Poles Apart: Women in Modern Polish Culture

3. Crossing Borders and Octaves: The Polish Diva with a (Di)staff Difference

Crossing Borders and Octaves: The Polish Diva with a (Di)staff Difference* The Polish Powerhouse Helena Goscilo "It's nice not to be a prima donna." Janet Baker (British mezzo-soprano) "Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore..." Giacomo Puccini, Tasca "She's a connoisseur's secret on this side of the Atlantic. She [Podles] should be a household name." The Wall Street Journal During the last decade opera aficionados in the West finally have registered the magic of a "once in a lifetime" Polish contralto, the incomparable Ewa Podies (born April 26, 1952), whose sheer vocal power and extraordinary versatility unfailingly evoke responses of enraptured hyperbole among critics: "phenomenal," "remarkable," "riveting ," "an epiphanic experience" (Anson); "magnificent abilities," "staggering range and power," "formidable musical imagination" (Cal Performances); "magisterial command, "ravishing singing" (Burwasser ); "unique, preternatural powers," "fascinating" (Dobrin); "sovereign" (Kasow); "spectacular," "sensational," "a phenomenon" * My thanks to Bozena Shallcross for the gift of Kariski's Mistrzowie sceny operowej, to Georgette Demes for providing my first, overwhelming encounter with Podles via a CD of her Rossini arias, and to Bozenna Goscilo for her keen-eyed critique of the first draft of this article. A different order of gratitude is due David Lowe, who during our halcyon youth solidified my love of opera, shared countless musical pleasures, and taught me to appreciate his ultimate Div(in)a, Maria Callas. All translations from the Polish are mine. Helena Goscilo and Beth Holmgren, eds. Poles Apart: Women in Modern Polish Culture . Bloomington, IN: Siavica, 2006, 65- 92. (Indiana Slavic Studies, 15 .) 66 Helena Goscilo (So); "magnificent," "astounding," "uniquely gifted" (Shengold); "brilliant ," "marvelous," "amazing range and flexibility" (Citron); "electrifying ," "the thrilling vocal/focal point of the production" (Hulcoop);! and the like. A two-time Grammy nominee and the recipient of such awards as the coveted Grande Prix de L'Academie Franc;aise du Disque (for her recording of Russian songs) and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik (for her all-Rossini disc), Podies commands a stunning three-octave-plus range, a rare interpretive intelligence , and the capacity to sing lieder and operatic roles that span a dazzling stylistic spectrum. To hear her in the Baroque coloratura repertory that constitutes her calling card is to reconceive the nature of modern operatic vocalism and its potentially transformative affect (see fig. 3-1 following page 92). Virtually born into opera, Podles made her silent debut at the age of three, as Madama Butterfly'S child (Myers), and her fully-voiced adult debut in 1975 as Rosina in a Warsaw version of Rossini's II Barbiere di Siviglia. After stints in Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, and Toulouse, in the early 1980s Podles embarked on a series of engagements throughout Europe, capped by her successful North American introduction at the Met (1984) in the title role of Handel's Rinaldo as a replacement for Marilyn Horne (see fig. 3-2 following page 92)2 Thereafter , however, she unexpectedly vanished from the stage3 until a Warsaw production of Prince Igor in 1990 and, the following year, Covent Garden's staging of Rossini's Guillaume/William Tell.4 During the last ! Hu1coop devotes a third of his enthusiastic review of Bellini's Norma as staged in Seattle on March 8, 2003, to Podles's "unforgettable" singing as Adalgisa. 2 According to Podles's exacting criteria, she "wasn't great," for she "lacked experience ... [and] was timid." (Kasow). 3 From 1988 to 1991 she resided with her family in Paris, where her husband founded the Association of Polish Artists-Musicians in France (Oeszko). Podles's entire family life has been steeped in music: her mother was an alto, her sister attended the Warsaw Academy of Music, her husband and stepdaughter are both musicians. 4 According to Podies, she encountered problems with agents: her first agent and close friend, Bernard Gregoire, unexpectedly died, a personal blow that caused her to leave Paris for her native Warsaw. Subsequently her agent in the United States proved inept at arranging engagements for her. Since then Matthew Sprizzo has ensured a schedule that challenges both the clock and Podles's stoic stamina (Kasow). Crossing Borders and Octaves 67 decade, her career finally took flight; American audiences increasingly flocked to delectate her musico-dramatic pyrotechnics not only at the Met, but also in concert at various university campuses and performance halls in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere. After...