the few opera singers to dare full frontal nudity 3 I felt the G string was vulgar she said I think the nudity is more pure It s a mixture of purity and decadence that s what s so fascinating 3 The non operatic music that Ewing performed was as diverse as her theatrical repertoire it included Berg s Sieben Fruhe Lieder 16 Berlioz s La damnation de Faust 20 Debussy s La damoiselle elue and Trois ballades de Francois Villon 16 Mozart s Great Mass in C minor 25 and Verdi s Quattro pezzi sacri 25 She could be as dramatic in concert as when performing as a singing actress the conductor Simon Rattle recalled her interpretation of Ravel s Sheherazade as easily the most X rated Sheherazade you can imagine 3 Her recital repertoire extended from an aria by Handel to art songs by Debussy Duparc Schubert and Wolf 18 As regards genres of music outside the classical realm she had an especial affection for jazz ever since being introduced to it by Dave Brubeck s Take Five at the age of eight 3 she sometimes spent an entire night compulsively listening to one jazz record after another 26 During the BBC Proms festival of 1989 she performed cabaret numbers with Richard Rodney Bennett 3 and her videography includes a DVD of her performing with the band Kymaera at Ronnie Scott s Jazz Club in London 27 Personal life editEwing s relationship with the English director Peter Hall began when they worked together in a production of Cosi fan tutte at Glyndebourne in 1978 5 He found her delightful provocative and very very attractive formidable too but wonderfully funny 26 For her it was a meeting of minds and sympathies 6 We played piano duets Hall recalled and found that we both hated the dead conventions the laziness and the silliness of much opera production 26 When Hall visited her in New York the following year their friendship metamorphosed into romance 28 I am deeply in love with Maria Ewing he confided to his diary on Christmas Day We plan to make our life together in the new year when she will come to London 29 They married on Long Island on Valentine s Day 1982 6 Their only child Rebecca was born three months later 30 Hall described his time with Ewing as years of passion of highs and lows excitements and despair 28 Her blazing integrity and refusal to compromise do not make her an easy person to live with he wrote 28 The mixture of our two volatile natures and our two careers made for a turbulent life sometimes gloriously happy sometimes acutely miserable 31 They separated in 1988 and Hall began a relationship with Nicki Frei a press officer at London s National Theatre 3 Hall and Ewing were divorced in 1990 32 Ewing never remarried but in her later years she had a platonic relationship with Amir Hosseinpour a Tehran born director and choreographer 3 In 2003 Ewing lived in Sussex England 33 Reputation editOpinions of Ewing were extremely diverse Lotfi Mansouri thought her highly gifted but described her conduct in San Francisco Opera s 1993 production of Salome as a nightmare She became difficult stubborn and wrongheaded In the easier sections she would drag the rhythms then rush like crazy in the more difficult parts Married to Sir Peter Hall at the time she expected to be addressed as Lady Hall then put a sign on her dressing room saying that she was not to be spoken to at all 17 The critic and musical historian Peter G Davis condemned her 1986 Metropolitan Opera Carmen as a loopy Gypsy who might have just landed from the moon as she lurched spastically from one scene to the next without allure consistency credibility or vocal distinction That Ewing continued to be taken seriously over the next decade in the face of ongoing vocal collapse whooping and scooping through one part after another only indicated how decadent the Farrar Garden tradition had become 34 On the other hand Simon Rattle praised her as the most interesting singing actress of the stage 6 and despite a six year hiatus in their friendship when he broke a promise to cast her in a new production of Carmen at the Met 6 James Levine never ceased to admire her She had the whole gift brilliant on the stage brilliant musician brilliant linguist very striking timbre Maria started off with maybe the most full scale and versatile gifts of any artist I ever worked with able to sing every language every style recital oratorio opera the whole business 15 Peter Hall too always remained as enthusiastic about Ewing s art as he was when he first collaborated with her Her whole being is about performing and truthful performing She can only work with complete commitment and honesty Her performances are incandescent Even if you don t like them you cannot ignore them Some people cannot take her highly personal approach they say she pulls the music about remaking it in her own image This is not true she is a meticulous musician But her need to express leads her to emphasise and inflect outside the well bred norm She is a disturbing performer a star 28 She is not a well mannered artist and does not live her life calmly I love her for that 31 Death editEwing died of cancer at her residence near Detroit on January 9 2022 at the age of 71 2 35 Recordings editVideography edit Bizet Carmen Covent Garden d Nuria Espert c Zubin Mehta Arthaus DVD Bizet Carmen Earls Court d Steven Pimlott c Jacques Delacote Image Entertainment DVD Bizet Carmen Glyndebourne d Peter Hall c Bernard Haitink Kultur DVD Gustav Mahler Symphony No 4 Concertgebouw Orchestra c Bernard Haitink Arthaus DVD Monteverdi L incoronazione di Poppea Glyndebourne d Peter Hall c Raymond Leppard Kultur DVD Mozart Le nozze di Figaro Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra d Jean Pierre Ponnelle c Karl Bohm Deutsche Grammophon DVD Mozart Requiem Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra c Leonard Bernstein Deutsche Grammophon DVD Purcell Dido and Aeneas Hampton Court d Peter Maniura c Richard Hickox Kultur DVD Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia Glyndebourne d John Cox c Sylvain Cambreling Kultur DVD Richard Strauss Salome Covent Garden d Peter Hall c Edward Downes Pioneer DVD Various Maria Ewing with Kymaera live at Ronny Scott s String Jazz Productions DVDDiscography edit Berlioz La damnation de Faust Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra c Eliahu Inbal Brilliant Classics CD Debussy La damoiselle elue London Symphony Orchestra c Claudio Abbado Deutsche Grammophon CD Debussy Pelleas et Melisande Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra c Claudio Abbado Deutsche Grammophon CD Mozart Don Giovanni London Philharmonic Orchestra c Bernard Haitink EMI Classics CD Mozart Requiem Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra c Leonard Bernstein Deutsche Grammophon CD Purcell Dido and Aeneas Collegium Musicum 90 c Richard Hickox Chaconne CD Ravel Sheherazade City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra c Simon Rattle EMI Classics CD Richard Rodgers Rodgers and Hammerstein at the Movies John Wilson Orchestra c John Wilson EMI Classics CD Shostakovich Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Orchestre de l Opera Bastille c Myung Whun Chung Deutsche Grammophon CD Various From this moment on Royal Philharmonic Orchestra c Neil Richardson IMP Masters CD Various Simply Maria BBC CDReferences edit a b c Millington Barry January 12 2022 Maria Ewing obituary The Guardian a b c d e Genzlinger Neil January 12 2022 Maria Ewing Dramatically Daring Opera Star Dies at 71 The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved January 13 2022 a b c d e f g h i j k Anonymous January 11 2022 Maria Ewing obituary The Times Hidden in the Genes Finding Your Roots PBS Retrieved January 13 2022 a b c Hall Peter 2000 Making an Exhibition of Myself Oberon Books p 247 ISBN 978 1 84002 115 8 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Moritz Charles ed 1991 Current Biography Yearbook 1990 H W Wilson Co pp 227 230 OCLC 719673253 Stewart Henry January 10 2022 Maria Ewing 71 One of Her Generation s Most Charismatic and Versatile Opera Singers has Died Opera News Giesberg Robert I Cunningham Carl Rich Alan and Sanders Jim 2005 Houston Grand Opera at Fifty Herring Press pp 272 and 275 ISBN 0 917001 24 9 a b c d e Maria Ewing Glyndebourne Festival Opera archive a b c d e f g h i j Home Metropolitan Opera archive Willis Thomas July 2 1973 A weekend of wonders at Ravinia Chicago Tribune a b c d e f Maria Ewing San Francisco Opera archive Huscher Phillip 2006 The Santa Fe Opera An American Pioneer The Santa Fe Opera p 144 ISBN 978 0 86534 550 8 Hughes Spike 1981 Glyndebourne A History of the Festival Opera 2nd edition David amp Charles p 269 ISBN 0 7153 7891 0 a b Metropolitan Opera 2011 James Levine 40 Years at the Metropolitan Opera Amadeus Press p 84 ISBN 978 1 57467 196 4 a b c Maria Ewing Salzburg Festival archive a b Mansouri Lotfi and Arthur Donald 2010 Lotfi Mansouri An Operatic Journey Northeastern University Press p 261 ISBN 978 1 55553 706 7 a b c d e Home Geneva Opera archive Giesberg Robert I Cunningham Carl Rich Alan and Sanders Jim 2005 p 273 a b Maria Ewing Teatro alla Scala archive a b c Skrebneski Victor 1994 Bravi Lyric Opera of Chicago Abbeville Press ISBN 978 1 55859 771 6 a b c Maria Ewing Royal Opera House archive Bernheimer Martin Music Center stages a dazzling Salome Los Angeles Times October 11 1986 Dido and Aeneas BBC Two November 4 1995 BBC Genome Project a b Home Boston Symphony Orchestra archive a b c Hall Peter 2000 p 248 Kymaera DVD www kymaera co uk Retrieved January 13 2022 a b c d Hall Peter 2000 p 249 Goodwin John ed 2000 Peter Hall s Diaries The Story of a Dramatic Battle Oberon Books p 464 ISBN 1 84002 102 0 Hall Peter 2000 p 325 a b Hall Peter 2000 p 250 Hall Peter 2000 p 353 Jeal Erica March 11 2003 I feel I belong The Guardian Retrieved September 14 2008 Davis Peter G 1997 The American Opera Singer Anchor Books p 545 ISBN 0 385 42174 5 Opera singer Maria Ewing wife of Peter Hall dead at 71 Edwardsville Intelligencer January 10 2022 Retrieved January 10 2022 External links editMaria Ewing at IMDb Maria Ewing at the TCM Movie Database Maria Ewing at AllMovie Maria Ewing discography at Discogs Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Maria Ewing amp oldid 1198490951, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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