Among the passengers of the Germanwings plane that crashed Tuesday in the French Alps were opera singers Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner.
Among his credits, the 54-year-old Bryjak, a bass baritone from Kazakhstan, starred as Alberich in Wagner’s Ring cycle at Lyric Opera of Chicago appearing in “Das Rheingold,” “Siegfried” and “Gotterdamerung” from 2003 through 2005.
According to a story on wqxr.com: “The singers were traveling to their homes in Düsseldorf from Barcelona, where they had played Alberich and Erda, respectively, in Wagner’s ‘Siegfried at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.’”
In her 2005 review of “Das Rheingold,” critic Wynne Delacoma wrote: “Everyone in this ‘Ring’ cycle, from Oleg Bryjak’s wronged, black-hearted Alberich and the giants Fasolt and Fafner (Andrea Silvestrelli and Raymond Aceto) to the Rhine maidens, the Valkyries and the earth goddess Erda (Jill Grove), sings with a seamless, lyrical undercurrent. Wagner can be barked, screamed and screeched. This week at Lyric, he is being truly and gloriously sung.”
French officials confirmed that everyone aboard the Germanwings Airbus A320 died when the plane crashed on its way from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.
