Marga Höffgen

Marga Höffgen studied at Folkwang University of the Arts and Berlin University of the Arts. The recorded working language is German. Distinctions recorded are Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and Ruhrpreis for Arts and Science.

• Name — Marga Höffgen • Born — 26 April 1921 • Birthplace — Mülheim, Germany • Died — 7 July 1995 • Place of death — Müllheim (Baden), Germany • Education — * Folkwangschule • Musikhochschule Berlin • Occupation — Classical contralto • Title — Kammersängerin • Awards — Order of Merit

Höffgen was born in Mülheim on 26 April 2012 into a merchant family to parents Friedrich Höffgen (1899–1944) and Maria née von Eicken (1898–1944). Höffgen was age 17 when she started studying at the Folkwangschule in Essen with Anna Erler-Schnaudt. Two years later, in 1939, she continued at the Musikhochschule Berlin with Hermann Weißenborn until 1942. In 1943, she was contracted by the Staatsoper Dresden, but did not start because she was pregnant with her second child. She made her concert debut in Berlin in 1952. She was noticed internationally when she performed the alto part in Bach's St Matthew Passion in Vienna in 1955, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. She sang the alto part in Beethoven's Missa solemnis at the Proms with the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Chorus twice, in 1966 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Doráti, alongside Heather Harper, Alexander Young and Ernst Wiemann, and in 1970 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Eugen Jochum, alongside Elizabeth Harwood, Ernst Haefliger and Karl Ridderbusch. Höffgen was identified with the role 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 appeared in this role at the Bayreuth Festival from 1960 to 1964 and from 1967 to 1975, and from 1964 to 1975 she also performed there as the First Norn in Götterdämmerung.

In 1941, at 20 years of age she married conductor Theodor Egel (1915–1993) while still in Mülheim an der Ruhr. She had four children, Hans-Peter (1941), Martin (1944), Barbara and Thomas (1947). Martin Egel also became a singer. Höffgen died in Müllheim (Baden).