Opera Scotland

Christa Ludwig Suggest updates

Born Berlin, 16 March 1928.

Died 24 April 2021.

German mezzo-soprano.

Christa C was one of the greatest operatic mezzos in the second half of the twentieth century.  Her active singing career lasted from 1946 to 1994.

Her parents, Anton Ludwig and Eugenie Besalla-Ludwig were both singers at the Vienna Volksoper in the 1920s. They later worked at Aachen, where a young Herbert von Karajan was chief conductor. Ludwig studied with her mother.

Ludwig's debut, in 1946, was as Orlofsky at Frankfurt. and she worked at that theatre until 1952.  Later contracts saw her working at Darmstadt, Hanover and Hamburg.