Biography [July 2009]

With her distinctive, dramatic voice of staggering range, agility and amplitude, Warsaw-born and -based Ewa Podleś 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 file 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.).

In fall 2008 New York heard her triumphant return to the Metropolitan Opera as La Cieca in La Gioconda and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center debut in a program of Respighi's Il Tramonto and Haydn's Arianna a Naxos. This same season included recitals with Garrick Ohlsson in Baltimore and Quebec; and the Countess in Pique Dame 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.

Of special note were 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 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.

She is since 1978 a member of Warsaw's Teatr Wielki. In addition to her rigorous operatic calendar, Mme. Podleś 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); and Montreal Symphony (a Berlioz/Gluck program under Charles Dutoit and Kindertotenlieder under Antoni 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, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Jerzy Semkow, Constantine Orbelian, Alberto Zedda and Pinchas Zukerman.

A particularly acclaimed recitalist, she has been on the major art-song series of Cleveland, Atlanta, Vancouver, Philadelphia, St. Paul, Chicago, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Toronto, Moscow, Warsaw, Montreal, San Juan, Québec and New York (Alice Tully Hall and the 92^nd 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. Her latest release is a "live" recital with Mr. Ohlsson at the Wigmore Hall.

Mme. Podleś's vocal study was with Alina Bolechowska at Warsaw's Chopin Music Academy. Awards include top prize at Moscow's prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition.