Germanwings plane crash: Oleg Bryjak given posthumous honour

25 March 2015, 09:59 | Updated: 6 January 2017, 14:45

The German baritone has been given the title of Ehrenmitglied (honorary member) by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, along with the mayors of Düsseldorf and Duisburg.

The opera singers Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner were among those who died in the Germanwings Flight 9525 plane crash in the French Alps on 24 March.

Bryjak, who sang regularly with the Deutsche Oper am Rein, has now been posthumously honoured with the title of 'honorary member' by the opera company and the mayors of Düsseldorf and Duisburg.

Bryjak and Radner were on a return flight from Barcelona after performing in Wagner's Siegfried at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. They had played the roles of Alberich and Erda in the opera.

They were also travelling with Radner's husband and child, who also died in the crash.

Watch Bryjak and Radner performing Siegfried in Barcelona:

Deutsche Oper Am Rhein, where Bryjak was a regular performer, posted a message of condolence to their Facebook page:

A bass-baritone, Bryjak (54) was originally from Kazakhstan, and had performed a large repertoire of operas with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim and Sir Simon Rattle.

Radner, 34, was an esteemed contralto and had performed across the world under the batons of Antonio Pappano, Christian Thielemann and more. She made her Met Opera debut in 2012 in Wagner's Götterdämmerung.

Tributes from the opera world have been made across Twitter.

Today our hearts go out to Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner's families. Two wonderful artists; a great loss to the world.

— Garsington Opera (@GarsingtonOpera) March 25, 2015

Our thoughts are with the family, friends & colleagues of Oleg Bryjak & Maria Radner and all who lost loved ones in the German Wings crash.

— The Opera Awards (@TheOperaAwards) March 24, 2015

Liceu Barcelona Opera House deeply mourns the death of Oleg Bryjak and Maria Radner in #GermanWingsCrash (1/2) pic.twitter.com/RYPmUhmyQD

— Gran Teatre Liceu (@Liceu_cat) March 24, 2015

The Germanwings flight was carrying 144 passengers, all of whom died in the crash. The plane, an Airbus A320, came down in a remote region of the French Alps, and has proved inaccessible to most vehicles.