Contralto taking on fresh challenge in 'Il Trovatore'

By TOM STRINI
Journal Sentinel music critic
Posted: Nov. 1, 2004

Ewa Podles, a leading international concert and opera contralto, will make her Milwaukee debut Saturday, courtesy of the Florentine Opera. She will sing the weighty role of Azucena, the old gypsy whose desire for revenge piles tragedy upon tragedy in Verdi's "Il Trovatore."

Ewa Podles will perform the role of the gypsy Azucena in the Florentine Opera's production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore." The production opens Saturday at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall.

Podles and her husband, pianist / music professor Jerzy Marchwinski, are ensconced in a sunny east side apartment for their four-week stay in Milwaukee. It is their first visit.

"I like it here, it almost doesn't feel like I'm in the U.S.," she said, through her Polish accent. "Milwaukee's more like a European-sized city."

They live in Poland, when they can; mostly, Podles is on the road. She could probably make a living contracting only with the major houses of Europe, but she likes the faster, more concentrated American rehearsal schedules. And those avant-garde European stage directors often strain her patience, and more.

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