The flag’s at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu flew at half mast and its employees gathered in the principal entrance of the theatre to hold two minutes of silence for the two opera singers among the 150 people who died when a Germanwings flight crashed in the southern Alps on Tuesday.
Oleg Bryjak, 54 and Maria Radner, 34, had performed in Wagner’s Siegfried at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu on a series of dates that ended on Monday.
Bryjak had performed as Alberich while Radner, who was an alto, played the role of Erda.
“It’s been an emotionally tough blow for all of us at the theatre,” director Roger Guasch told Cadena Ser. “A production like this means you practically live together for two months.”
Today flags at half-mast at the Liceu. Thank you for all your condolences received. #GermanWingsCrash pic.twitter.com/4nppj5eAoI
— Gran Teatre Liceu (@Liceu_cat) March 25, 2015
Wednesday night’s recital by Philippe Jaroussky would be dedicated to all the victims of the Germanwings flight, he said, and in particular Bryjak and Radner.
Radner died in the crash along with her husband and baby. Born in Düsseldorf, she made her debut in January 2012 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She subsequently performed in Buenos Aires, Bonn, Rome, Geneva and Milan as well as the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in London. She performed in a broadcast of Wagner’s Das Rheingold on BBC radio in 2012.
Bryjak was born in Kazakhstan when it was part of the former Soviet Union and had performed on opera stages including those in Paris, Zurich, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Sao Paolo and Tokyo, according to his website. His repertoire was said to include more than 30 operas.
Tributes were paid to Bryjak and Radner from all corners of the music world. Violinist Karina Canellakis, assistant conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, paid tribute on Twitter. “My heart goes out to her friends and family. And all those lost today. Devastating,” she said.
Alexander Neef, the general director of the Canadian Opera Company, said Radner had been expected to sing there in the next season. “Our deepest sympathies to family, friends & colleagues of Maria Radner, Oleg Bryjak & all who lost loved ones today,” he wrote.
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