Maria ewing full#

Music seemed to be her path from the beginning. to Norman Ewing and the Dutch-born Hermina Maria Veraar. Maria Louise Ewing was born in Main Detroit, Mich. 'Then my voice naturally progressed as it should. 'I sang lyric mezzo parts, but in your early 20s that was the right thing to do,' she explained. Talking to the Los Angeles Times in 1992, Ewing rationalized her career trajectory. In his view, Ewing played Carmen as a 'pouty teenager,' indifferent to the audience: 'Miss Ewing pursues this eccentric concept to the end, which might be more plausible if her basically light mezzo were a true Carmen voice. Donal Henahan, of the The New York Times, was there on opening night, and was not impressed. 'For many though,' Davis writes, 'Ewing's bizarre onstage behavior has been just as eccentric and unmusical as her singing.'ĭavis was referring, in part, to Ewing's polarizing portrayal of the title role in Bizet's Carmen, another Hall production, at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1986. Davis was less charitable of Ewing's choices in his book The American Opera Singer, in which he wishes Ewing hadn't 'restructured' her light mezzo-soprano voice to take on larger, dramatic roles such as Salome and Puccini's Tosca. The theater is meant to be a place where emotions are unleashed and where one reveals oneself.' 'If this appears to be risk taking or daring - so be it. 'I do what I believe is right,' she told the Los Angeles Times in 1992.

Maria ewing full#

Ewing's striking singing and acting, along with the notoriety of her Dance of the Seven Veils,' he wrote, describing the use of full frontal nudity in the scene as its 'logical conclusion.'Įwing, whose range was wide enough to sing both soprano and mezzo-soprano roles, was fearless when it came to pushing the artistic envelope. Rockwell noted that one of the keys to the production's success was Hall's direction. In 1989, John Rockwell wrote in The New York Times about a Los Angeles performance of Richard Strauss' Salome, staged for Ewing by her husband, Peter Hall, who once led London's Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. While some observers fell under the spell of her no-holds-barred acting, others criticized it along with a voice which they saw as not always technically perfect. No further details were provided.Įwing, who came from a biracial family, was in part the inspiration behind the recent film Passing – about two light-skinned African-American women who can pass as white – directed by Ewing's daughter Rebecca Hall.Īrtistically, Ewing was a complicated figure. 'She was an extraordinarily gifted artist who by the sheer force of her talent and will catapulted herself to the most rarefied heights of the international opera world,' the family said. Her death was announced in a family statement published by multiple news organizations.

Maria Ewing, the opera singer acclaimed for her sensual, dramatically charged performances in works by Strauss, Bizet and Shostakovich, died at her home near Detroit on Sunday.