German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, circa 1965. Classical music fans are mourning the loss of Christa Ludwig, the beloved German mezzo-soprano celebrated both for her versatility and the warmth of her voice. She died at her home in Austria on April 24 at age 93. Ludwig embraced a broad range of opera roles, with her silken tones, from the battered mistress Marie in Alban Berg's modernist Wozzeck, to the cheeky pageboy Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. In a career that lasted nearly five decades, Ludwig made singing sound easy, says Anne Midgette, former classical music critic at th...