Detroit-born opera singer Maria Ewing has died at age 71 after suffering from a “brief illness.’
The Associated Press reported that Bryna Rifkin, the singer’s spokesperson, said she died Sunday in her home in Detroit.
“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,” Ewing’s family said in a statement.
The Michigan native is the mother of actress-director Rebecca Hall and ex-wife of theater director Sir Peter Hall, the Royal Shakespeare Company founder.
Ewing’s opera career began in 1976 during her debut in the production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. While performing at the Metropolitan Opera, Ewing sang soprano and mezzo-soprano and appeared in 96 performances, ending with Berg’s 1997 opera Wozzeck.
The singer married Hall in 1982, and he directed several of Ewing’s performances throughout her career. The former couple divorced in 1990. In 2017, Hall died at age 87. Rebecca took to Instagram and posted a clip on Monday to honor her mother, The Grio reported.
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Recently, Rebecca made her directorial debut with the film Passing, which was released in 2021. The film tells the story of Irene, a black woman reunited with her childhood friend, Clare, who passes for a white woman. The two friends battled racism, identity, and jealousy while living in New York City during the 1920s. The film was based on the 1929 novel written by Nella Larsen.
During an exclusive interview with The Grio, Rebecca opened up about her family’s history with skin color assimilation after reading the novel and directing the film. She said her grandfather was a black man but often portrayed as white.
“I mean, the whole book was [triggering]. It was huge for me. The book unlocked—it really gave me an access point into the history of my family that otherwise would have remained hidden,” Hall explained. “It was enormous for my family. It remains enormous for my family. At the start of this process, I knew really very little about my grandfather, other than he was probably Black.”
She continued, “But now I know for sure that he was Black, he passed white. Moreover, his parents were Black. So he was raised Black. He was socialized Black. I [now] know things about the Black side of my family that are extraordinary, and things to be proud of that I would never have known had I not gone on this journey.”
Last year, the director said her mother’s mixed heritage helped the formation of the film, during an interview with The Guardian.
“I think in any family that has a legacy of passing, it’s very tricky, because, sadly, you inherit all of the shame and none of the pride,” she said, noting that her family’s history involving skin pigmentation was never discussed.
“I was in these fancy private English boarding schools and everyone gets picked up in Range Rovers, y’know? I’m going to and fro in a taxi and everyone looks at my mother and it’s like, ‘Ooooh! Isn’t she exotic!'”
