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Wigmore Hall recital
with Garrick Ohlsson:
"Ewa Podles' recital last night was one
of those rare, and very special occasions when a singer opened the lid of her soul and poured forth a stream of uninhibited
emotion. Uninhibited, by by no means uncontrolled, and with an usual level of communication between performers....A
performance of rare stature."
-theoperacritic.com, January 2008 |
Houston Grand Opera La fille du Regiment:
"An
immense asset was a cast ready and willing to play the show to the hilt. The first to hit the stage was Polish contralto
Ewa Podles as the Marquise. She played the character as a scene-chewing dominatrix, and mugged and sang with delicious
abandon but stupendous vocal skill. She dove deep into her low range, threw out a few high-voltage top notes and even
started up the Habanera from Bizet's Camen during Marie's singing lesson opening Act. 2."
The Houston Chronicle, October 27, 2007
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Mahler #3 with the Seattle Symphony:
"Ewa
Podles sang the contralto role with the depth of sound we have come to expect from this Polish singer, both at the symphony
and Seattle Opera, where she often appears. She has a remarkable voice and musicality, virtues she brought to the Mahler.
Her singing was quietly powerful and emotionally resonant. The cheers at the end of the performance were well-deserved."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 29,
2007 |
With
her distinctive, dramatic voice of staggering range, agility and amplitude, Ewa PodleÑ is widely regarded as the world=s foremost
contralto. Her engagements include the Seattle Opera (title role of Handel=s Giulio Cesare, Adalgisa in Bellini=s Norma and Erda in Wagner=s Ring cycle); San Diego Opera (Cesare); San Francisco Opera (Principessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica), Canadian Opera Company (Cesare, Jocasta in Oedipus Rex, Klytamnestra
in Elektra and title role of Rossini=s Tancredi); Houston Grand Opera (Ulrica in Verdi=s Un Ballo in Maschera and the Marquise in Donizetti=s La fille du Régiment); Dallas Opera (Bertarido in Handel=s
Rodelinda and Erda); Milwaukee=s Florentine Opera (Azucena in Verdi=s Il Trovatore), Michigan Opera Theatre (Ulrica) and Minnesota Opera (Malcolm in Rossini’s La donna
del lago) and Atlanta Opera (Azucena). She returns to the Metropolitan Opera in 2008-2009 as La Cieca
in La Gioconda. This same season includes recitals with Garrick Ohlsson in Seattle, Baltimore and
Quebec; two Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center programs (Respighi's Il Tramonto and Haydn's Arianna
a Nasso), and Mistress Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff at the Opera de Monte Carlo.
Past appearances at New York=s Carnegie Hall include Gluck=s
Orphée et Eurydice with the Oratorio Society of New York, Ulrica with the Collegiate Chorale, baroque and
Rossini programs with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Das Lied von der Erde with the Philadelphia Orchestra; and Szymanowski=s Three Hymns with Sinfonia Varsovia. She has given recitals
at Boston=s Jordan Hall, Vancouver=s Chan Centre
and on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society series, as well as sensationally received performances of Rossini=s cantata Giovanna d=Arco with the Moscow Chamber
Orchestra (in Pittsburgh and at Lincoln Center=s Avery Fisher Hall) and Toronto Symphony; and Tancredi in concert
with the Detroit Symphony under the auspices of the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which previously presented
her in recital as well as in an acclaimed, semistaged version of Orfeo. She has sung principal
roles at the Metropolitan and Vancouver and Operas; Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Deutsche Oper Berlin; Frankfurt Alte Oper;
Gran Teatre del Liceu; Teatro Bellini; La Scala; La Fenice; Teatro San Carlo; Warsaw=s National Theatre; Théâtre Châtelet and Opéra Bastille. In addition to her
rigorous operatic calendar, Mme. PodleÑ is one of the most acclaimed recital and concert performers in the world.
She has been guest soloist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan (baroque arias); the San Francisco
Symphony (for both the Verdi Requiem and Prokofiev=s Alexander Nevsky,
under Donald Runnicles and Libor Pešek, respectively); Detroit Symphony (Mahler=s Second Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde, both with Neeme Järvi); Seattle
Symphony under Gerard Schwarz (Mahler #3, which she reprisedwith them in 2006-2007); and Montreal Symphony (a Berlioz/Gluck
program under Charles Dutoit and Kindertotenlieder under Antonin Wit). Other orchestral credits
include the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and National Arts Centre Orchestras; National Orchestra of Spain;
Pittsburgh, American, Toronto, NHK Tokyo and New World Symphonies; Hong Kong and Dresden Philharmonics; under such conductors
as David Atherton, Leon Botstein, Myung-Whun Chung, Armin Jordan, Lorin Maazel, Constantine Orbelian, Alberto
Zedda and Pinchas Zukerman. A particularly acclaimed recitalist, she has been on the major art-song series
of Cleveland, Atlanta, St. Paul, Chicago, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Toronto, Moscow, Warsaw, Montreal,
San Juan, Québec and New York (Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y). Festival
invitations include New York=s Bard Festival, Aix-en-Provence, Flanders, Montpellier and Lanaudière.
At Caramoor she has sung both Azucena and Tancredi. Her many collaborations with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens
du Louvre includes two Deutsche Grammophon recordings: Handel=s
Ariodante and Gluck=s Armide. Other recent
issues include two acclaimed Delos recordings: Handel Arias and Russian Arias and on Arabesque a CD of Chopin
songs.
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