Podleś Ewa, *26 April 1952 Warsaw, †19 I 2024, Polish singer (contralto). In 1972–78, she studied vocals with A. Bolechowska at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw. She was a laureate of international vocal competitions: 1977 in Athens (2nd prize and special prize for the performance of a Greek song) and Geneva (silver medal), 1978 in Moscow (3rd prize at the P. Tchaikovsky competition), 1979 in Rio de Janeiro (1st prize ) and Toulouse (3rd prize). In 1976, she made her debut at the Grand Theater in Warsaw (Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville), to which she was hired in 1978. In 1984, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera House (the title role in Händel’s Rinaldo) and the opera in Rome (the title role in Rossini’s Cinderella). Since then, she has performed on the most important opera stages, including the Opéra-Comique (El amor brujo by M. de Falla, 1989) and Opéra-Bastille in Paris (Dalila in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, 1991), Covent Garden Theater (Hedwig in Rossini’s William Tell, 1990), Teatro la Fenice in Venice (Arsace in Rossini’s Semiramide, 1992), La Scala in Milan (The Mother, the China Cup and the Dragonfly in Ravel’s The Child and the Spells, 1992, the title role in Rossini’s Tancred, 1993), Deutsche Oper in Berlin (Isabella in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri 1996). She performed with, among others, J. Marchwiński, E. Pobłocka, and G. Ohlsson; she took part in numerous performances of oratorio and cantata works under the baton of L. Maazel, M. Minkowski, J. Semkow, K. Penderecki (first performance of Te Deum, 1980), Ch. Hogwood, R. Chailly (Mahler’s Song of the Earth, Carnegie Hall in New York, 1999) and others. She has made numerous recordings for various labels (Polskie Nagrania, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, DG Archiv Produktion, Naxos, Forlane, CD Accord and others), with awards for recording Chopin’s Songs with Abdel Rachman el Bach (2000 Grand Prix de l’Acad. Française du Disque and Diapason d’Or), Händel’s Ariodante conducted by M. Minkowski (1998 Diapason d’Or), Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 conducted by J.- C. Casadesus (1996 Palmarès de Palmarès Nouvelle Acad, du Disque, Un Evénement Exceptionel de Telerama), Rossini’s Tancred conducted by A. Zedda (1995 Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik and American Critic’s Choice Award), Mélodies russes with pianist G. Johnson (1994 Grand Prix de l’Académie Française du Disque).
Podleś was one of the most outstanding singers of her generation. He combined an exceptionally intense and warm voice timbre with a wide range (3 octaves) and coloratura skills with extraordinary strength and depth of musical and acting interpretation. In the field of opera, her specialities were primarily virtuoso parts in works by Händel, Rossini and Gluck, including male roles (apart from the already mentioned, title roles in Giulio Cesare and Orlando and Polinesso in Händel’s Ariodante, Orpheus in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice), but also parts in operas by Verdi (Un ballo in maschera, Falstaff), Saint-Saëns (Samson and Delilah) and Bizet (Carmen). Podleś also took part in the production of 20th-century works (Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, 2000). In 2001, she included in her repertoire the role of Erda in Wagner’s Siegfried, which was enthusiastically received in the United States. In the concert repertoire (with piano or orchestra), she was particularly appreciated for her interpretations of late Romantic music (Verdi, Mahler), and especially works by Russian composers (Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovich) and Polish composers (Chopin, Szymanowski, Karłowicz, Lutosławski, Penderecki).
Literature: D. Szwarcman Razem w życiu i muzyce. Rozmowy z Ewą Podleś i Jerzym Marchwińskim, Kraków 2001.
