(Credit: © Claudia Heysel)

Dutch soprano Angelina Ruzzafante has died at the age of 57 after a long illness.

Ruzzafante studied at the Maastricht conservatory and in 1992 won the first prize in the Cristina Deutekom Competition and the Gre Bouwenstijn Competition in Hertogenbosch.

She went on to perform in Germany as well as China and South America and in Dessau. She went on to sing such operas as “Le Nozze di Figaro, “The Magic Flute,” and “La bohème.” Her repertoire also included music by Bach, Vivaldi, Mahler, Wagner, Wolf-Ferrari, Silvana, and Weber.

One of her most memorable performances came at the World Cycling Championships in Limburg in 2012.