Opera Singer Maria Ewing Dies At 71

Maria Ewing, a soprano and mezzo-soprano noted for intense performances who became the wife of director Sir Peter Hall and the mother of actor-director Rebecca Hall, has lost her life at the age of 71.

Ewing passed away on Sunday at her home in Detroit, spokeswoman Bryna Rifkin disclosed this Monday.

“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,” her family said in a statement.

Born in March 1950, Ewing was the daughter of Norman Isaac Ewing and Dutch-born Hermina Maria Veraar. 

Norman’s parents, John William Ewing and Hattie Norman, were described in U.S. Census records as ‘mulatto‘, an outdated term used to describe a child born to a Black person and a white person.