Mimi Coertse died on April 27. (Photo: Lizet du Plessis/Facebook)
The South African opera legend, Mimi Coertse, died on Monday evening at the age of 93 in her home in Pretoria.
Lizet du Plessis, Coertse’s longtime friend and carer, confirmed this news to Maroela Media on Tuesday morning.
“She died peacefully in her sleep just before nine o’clock. It was just old age, she was very weak here towards the end,” Du Plessis said.
“Of course I’m sad, we all are, but I’m also happy, because she’s in a better place now and I know she’s singing with the angels in a choir up there.”
Coertse was born on 12 June 1932 in Durban and in 1951 at the age of 19 performed for the first time in the Plastic Theater with the late Gé Korsten.
However, her career as an opera singer reached new heights, after she got a permanent position at the Vienna State Opera House in 1953.
Her career reached different heights after this. Her name was, among other things, synonymous with her role in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In this she played the “Queen of the Night”.
In the end, Coertse played this role between 1955 and 1962 more than 500 times in total – in various places, in four languages.
She was also honored by the President of Austria with the title of Kammersängerin in 1966 for ten years of leading roles in the Vienna State Opera.
She has also performed in the main opera houses in, among others, Basel, Berlin, Vienna and Naples, Geneva, The Hague, London and Salzburg.
In her diary she wrote: “Sing, and that’s all life is!” and also: “What’s left for me in my life? My singing career – oh, and everything that’s wonderful.”