Audiences mostly saw the serious side of the late Christa Ludwig.
Leonard Bernstein saw a comedienne.
I remember this 1989 LSO performance of Candide as if it were yesterday. Christa stole the show.
This may have been where he saw it first.
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o YES! Incredible!
https://basiaconfuoco.com/…/in-memoriam-christa-ludwig…/
She was a great Comedienne for most of us who still remember her fabulous Miss Quickly in Falstaff.
I certainly remember Christa Ludwig’s Mistress Quickly in Salzburg in 1982 very well.
Despite the stellar cast which included Panerai, Taddei, Kabaivanska and Araiza, Ludwig was one of the few successes in a generally disappointing and decidedly non-humorous production.
Herbert von Karajan never did fun very well.
A bit like asking Schopenhauer to write an episode of the Three Stooges.
I was fortunate to see her as Mrs. Quickly in a February 17, 1981 production in Vienna. I still recall her glorious smile.
How wonderful thanks Norman that’s cheered up my day. I somehow missed that at the Barbican.
Loved the expression of the young soprano transfixed, next to her and felt sorry for the singer having to follow that.
Yes!
It is June Anderson, who sings on the Candide recording with Christa Ludwig.
(At first I thought it was someone else, a
young mezzo from
now, which makes no sense at all.)
What an extraordinary talent, and so versatile. The role is completely inhabited.
The dancer at the end is pretty hot I should add.
Christa is brilliant, delightful, and funny.
She could do it all.
I have yet to discover Christa Ludwig’s weakest links.
She is a delight! The joyous performance from 1988 makes her so present: “I never spoke any ‘hooman’ language.” Thank you so
much, NL, for finding this/
It is sometimes forgotten that Christa Ludwig’s first role on stage was Orlofsky at the Frankfurt Opera at the age of 18. This very early recording displays not only her extraordinarily developed voice but impeccable diction and natural affinity for comedy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oToGOh04Z-I
Ever since 1980s, I respected and appreciated CL’s fine artistry, but after seeing and hearing this charming video clip about fifteen years ago I became a passionate fan forever. She was such a pure delight! Her death is a truly huge loss for all of us who treasured her beautiful musical soul.
Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar! Can there be a worse piece of music ever recorded? Why on earth did the divine Christa Ludwig waste her time with such trash?
Probably because she – being “divine” – had a better understanding than you are displaying here that music can be light and entertaining without being trashy, and that LB at his best was a master of precisely such kind of music.