| Biography | Maria Louise Ewing (27 March 1950-9 January 2022) was an American opera singer. In the first half of her career she performed as a lyric mezzo-soprano, but she later assumed full soprano parts. Her signature roles were Blanche, Carmen, Dorabella, Rosina and Salome. She was regarded as one of the most compelling singing actresses of her generation.
Ewing was born in Detroit, Michigan. Her mother, Hermina M. (née Veraar), was Dutch, and her father, Norman I. Ewing, was an American of Sioux Native American, Scottish, and African-American ancestry. She studied in Cleveland, Ohio and New York City.
Ewing made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1976 in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Her first European performance was at La Scala, Milan as Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. Her repertoire includes Carmen, Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Salome, Marie in Berg's Wozzeck and Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Ewing is particularly well known for her sensitive interpretation of the title role in Richard Strauss's Salome, where Oscar Wilde's stage directions for the original play specify that, at the end of the so-called Dance of the Seven Veils, Salome lies naked at Herod's feet. Ewing appeared fully nude at the end of this sequence, in contrast to other singers who have used body stockings. She also sang and appeared in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.
Ewing's discography included video versions of Salome and Carmen and audio versions of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Pelléas et Mélisande. She has also recorded concert music by Ravel, Berlioz and Debussy and programs of popular American song. She played Rosina in a Glyndebourne production of Il barbiere di Siviglia (1982).
In 1982, Ewing married the English theatre director Sir Peter Hall; during her marriage she was formally styled Lady Hall. The couple divorced in 1990. Their daughter is the actress Rebecca Hall. In 2003, Ewing lived in Sussex, England. She died of cancer at her residence near Detroit on January 9, 2022, at the age of 71. |