Ewa Podles

Ewa Podleś

Ewa Podleś ([ˈɛva ˈpɔdlɛɕ]; born April 26, 1952) is a Polish coloratura contralto singer who has had an active international career both on the opera stage and in recital. She is known for the agility of her voice and a vocal range which spans more than three octaves.

Podleś was born in Warsaw, Poland, and after studying at the Warsaw Academy of Music underAlina Bolechowska, made her stage debut as Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville in 1975. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut on February 14, 1984, singing the title role in Handel's Rinaldo, but only for a few performances that year (from which only two were in the Met's house), and was notably absent from the Met for more than 24 years, since then pursuing her career elsewhere and performing regularly at many other opera houses in Europe and America. In 1996, she sang the part of the Marquise de Berkenfeld in Donizetti's La fille du régiment at La Scala, a performance which has been preserved on DVD.Her return to the Met took place on September 24, 2008, when she sang the role of La Cieca in Ponchielli's La Gioconda.

Though known mainly for her interpretation of Baroque works, Podleś's repertoire ranges from Handel's Giulio Cesare (Cesare) to songs by Shostakovich. However, the coloratura contralto roles (some of them trouser roles) in Rossini's operas have been central to her repertoire. Critics have noted the expressive power of her voice and her ability to cope with the florid singing demanded of Rossini's heroes and heroines. Her voice has a wide range, spanning more than three octaves and has been called a "force of nature".

Her recent performances include roles of La Cieca in La Gioconda, Bertarido in Handel's Rodelinda, the title role in Rossini's Tancredi, the title role in Handel's Giulio Cesare, Isabella in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, Erda in Wagner's Ring Cycle (at the Seattle Opera), Klytämnestra in Richard Strauss's Elektra (with the Canadian Opera Company), Madame de la Haltière in Massenet's Cendrillon (at London's Royal Opera House), and the title role in Rossini's Ciro in Babilonia (in the work's US premiere at the Caramoor International Music Festival in July 2012 and at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, in August 2012). Podleś was scheduled to sing Azucena in Verdi's Il trovatore at the Atlanta Opera in 2009, but withdrew.

After a seemingly final run of La fille du régiment at Barcelona's Liceu in May 2017,Podleś announced that, from 1 June, she was going to interrupt temporarily her stage career due to an upcoming orthopaedic operation, while carrying on, however, with her teaching activity. Yet, according to the singer's official website no further theatrical appearances are scheduled in 2018 and 2019.

Podleś and her husband, the pianist Jerzy Marchwiński [pl], live in Warsaw.

Audio CD

• Airs Célèbres (Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell, Gluck, and Marcello) with Patrick Peire [nl]
• Chopin: Mélodies with Abdel Rahman El Bacha
• Chopin: Songs with Garrick Ohlsson
• de Falla: El amor brujo with Krzysztof Penderecki
• Duets (Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann) with Joanna Kozłowska and Jerzy Marchwinski (piano)
• Gluck: Armide as La Haine with Marc Minkowski
• Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice as Orfeo with Peter Maag
• Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice as Orphée with Patrick Peire
• Handel Arias from Rinaldo and Orlando with Constantin Orbelian
• Handel: Ariodante as Polinesso with Marc Minkowski
• Mahler: Symphony No. 2: "Resurrection" with Jean-Claude Casadesus
• Mahler: Symphony No. 3 with Antoni Wit
• Mozart: Requiem with Michel Corboz and L'Ensemble vocal et instrumental de Lausanne
• Offenbach: Orphée aux enfers as L'Opinion publique
• Penderecki: Seven Gates of Jerusalem with Kazimierz Kord
• Penderecki: Te Deum and Lacrimosa
• Ewa Podleś & Garrick Ohlsson Live
• Marta Ptaszynska: Concerto for Marimba; Songs of Despair and Loneliness
• Prokofiev: Alexandr Nevsky with Jean-Claude Casadesus
• Puccini: Il trittico with Bruno Bartoletti
• Respighi: Il Tramonto with Michał Nesterowicz [gl; ru]
• Rossini Arias for Contralto with Pier Giorgio Morandi
• Rossini Gala with Wojciech Michniewski [pl]
• Rossini: Tancredi as Tancredi with Alberto Zedda
• Russian Melodies with Constantin Orbelian
• A Treasury of Polish Songs with Ewa Pobłocka [pl]

DVD

• Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto as Cornelia from Barcelona Opera
• Donizetti: La fille du régiment as Marquise de Berkenfeld
• Ponchielli: La Gioconda as La Cieca from Barcelona Opera
• Rossini: Ciro in Babilonia as Ciro from Pesaro Rossini Opera Festival
• Massenet: Cendrillon as Madame de la Haltière from Royal Opera Covent Garden
• Tchaikovsky: The Queen of Spades as the Countess from a 2011 production of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona