Ewa Podleś

The one and only Ewa Podleś sings Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky.

Things to like

This, "Di tanti palpiti" from Tancredi, was Rossini's first big hit.



Horne

Annotated.  I hear a more leggiero technique than I thought before.  If you listen to the same music a lot, gradually it changes.  Almost all of how Horne's voice sounds is due to her technique, a magical combination of low, exquisitely floated larynx and high in the mask placement.  This sounds most like a nasal whine, but it is this whine that makes everything else possible.  Somewhere I explained all this.



Kasarova

I included this because it is simply amazing.  She sings with this low throatiness that you or I would not be able to turn into coloratura.  You cannot help feeling that she is laughing at us.  You cannot help wondering what the words mean:

"Oh Homeland! Sweet and ungrateful homeland! At last
I come back to you! I greet you, oh dear
land of my ancestors: I kiss you. This is
for me a happy day:
My heart begins to breath in my chest.
Amenaide! My suave thought,
the only cause of my sighs,
of my vows, at last I came; I want to earn you,
defying my fate, whatever it was,
or die, my soul.
You who kindle this heart,
you who awake my valour,
blessed glory, sweet love,
heed my desire,
may an impious traitor fall,
crown my faith.
For all these heartbeats,
for all these pains,
from you, my beloved,
I hope for mercy.
You'll see me again...
I'll see you again...
in your beautiful radiance
I will have plenty.
Delires- sighs...
happy voices!...
It will be glad, my heart tells me,
my destiny - near to you."

I think.  She is playing with them.  One would never question whether or not Kasarova was sufficiently mad.  Sorry, the film I posted before, my favorite, has gone. Here is another.



 

Podleś

Ewa is simply a miracle.  There never was or ever will be anything like her.

I find this set of recordings fascinating.  I consider each of them spectacular in her own way.



I find I cannot leave this without including the very early Bartoli version.  She never possessed the wonderful weight of the others.  The fascination with her lies in the details of the coloratura and the spectacular length of her phrases.

I love them all and would not want the singing world to exist without all this variety.

Just Listen

These come and go.  This one is 1999 with Chailly.

Der Abschied. The final movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Brought to you by the earth herself.

Der Abschied

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge.
In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
Mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.
O sieh! Wie eine Silberbarke schwebt
Der Mond am blauen Himmelssee herauf.
Ich spüre eines feinen Windes Wehn
Hinter den dunklen Fichten!

Der Bach singt voller Wohllaut durch das Dunkel.
Die Blumen blassen im Dämmerschein.
Die Erde atmet voll von Ruh und Schlaf,
Alle Sehnsucht will nun träumen.
Die müden Menschen gehn heimwärts,
Um im Schlaf vergessnes Glück
Und Jugend neu zu lernen!
Die Vögel hocken still in ihren Zweigen.
Die Welt schläft ein!

Es wehet kühl im Schatten meiner Fichten.
Ich stehe hier und harre meines Freundes;
Ich harre sein zum letzten Lebewohl.
Ich sehne mich, o Freund, an deiner Seite
Die Schönheit dieses Abends zu genießen.
Wo bleibst du? Du lässt mich lang allein!
Ich wandle auf und nieder mit meiner Laute
Auf Wegen, die vom weichen Grase schwellen.
O Schönheit! O ewigen Liebens, Lebens trunkne Welt!

Er stieg vom Pferd und reichte ihm den Trunk
Des Abschieds dar. Er fragte ihn, wohin
Er führe und auch warum es müsste sein.
Er sprach, seine Stimme war umflort:

"Du, mein Freund,
Mir war auf dieser Welt das Glück nicht hold!
Wohin ich geh? Ich geh, ich wandre in die Berge.
Ich suche Ruhe für mein einsam Herz.
Ich wandle nach der Heimat, meiner Stätte.
Ich werde niemals in die Ferne schweifen.
Still ist mein Herz und harret seiner Stunde!

Die liebe Erde allüberall
Blüht auf im Lenz und grünt
Aufs neu! Allüberall und ewig
Blauen licht die Fernen!
Ewig... ewig..."

The Farewell

The sun goes down behind the mountain,
Into all the valleys the evening descends
And brings cooling shades.
O see! Like a silver bark
The moon floats up the blue lake of heaven.
I feel a gentle breeze stirring
Behind the dark spruce.

The brook sings melodiously through the darkness.
The flowers grow pale in the gloaming.
The earth is breathing, full of peace and sleep.
All longing now turns into dreams.
Tired men make for home,
In sleep to recapture forgotten happiness
And youth!
The birds hold still in the branches.
The world is falling asleep.

A cool wind blows in the shadow of the spruce.
I stand here waiting for my friend;
I wait to bid him a last farewell.
I long, my friend, at your side
To enjoy the beauty of this evening.
Where do you linger? You have left me alone for so long!
I wander up and down with my lute
On paths soft with swelling grass.
O beauty! O deep love, so drunk with life!

He dismounted his horse and proffered
the parting glass. I asked him where
He was going and why it had to be.
He said, voice trembling:

"O my friend,
In this world fortune was hard on me.
Where I am going? I am going to wander into the mountains.
I seek peace for my lonely heart.
I am making for home, for my resting place.
I will never roam into strange lands.
My heart is still and awaits its hour.

The dear earth everywhere
Blossoms in spring and grows green
Anew! Everywhere, forever,
Blue lights the horizon!
Forever... forever... "

Contraltos, whoever you are, listen only to Ewa Podleś. There is a deep mystery to her voice that I have never heard in any other artist. She is a magnificent bass clarinet, a sound like no other. And here she is in the most deeply mysterious piece ever written. How could such sad words achieve such ecstasy?

Previously my favorite has been Janet Baker in this piece. Janet is wonderful, but she is a bit too much in her head, if you know what I mean.

And the audio is so good. How is this even possible in a live performance? I can die now.

Blogging

Doris Day's "Over the rainbow" has gone dark on me, so I removed it. She was an icon of my generation who is not heard enough today.

I should probably stop posting Renée Fleming singing American pop songs, but I do so love them. She is a master.

The posted track from Sacrificium has also gone black, so I posted a different one. Generally when a film is taken down, a replacement immediately appears. Not always.

And this is the miracle that is Ewa Podleś.

Trittico Magnifico

I got bored with electronic music and looked around for something else to do. My Opera season did not include Puccini's Il Trittico with Patricia Racette playing all the soprano parts and the great Polish contralto Ewa Podleś as the Princess. Lucky me, it was playing Friday night, and I could get a senior rush ticket.

This was Ewa's San Francisco Opera debut. She was scheduled for Ariodante but canceled. Please come back. She is a treasure.

This is the first time I have been to an opera performance that billed two contraltos: Ewa bills herself as a contralto, but so does Meredith Arwady whom I have seen in Daphne at Santa Fe and as Pasqualita in Doctor Atomic in the Met simulcast. She has a fascinating sound. Good luck.

Magnificent in the dual roles of Michele in Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi was Paolo Gavanelli. He was both very funny and terrifying (in the appropriate places--not very funny as Michele and terrifying as Schicchi).


But it is Patricia Racette who carries the load. She must be mature but still attractive for Il Tabarro, young but troubled for Suor Angelica and childlike for Gianni Schicchi. I must say she was successful in all. It was a pleasure to see and hear her.

This was a relatively spare modern production which worked for me. It was the least sentimental Suor Angelica imaginable. The nunnery was portrayed as a children's hospital, so Suor Angelica sees one of them as she is dying.


The house that Gianni Schicchi acquires is apparently in a high rise next door to the Duomo in Florence. It's the funniest version I have seen.

The audience was very enthusiastic, with lots of shouting, especially for Patricia, Paolo and Ewa. I shouted too.

Mezzos doing Handel

Mezzo-sopranos singing Handel arias on YouTube. Most of them don't seem to have pictures. These are arranged in a not precise order of ascending weight.


Cecilia Bartoli singing "Da tempeste" from Giulio Cesare. I don't know if this counts since she's singing Cleopatra. In a proper comparison she would have to be singing a castrato part. This is a pirate recording from Zurich.


Vivica Genaux singing "Spero per voi, si, si" from Ariodante.


Anna Bonitatibus singing "Un pensiero nemico di pace".  I've seen her in Zurich and like her a lot. 


I have added Susan Graham just ahead of Joyce singing "Verdi Prati" from Alcina. She has one of the most beautiful mezzo voices around.


Joyce Di Donato singing "Where shall I fly?" from Hercules. Joyce is definitely growing on me. This is awesome.


Vesselina Kasarova singing "Mi lusinga il dolce affetto" from Alcina. **This is now a different aria also from Alcina. The closeups are priceless.


Alice Coote singing Sesto's "Cara speme, questo core" from Giulio Cesare.


Ewa Podleś singing "Dover, giustizia, amor" from Ariodante. This is what we missed when she didn't come to San Francisco.

Does this tell you anything about technique in the time of Handel? I always feel Handel in the mezzo Fach is pitched all wrong for women, but these particular women seem to be handling it well. Pun intended.

Shopping

I can't think when I have had a more successful trip to a record store than yesterday. I like all of it very much, including:

Rosa Ponselle arias and songs. The digital remastering of old 78's is really good now. It is fascinating to hear her "Casta Diva." We lose awareness of the icons in our past, but this version does not know of Maria Callas, and rushes forward where Maria would have held back, achieves an equally interesting but completely different interpretion. No contemporary singer would think of doing anything this different.

Ewa Podleś. Ach! A true contralto, that rarest of all voices. The recording is just called "Ewa Podleś, Garrick Ohlsson, Live." You have to hear this to believe it, especially the Mussorgsky "Songs and Dances of Death," done in Russian. Ewa is Polish, and the recording was made in Poland. If you haven't heard her, I guarantee you have never heard anything like the sound of her voice. Her style is also quite interesting, somewhat rough, like her voice.

Dawn Upshaw singing Ayre, a song cycle with a sound that isn't at all like classical music. Klesmer is what I would have called it. It is ethnic in language and style, and Dawn Upshaw achieves this. I have read on the internet people complaining about Dawn Upshaw, wondering why she is there when others have more beautiful voices. There are two things: voice and style. There is nothing wrong with her voice, but that isn't why she's here. Apparently nothing is too hard for her. She achieved cult status with her performance of Gorecki's Third symphony, a musically awesome performance. She was unbelievable in L'Amour de loin, a work with virtually no toe holds, no musical landmarks to orient yourself to, nothing but the ever flowing ocean below you. Everything turns to music in her hands.

Gramophone Issue 1000. Their list of the 100 greatest recordings of all time includes a few of my favorites, including the Bjoerling and de los Angeles La Boheme I recommended everyone should buy. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is in the list for Der Rosenkavalier and the Four Last Songs of Strauss. These choices are called controversial. The author says yes, I know this is controversial, but I still like it. It isn't told why they are controversial. Somebody somewhere doesn't like Schwarzkopf. I wouldn't doubt that you could find fuller voices to sing these notes, but she is the point of departure, the standard for performance of these works for her grace, for her emotional presence in the moment.

The list hasn't nearly enough opera, contains nothing by Bellini or Donizetti. I grew up on De Los Angeles' "Les Nuits d'Été" and not Regine Crespin's. I have always preferred Janet Baker's Das Lied von der Erde and not the more historical version by Bruno Walter, considered the definitive interpreter of Mahler. If you learn to love a particular recording, you are not likely ever to change.

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