Classical Archives is Pleased to Suggest this Ewing Recording from our Streaming Library

If you love opera singers who exert a highly personal imprint on the roles they perform, chances are you are already a longtime fan of Maria Ewing, who passed away several days ago.

Ewing performed both soprano and mezzo roles in Carmelites, Carmen, le Nozze di Figaro, Salome, and other operas. Was that an unusual repertory? Not really. But what was unusual was the highly personal, intense and often rough-hewn approach she brought to every role she performed. Like certain other great female opera singers of the last century (including Maria Callas and Teresa Stratas and Hildegard Behrens) she was more concerned with bringing an intense personal truth to every role she appeared in. Some people might have objected that those singers were not concerned with singing beautifully, they were searching for some kind of valid personal truth in everything they performed.

And in that company, Maria Ewing might have been the most unique of all.

Today, we would like to share two videos of this remarkable artist.

We would say, “Please enjoy these performances.” But instead, we will say, “Be prepared to discover something valid, astonishing and still new.”

All of us at Classical Archives extend condolences to the family of this astonishing artist.