These we have lost today
mainMaria Radner, 33, a fast-rising contralto, made her Met debut in January 2012 in Götterdämmerung at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, followed by Die Frau ohne Schatten at La Scala two months later.
This season she was due to make her debut at Bayreuth under Kirill Petrenko in Rheingold and Götterdämmerung.
Born in Düsseldorf, she studied with Marga Schiml in Karlsruhe.
Oleg Bryjak, 54, originally from Kazakhstan, was ensemble member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf/Duisburg for 19 years. He commanded major bass-baritone roles on all the world’s great stages.
The loss of these two fine colleagues in the Germanwings crash today is irreparable.
The Bayreuth Festival and Deutsche Oper am Rhein have issued statements of mourning.
Seldom has Erda’s warning sounded as prophetic:
“Höre! Höre! Höre. Alles, was ist, endet”
I made the ‘mistake’ of clicking the Maria link above, and wept.
After hearing about this, I (re-)watched Maria Radner as the First Norn in the recent Met “Götterdämmerung” (i.e. as seen in the Met HD broadcasts, and on DVD/Blu-Ray), a scene I’ve always loved – really gave me goosebumps – such a tragedy, such a needless loss. “Zu End’ ewiges Wissen! Der Welt melden Weise nichts mehr…” / “Our eternal knowledge is at an end! The world will know nothing more of our wisdom…”