Marga Höffgen was a German contralto, known for singing oratorio, especially the Passions by Johann Sebastian Bach, and operatic parts such as Erda in Wagner"s Der Ring des Nibelungen, performed at the Bayreuth Festival and Covent Garden Opera in London between 1960 and 1975.
Background
Born into a merchant family to parents Friedrich Höffgen (1899-1944) and her mother Maria, née von Eicken (1898-1944) in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Höffgen was 17 when she started studying at the Folkwangschule in Essen with Anna Erler-Schnaudt (1878–1963).
Career
Two years later, in 1939, she continued at the Musikhochschule Berlin with Hermann Weißenborn until 1942. She made her concert debut in Berlin in 1952. She was noticed internationally when she performed the alto part in Bach"s Street Matthew Passion in Vienna in 1955, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
She was identified with the part of Erda in Wagner"s Das Rheingold and Siegfried, sung first in 1959 at Covent Garden in London, and repeated at the Vienna State Opera and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires until 1975.
She sang this role at the Bayreuth Festival 1960 to 1964 and 1967 to 1975, from 1964-1975 also the First Norn in Götterdämmerung. She died in Müllheim/Breisgau.