Ute Walther received what was arguably the most moving tribute seven years after she retired from the stage as a singer: in 2013, she took to the stage once more – not at her former home, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, but alongside Karan Armstrong, René Kollo and Victor von Halem at the Renaissance Theatre in *Quartetto*, a play about four elderly opera singers. This evening was particularly moving because the four singers in this production represented the glittering first decade of the Götz Friedrich era – the time when Ute Walther’s star shone brightest in the singing firmament. For when the mezzo-soprano joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1986, shortly after her emigration from the GDR, she became one of the most prominent singing personalities in the ensemble almost immediately and, soon after her house debut as the Composer in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, sang an impressive array of roles ranging from Mozart to Aribert Reimann. Particularly memorable are her interpretations of Wagner’s Fricka, Waltraute and Brangäne, Strauss’s Octavian, but above all Verdi’s Maddalena, Eboli and Amneris in AIDA, whom she portrayed on 65 evenings at the Deutsche Oper Berlin alone. Over the course of 20 years, this amounted to over 600 performances – a list that also documents the shift in her final years on stage towards character roles such as Strauss’s Herodias, Kabanicha in KATJA KABANOWA, and the Witch in HÄNSEL UND GRETEL. Ute Walther passed away on 6 June following a long and serious illness. The Deutsche Oper Berlin will honour her memory.