Opera singer Maria Ewing has died, aged 71.
Ewing was also the mother of Oscar nominated actor Rebecca Hall and a renowned performer in her own right who sang with the Royal Opera.
Among those to pay tribute to the singer was Dan Stevens, who appeared with Hall in Permission.
The Downton Abbey actor took to Instagram to share a photo of Ewing and wrote: “I will miss making you laugh. Rest in peace, Maria.”
Stevens’ relationship with the Hall family goes back two decades to when he first met Rebecca at Cambridge University.
From there, he received his first big break after being cast by Peter Hall – Rebecca’s theatre director father – in a production of As You Like It.
Hall also paid her own tribute to her mother on Instagram by posting a video of her performing.
Hall based her 2021 directorial debut, Netflix’s Passing, on her the experiences of her mother as a light-skinned Black woman who could “pass” as white.
The family also said in a statement: “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.”
The singer is survived by her daughter as well as her sisters Norma Koleta, Carol Pancratz and Francis Ewing.
