Those who believe gender fluidity is so au courant should have greater familiarity with Baroque opera.
Ewa Podleś’ repertoire was wide-ranging, encompassing Chopin, Offenbach, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Shostakovich, and Penderecki. But many of her greatest operatic parts were so-called “trouser roles.” She once cracked that she played so many men that she sometimes looked in the mirror fearing that she might be growing a mustache.
Her vocal range was extraordinary, spanning well over three octaves. She was able to conjure rich chest tones and powerful high C’s, a true coloratura contralto. Her accompanist, the pianist Garrick Ohlsson, was not the only one to describe her as “a force of nature.”
In 1975, she made her operatic debut as Dorabella in Mozart’s “Così fan tutte.” Ten years later, she appeared in Handel’s “Rinaldo” at the Met, but it would be nearly a quarter century before she returned to the New York stage.
Following a run of performances in Donizetti’s “The Daughter of Regiment” in 2017, she announced she would be taking a break to have orthopedic surgery. These turned out to be her final performances.
Her husband, the pianist Jerzy Marchwiński, died in November at the age of 88. Podleś followed on Friday. At the time of her death, she was 71 years-old. R.I.P.
“Cara sposa” from Handel’s “Rinaldo”
Sporting a full-on beard in Rossini’s “Ciro in Babilonia”
She sang women’s parts, too – from Donizetti’s “The Daughter of the Regiment”
In recital with Garrick Ohlsson