Ewa Maria Podleś (; 26 April 1952 – 19 January 2024) was a Polish coloratura contralto singer who had an active international career both on the opera stage and in recital. She was known for the agility of her voice and a vocal range which spanned more than three octaves. She excelled in Rossini roles such as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, the title role of La Cenerentola, Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri and the title role of Tancredi. She was able to perform roles that Handel had written for castratos, such as Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare. Podleś appeared on leading stages of the world and made many recordings.
Life and career
Ewa Maria Podleś was born in Warsaw on 26 April 1952. She studied at the Warsaw Academy of Music with .<!-- but only for a few performances that year (from which only two were in the Met's house), and was then absent from the Met for decades.--> repeated at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. She performed the same year at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Rosina, and as Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma in Vancouver. Her voice had a wide range, spanning more than three octaves, and was called rare in type and beauty.<!-- and has been called a "force of nature". – ref lost -->
It appears that her lowest note sung on stage is a B♭2 ("Pour une femme de mon nom" at La Scala) and her highest is a D6 ("Sudò il guerriero" from Il Ritorno di Tobia by Haydn). She also performed and gave a lot of recital, notably with her husband, later with the pianist Garrick Ohlsson and Anna Marchwiński.
In 1996, she sang the role of the Marquise de Berkenfeld in Donizetti's La fille du régiment at La Scala in Milan, Her return to the Met took place on 24 September 2008, when she sang the role of La Cieca in Ponchielli's La Gioconda.
Podleś's final performance was in La fille du régiment at Barcelona's Liceu in May 2017. On 1 June, she announced that she was pausing her singing career ahead of an upcoming orthopaedic operation, while continuing to teach and with an intention to return to performing. However, her website listed no further appearances during the remainder of her life.
Ewa Podleś was the subject of a 2015 biography, Ewa Podleś, Contralto Assoluto, written by Brigitte Cormier.
Personal life
Podleś and her husband, the pianist , lived in Warsaw. Marchwiński died on 7 November 2023. She took part in the first recording of Krzysztof Penderecki's Te Deum, conducted by the composer. Several recordings earned international awards, such as Airs Célébres a Grand Prix du Disque, Mélodies Russes (Russian songs) a Grand prix de l'Académie française); a recording of Rossini's Tancredi earned the CD Classic's "The Best Buy 1995" award and a nomination for the 1996 Grammy Award. Arias by Rossini won her both the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the "Record of the Year" 1996 award of Studio magazine. Mahler's Symphony No. 2 earned her the "Palmarés Nouvelle Académie du Disque".
- de Falla: El amor brujo with Krzysztof Penderecki
- Mozart: Requiem with Michel Corboz and L'Ensemble vocal et instrumental de Lausanne
- Offenbach: Orphée aux enfers as L'Opinion publique