The preternatural quality of the voice of the Polish contralto Ewa Podleś, who has died aged 71, inevitably divided opinion, but the relative infrequency of her appearances in both London and New York only enhanced the significance of the occasion for her many devoted admirers. Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Podleś’ unorthodox vocalism was that her cavernous, all-engulfing instrument – dark, even elegiac in tone – was nevertheless supremely capable of negotiating the virtuoso passagework characteristic of the bel canto repertory in which she excelled.
She was a true “coloratura contralto”, her voice having a low centre of gravity, yet with a range of over three octaves. Nothing more thrilled her audiences than to hear her dipping down deep into the baritonal register, only to sail to a top D at the conclusion of an aria.
