Colleagues pay tribute to tragic Aga Mikolaj

Colleagues pay tribute to tragic Aga Mikolaj

News

norman lebrecht

November 12, 2021

The world of music has been shocked by the Covid death, aged 51, of the Polish-born soprano Aga Mikolaj.

Conductor Yoel Levi: Oh my God !!!! I cannot believe it !!! She was such a great singer and a great human being…… I will always remember all the wonderful performances that we did together….. RIP

Conductor Daniel Raiskin: I have known Aga for years and was blessed with many opportunities of performing with her.
In the past few days, from the moment that I learned about her illness and admission to the IC unit, I kept hoping that she’ll be getting better soon and refused to believe the worst is possible… The shocking news of her passing today left a bleeding wound in my heart.
Aga was the kindest and modest person, a wonderful musician, most reliable and supportive partner on stage and on tour, consummate professional and, above all, she had a voice of rare beauty and clarity!
I remember all our concerts so well – its easy as each of them was nothing short of a highlight!
Händel and Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss, Szymanowski and Lutoslawski… In three weeks we were supposed to perform Beethoven 9th Symphony together again… Life can be cruel and unfair, but it also beautiful when you come across people line Aga Mikolaj…!
Rest in peace, dear friend…
“O weiter, stiller Friede!
So tief im Abendrot –
wie sind wir wandermüde – ist dies etwa der Tod?”

Soprano Nadine Weissmann: Devastated to hear that amazing soprano Aga Mikolaj passed away from Covid today. Just a few years older than me, we sang a Verdi Requiem together when she jumped in in Weimar a few years back. A lovely colleague and a beautiful musician.

Baritone Bernhard Hansky: I was shaken to learn today of the death of our dear colleague Aga Mikolaj, who unfortunately left us far too soon. With gratitude, I think back to her heartfelt personality and distinctive voice. In “Don Giovanni” I heard her live in 2011 for the first time in Berlin and that was also the opera we sang together at the Semperoper seven years later. She was always the optimal Donna Elvira in my eyes.

Tokyo singer Yasushi Muromachi: I am so shocked to hear the news… She was great Donna Anna and Donna Elvira at our National theater and I really liked her performances and was looking forward to see her again.

Comments

  • Gustavo says:

    Is it reasonable to ask whether she was vaccinated or not?

    And why.

    • John Borstlap says:

      That’s what I thought as well. Scientific evidence shows that vaccination protects against serious illnes and death. It’s an awful story.

      • Gustavo says:

        It’s an awful story either way.

        And then there were these statistics from Israel questioning the overall efficiancy of the vaccine at the population level.

        • Sue Sonata Form says:

          Yes, it’s an issue which will gradually come to light. Having said that, there are scientists working on greater vaccination efficacy as we speak. This will, of course, take time.

        • BRUCEB says:

          Israel was, of course, the unintentional test case that showed rest of the world about the importance of booster shots.

          “Researchers led by Yair Goldberg, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, wondered whether this resurgence of COVID-19 could be fully explained by the rise of the more infectious Delta variant. Or, they wondered, did the waning of immunity over time also play a role?

          To find out, the researchers looked to over 4.7 million fully vaccinated Israeli adults, more than 13,000 of whom had breakthrough infections from July 11 to 31, 2021 with SARS-CoV-2. The researchers looked for an association between the rate of confirmed infections and the time that had passed since vaccination. Without any significant waning of immunity, one shouldn’t see any difference in infection rates among people who were fully vaccinated at the earliest opportunity versus those vaccinated later.

          “The results were clear: the rate of confirmed COVID-19 infection revealed a slow but steady waning of immunity over time. Among individuals 60 years or older who were fully vaccinated last January, the number of confirmed breakthrough infections was 3.3 per 1,000 people during the three weeks of the study. Those who were vaccinated in February and March had lower infection rates of 2.2 per 1,000 and 1.7 per 1,000, respectively. The data revealed a similar pattern in those aged 40 to 59 and those aged 16 to 39.”

          (The link says nih.gov, but it’s actually a report on a study done in Israel by Israeli scientists You can decide whether to believe it or not. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/11/09/israeli-study-shows-how-covid-19-immunity-wanes-over-time/)

          You can do the math and see what percentages the numbers mentioned above come out to.

        • JB says:

          A misleading, unhelpful comment stated like this.
          It will be read by some as justification for non-vaccination.Israel has shown the effectiveness of the vaccine but also has shown the need for booster jabs as the protection reduces with time.

          • harpist says:

            That is an efficacy of 99.7%. I take it/
            Please refrain from “oh my god, 13,000 people got a breakthrough infection” when you do not give the context. How many of those 13000 ended up hospitalized? Very few.

    • Herr Doktor says:

      It’s entirely reasonable for people to not be vaccinated. After all, who wants microchips planted in them which beam their every thought to the cloud, which has been hacked by Jews who then use their lasers in the sky to shoot dead citizens who question the whole Covid hoax.

      (Is this enough, or should I continue parodying the crazy right-wingers/bots who frequent here?)

      • Nijinsky says:

        Wow sir, is this what you learned somewhere (since you list yourself as Herr Doktor) that in order to inspire people who might otherwise lose their lives, to take measures they for whatever reason are hesitant to, to prescribe the prevalent (certainly on this site) habit of acting like people change their minds when ridiculed, made out to be idiots, and used as spot for sarcasm?

        Who is that supposed to help?

        Is that part of the hippocratic oath?

        If you just listened to them, you might learn something, and they might trust you, but what you just hauled out as “persuasion,” is quite harmful, in that it does the opposite.

        And there might be all sorts of alternative methods, that even in the ICU might help, that are basic health practices, not drug company protocols.

        I’ve been vaccinated, and I’m horrified each day to see people shirk basic responsibilities, like how they wear their mask, but I also see the kind of irate ridiculing (on all sides) that goes on, and only creates more cleavages riffs, and makes it more dangerous to just be out about…..

        • harpist says:

          First, I have to break it to you – but the oath thing is a myth. We are not all standing and giving the hypocratic oath. Its a nice text to adhere to, yes.

          Second – with all the misinformation and stupidity a lot of HCW just have enough, we are done, exhausted and don’t take the BS any more. As Einstein (allegedly) said: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

          • Nijinsky says:

            I don’t think people are inspired to change their mind, when told they are stupid. In fact believing that works in itself is quite “stupid.” in fact. Do you care about communicating to people or berating them?

          • Nijinsky says:

            OK, to begin with, this post is about a singer who we have lost, not about defending calling people stupid. Neither do I see that as a means to inspire people to get treatment that might have saved her.

            Further more, Einstein did say, and not just allegedly, when called the most intelligent man on the planet, that if they wanted to meet that man they should talk to Nicola Tesla. Tesla, not only knew about, understood and worked with ideas, truths and realities that to this present day people would call “stupid” believing such stuff couldn’t exist, but was repressed in ever sharing a lot of them. Because it would interfere with the socio-economic system as was known, and still is believed. Calling someone “stupid” might actually be an excuse to maintain anyone not brainwashed doesn’t have their act together, something BOTH sides of the ideologies in conflict use as an excuse. Neither is being able to repeat ideology on either side a sign of intelligence. As little as that only drug company protocol is what works, or that all drug company and government protocol is evil and an attempt to interfere with personal liberties.

            The hippocratic oath in itself stands for how a doctor’s mission is to do no harm, that’s what it means, that’s inherent in the profession itself, that’s also why I referred to it. Standing and taking the oath wouldn’t mean it’s adhered to, that also could be easily understood rather than petty quibbling bringing up present practice, mythology and any reference to it as pertaining to the ritual of standing and “taking” the oath.

            Or am I bringing up mythology would I use the phrase: “throwing out the baby with the bath water,” because when a whole household used to take a bath in the same vessel, the baby being the last to be given a bath, from the dirt accumulated in the water it referred to the fact that the baby might not be seen anymore. Although present day a household, or the working class even don’t all take a bath in the same water.

          • Nijinsky says:

            I have been vaccinated.
            I completely understand people’s frustration. I myself have to ride the bus, or go to stores, and even when there was a mandate was shocked at the disconcern people have, not wearing their mask properly, not wearing one at all; and I reported it to the bus system, to the authorities that were supposed to check stores; one person trying to tell me that one is allowed to wear a mask with it dangling under one’s nose and it’s still effective, other’s getting belligerent, one recent act I can only see as a comedy, is when an overweight couple came on the bus (being overweight puts one in extra danger concerning covid) and the lady pulled her mask down, and then starting huffing and puffing water droplets onto her glasses (exactly how one spreads covid in a closed area) and when told by the bus driver to put her mask on, said she needed to clean her glasses as she wiped off the vapor she had shared with her glasses and everyone on the bus. A bit of time passed, then she did that again, again a bit more time passed, and she took out a lip balm which she administered again pulling her mask down. I told someone else about this later and said: “you might as well…” not finishing it with the thought that one might as well take a nebulizer on the bus put one’s saliva in it turn it on, and share it with the passengers . I have a nebulizer (at home), but I put thieves oil in it, which kills the virus, using thieves oil on masks is also how doctors during the bubolic plague could help people https://myhealthessentials.ca/thieves-oil-history-blend-benefits/, the formula found when those who sold perfumes and had lost business given the plague and knowing the formula used it to steal jewelry off bodies that had died of the plague, then being caught and asked how they could do such, with the judge being given the formula for thieves oil, the thieves were let off “leniently,” by being hung rather than burned at the stake. Thieves oil works comparable to any industrial strength anti-septic, is biodegradable, only there’s no copyright one can have on it, thus it isn’t used in the hospitals whose industrial strength disinfectants cause mutant strains. There are a host of other treatments that are simply natural, one can’t have a copyright on them, and work beautifully along with drug company treatments not interfering at all with any help the drug company treatments would offer, but the whole FDA and corporate system is as hesitant or partisan against them as you might hear from people against government protocols of the present covid vaccine. And it’s often the very people propping up the corporations that have hegemony regarding treatment that now are against the protocols (put into effect by the corporations), although there are much more sensible people that do have grounded knowledge or alternative methods that work.

            There are all sorts of ways that one can strengthen the immune system naturally. If a person is struggling because of covid and has low oxygen levels simply laying them on their stomach makes it easier to breath for the lungs and can increase the oxygen level. There always have been ways to strengthen the immune system, I’ve gone off of sugar completely and don’t miss it, no caffeine, fermented grains to get rid of phytic acid or non gluten. And then simply not letting myself get upset when people act…….

            I had it on the bus today where I just can’t believe people not wearing masks, wearing them wrong, and found that I can get so upset that it actually feels like I do when I’m coming down with something. So, I just let myself feel that, and stopped reacting and judging people. Letting go of the tendency to call them stupid and just have enough of it, let myself feel the way I do when I know I have to rest to recover from an illness, and just be patient. And that way I’m not interfering emotionally with my own immune system, and might be able to communicate instead.

            And I think that when you let yourself just have enough and judge people, that it’s going to repeat until you stop. You may think that time is linear, and you don’t have the ability to make it repeat itself, but you might be wrong on both accounts, and what kind of abilities you really have. You’re actually judging yourself and your ability to see things differently in a way that might help, instead.

            I actually understand people’s frustration on both sides. Let people work things out rather than: “it-has-to-be-this-way-or-you’re-wrong-and-stupid.”

        • Nijinsky says:

          before it’s misunderstood what I meant when I said “how” people wear their masks: COVID goes into the lungs via the nose, not as much the mouth, and I think (but don’t quote me it just makes sense to me) that this is why the sense of taste is lost, but when people aren’t putting the mask over their nose, and it’s dangling underneath this makes it largely ineffective…. and it bothers me incredibly to see people do this, and then have this look on their face as if it’s some sort of norm to do things half, which is actually in this case worse than half

    • ken says:

      She wasn’t vaccinated.
      Get your shots, folks !

  • BRUCEB says:

    Just a reminder: nobody has claimed that the vaccines are 100% effective in preventing serious illness and hospitalization. Also, no claim has been made of 100% effectiveness in preventing reinfection. Skeptics like to pretend those claims have been made.

    The claims for effectiveness I’ve seen are all in the 90%-98% range. With the enormous number of people vaccinated, that single-digit percentage is going to add up to a number that looks substantial if you don’t compare it to the total.

    • Westfan says:

      The odds of you dying after being fully vaccinated are much, much slimmer. The odds of you even getting very ill are much, much slimmer. Especially at 51. It’s very sad. She was obviously unvaccinated.
      Get your shots and get your booster as well. Or not, and you bear the consequences.

  • Scientist says:

    How dare you use this platform to discuss vaccination. Noone knows for sure whether Aga was vaccinated or not.
    Shame on all of you who use the announcement of her death for an immediate public senseless discussion.
    If vaccination would work so well Europe would be in a different situation reg Covid right now.

  • Peter Bannister says:

    As someone who both knew Aga Mikolaj personally and had great esteem for her artistry, I urge commenters here not to try to use her passing to make broader points but to maintain a dignified silence in keeping with an article written as a tribute to a world-class performer. European hospital wards are full of both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and all deserve our sympathy rather than judgment on cases where, additionally, we know very little about individual circumstances which can be highly complex.

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