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Born: June 12, 1932 - Durban, Natal, South Africa
Died: April 27, 2026 - Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa |
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The South African soprano, Mimi Coertse, studied in Johannesburg and in Vienna.
Mimi Coertse made her debut with the on tour in Naples in 1955. She then sang in Basle and at the Teatro San Carlo in Nables. In 1957 she became a member of the Vienna State Opera from 1956 and remained on its roster until 1978. She was a guest to the Royal Opera House and Covent Garden in London, the Glyndebourne Festival, Cogne, Rome, Brussels, and other major European music centres.
Mimi Coertse sang the soprano part in J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) at Fritz Wunderlich's first appearance at Vienna in 1958, when he did the tenor arias with Julius Patzak singing the Evangelist. In 1958, Coertse and Fritz Wunderlich again worked together at the Aix-en-Provence festival in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. In 1965, she sang Konstanze in Werner Düggelin's controversial production of W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Vienna State Opera which also featured Fritz Wunderlich as Belmonte.
After 1978, Mimi Coertse continued to perform in South Africa. In later years she devoted her time to exposing young South African singers to the great but sadly neglected art of Lieder singing which can be artistically even more demanding than opera singing. Among the singers who have studied with her and/or attended her master-classes: Elsabé Richter (Soprano).
In 1996, Austria's Federal Ministry for Science and Art awarded Mimi Coertse the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (Austrian Honour, first class), the highest honour an artist can receive in that country. In 1998, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria and another in 2013 from the Unisa.[2] In 2002 she received the Golden Rathausmann from the mayor of Vienna. In 1998, she and Neels Hansen founded The Black Tie Ensemble, a development project which enables young, classically trained singers to bridge the gap between training and professional performance.
Mimi Coertse was married three times. Her first marriage, to South African composer Dawid Engela in 1953, ended in divorce in 1957. Her second marriage was to Italian businessman Diego Brighi in 1965; they divorced in 1969. Her last marriage was to a South African businessman, Werner Ackerman, from 1970 until 1994. After five miscarriages, she adopted two children, Werner and Mia. She died on April 27, 2026, at the age of 93, in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. |
