Biography
With a vocal span exceeding three octaves and a timbre both dark and remarkably flexible, contralto Ewa Podleś earned renown in demanding bel canto parts as well as other principal roles from nineteenth-century Italian opera. Her technique readily accommodated the growing frequency of Baroque revivals, allowing her to take on the substantial castrato assignments composed by Handel and his contemporaries.
Podleś entered the world in Warsaw on April 26, 1952, although 1954 was sometimes listed as her birth year; her mother likewise possessed a contralto voice. She trained at the Warsaw Academy of Music under Alina Bolechowska. Performances began while she was still a student, with her first appearance at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw occurring in 1975, when she sang Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Following several important competition successes, among them first prize at the 1977 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, she joined the Grand Theatre roster in 1984; that same year, however, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the title role of Handel’s Rinaldo, after which she refrained from Polish engagements for a period.
Her first recording, Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice on the Forlane label, appeared in 1994. In 1996 she made her La Scala debut as the Marquise de Berkenfeld in Donizetti’s La fille du Régiment; that year also saw the release of her solo recital Airs Célèbres on Forlane and Rossini: Arias for Contralto on Naxos. By the turn of the century she had become an internationally prominent figure, celebrated for a singularly dark, smoky tonal quality that nonetheless permitted exceptional agility.
Rossini’s contralto parts, several of them trouser roles, formed one of her core specializations, as did Baroque opera seria, yet her repertory extended widely. She frequently programmed Chopin’s infrequently heard songs and captured some of them on a live recording with pianist Garrick Ohlsson. Later she turned regularly to Verdi’s operas and issued a collection of Russian arias on the Delos label in 2002. Her Italian interests reached as far as the vocal works of Ottorino Respighi. Contemporary music formed only a small part of her activity, though she did record major vocal and choral pieces by Krzysztof Penderecki and Witold Lutosławski. Her discography ultimately exceeded fifty entries, culminating in the live album World Opera Stars: Ewa Podleś with the Poznán Philharmonic, released in 2015. Podleś’s last performance at the Liceu in Barcelona took place in 2017; she succumbed to lung cancer in Warsaw on January 19, 2024.
Podleś entered the world in Warsaw on April 26, 1952, although 1954 was sometimes listed as her birth year; her mother likewise possessed a contralto voice. She trained at the Warsaw Academy of Music under Alina Bolechowska. Performances began while she was still a student, with her first appearance at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw occurring in 1975, when she sang Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Following several important competition successes, among them first prize at the 1977 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, she joined the Grand Theatre roster in 1984; that same year, however, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the title role of Handel’s Rinaldo, after which she refrained from Polish engagements for a period.
Her first recording, Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice on the Forlane label, appeared in 1994. In 1996 she made her La Scala debut as the Marquise de Berkenfeld in Donizetti’s La fille du Régiment; that year also saw the release of her solo recital Airs Célèbres on Forlane and Rossini: Arias for Contralto on Naxos. By the turn of the century she had become an internationally prominent figure, celebrated for a singularly dark, smoky tonal quality that nonetheless permitted exceptional agility.
Rossini’s contralto parts, several of them trouser roles, formed one of her core specializations, as did Baroque opera seria, yet her repertory extended widely. She frequently programmed Chopin’s infrequently heard songs and captured some of them on a live recording with pianist Garrick Ohlsson. Later she turned regularly to Verdi’s operas and issued a collection of Russian arias on the Delos label in 2002. Her Italian interests reached as far as the vocal works of Ottorino Respighi. Contemporary music formed only a small part of her activity, though she did record major vocal and choral pieces by Krzysztof Penderecki and Witold Lutosławski. Her discography ultimately exceeded fifty entries, culminating in the live album World Opera Stars: Ewa Podleś with the Poznán Philharmonic, released in 2015. Podleś’s last performance at the Liceu in Barcelona took place in 2017; she succumbed to lung cancer in Warsaw on January 19, 2024.
Albums
Live
