October 19, 1998

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.