Contralto Ewa Podles to Perform at Middlebury

College Center for the Arts on Nov. 4

“She’s a connoisseurs’ secret on this side

of the Atlantic. She should be a household name.” —The Wall

Street Journal

“By the end of her second aria, the atmosphere

in the hall was one of astonishment and hysteria. You could hear

her praises being shouted from the back of the second balcony.”—Opera

News

With a voice that Opera News has called “something

from the golden age,” contralto Ewa Podles will perform songs

by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Brahms, Karlowicz, and Schumann on Wednesday,

Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Middlebury College

Center for the Arts on Route 30. Pianist Jerzy Marchwinski will

accompany her. This performance offers Vermonters an opportunity

to hear Podles at far lower ticket prices than New York audiences

will have paid just one week earlier.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “the contralto

… is currently a great rarity on our concert and opera stages.”

The New Yorker concurs, claiming “rare indeed are these deep-toned

songbirds, and the Polish singer Ewa Podles may be the rarest

of them all, with her velvety, organlike tones taking on the brilliance

of a trumpet as she rises through her three-octave range.”

An altogether riveting recitalist, Podles has offered

programs at London’s Wigmore Hall, Paris’ Salle Gaveau, and San

Francisco’s Herbst Theater. Just prior to her appearance at Middlebury

College, she will have performed in a recital in New York’s Alice

Tully Hall on Oct. 18.

Also before coming to the College, on Oct. 25, Podles,

who is renowned as a bel-canto singer as well, will sing Rossini

arias with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She

has also sung the title role of Rossini’s “Tancredi”

at La Scala and the Staatsoper Berlin; Handel’s “Rinaldo”

at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Paris’ Théâtre

Châtelet; and Dalila at Paris’ Opéra Bastille.

Podles’ appearance at the College is part of a recital

tour that includes New York, Buffalo, Ithaca, Washington, D.C.,

Atlanta, Ann Arbor, Cleveland, and Toronto.

Tickets for this Middlebury College Concert Series

performance are $9.00 general admission and $7.00 for senior citizens.

A pre-performance dinner at 6 p.m. at the Rehearsals Cafe in the

Center for the Arts is also available. To order tickets or make

dinner reservations, please call the College box office at 802-443-6433.