Wagnerian stars Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner were among the 150 people on board.

Two international opera singers have died when an A320 plane crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday. Kazakhstani bass-baritone Oleg Bryjak and German contralto Maria Radner were among the 150 people on board the Germanwings plane that came down on its way from Barcelona to Düsseldorf.

The two Wagnerian singers were on their way home to Düsseldorf from Barcelona where they had just completed a run of Siegfried at the Gran Teatre del Liceu playing Alberich and Erda respectively. All passengers were killed according to French officials, who have investigated the area the plane went down between Digne and Barcelonnette.

Oleg Bryjak (54) had been a member of the ensemble at Deutsche Oper am Rhein since 1996 and appeared in Paris, Zürich, London, Los Angeles,Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Sao Paolo and Tokyo. He was specially known and praised for his portrayal of Alberich and Australian listeners may have heard him sing the role under Daniel Barenboim at the 2013 BBC Proms. He also played the role to Australian baritone John Wegner’s Wotan in the 1994 Günter Neuhold Ring Cycle with the Badische Staatskapelle.

Maria Radner (34) was apparently traveling along with her husband and baby. A singer increasingly in demand, she would be familiar to Australian audiences from the Robert Lepage’s broadcast Metropolitan Opera Götterdämmerung where she sang First Norn. She sings the role of Erda on the Janowski Pentatone Rheingold and had played the role at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden under Antonio Pappano. In August she was scheduled to make her Bayreuth Festival debut.

The Gran Teatre del Liceu who have lowered their flags to half mast tweeted: “Liceu Barcelona Opera House deeply mourns the death of Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner in #Germanwingscrash”. The opera house will observe a 2-minute silence today.

Meanwhile, a shocked opera world is coming to terms with the loss of two clearly cherished colleagues. Australian soprano Miranda Keys has paid tribute on social media to Maria Radner: “Today a dear friend and her little family left this earth too soon. Hug & tell your loved ones u love them. Life is short. #GermanWingsCrash”. In a press release, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein offered its condolences to Oleg Bryjak’s family. “We have lost a great artist and a great man in Oleg Bryjak. We are stunned,” said general director Christoph Meyer.

The plane’s black box flight recorder has been found, according to the French interior minister although the cause of the crash is still unknown and the plane did not send a distress signal.