# Who's your favorite: Marilyn Horne or Ewa Podles



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

These two extraordinary singers possessing extremely rare vocal abilities have sung many of the same roles. Who do you prefer and why: Marilyn Horne and Ewa Powdles?I've heard both live but Horne was near the end of her career and in a recital so I don't think I heard her at her best. Powdles has a pronounced lisp, but I prefer the darker timbre of her voice and the greater security for her amazing high notes ( up to Eb). On the other hand Horne made it all seem so easy and when I heard Powdles in her 50's she had to move around a lot to get her enormous voice to do coloratura.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

impossible to choose, they're both great in their own ways.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

If heard Podles as Adalgisa and if I could hear either her or Horne paired with Sutherland in Norma, I'd take Horne. I guess that says something.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I prefer Ewa Podleś, because her voice doesn't have the matronish sound that prevents me from being real fan of Horne.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ you do have a point with the matronish sound (ever heard her Romeo? oi), but it's only sometimes evident and when it's not she's wonderful. I simply love her Isabella in L'italiana and in fact most of her Rossini roles.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I've heard her in Rossini most often and my lukewarm impression is largely based on her roles like Tancredi, Rosina or Isabella.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

good thing you reminded me, I'm going to check out her Tancredi, I can't remember if I heard it in its entirety yet (ha, if I did it surely did not make an impression).


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I've heard both live, though Horne was already in her fifties. 

I was thrilled by Podles singing Tancredi in Madrid back in the 1990s (she sang again the role in Madrid a few years back, but it was not the same thing), one of my best opera nights ever. Horne was also an outstanding Tancredi, of course. She was however 55 when I listened to her singing the role in Barcelona, ten years older than Podles in Madrid. If I would have to choose, and even if Horne was such a superb Tancredi, I think Podles's voice was closer to what we could dream about Adelaide Malanotte's, and she would be my election.

Apart from this role, in my view Marilyn Horne is a legendary singer, and Ewa Podles will be not.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

schigolch said:


> Apart from this role, in my view Marilyn Horne is a legendary singer, and Ewa Podles will be not.


care to elaborate?

(btw, I just listened to her 1977 Tancredi and it was excellent aside from the odd vibrato).


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I meant that Marilyn Horne is already a legend, in the operatic world. And my personal opinion is that this status is well deserved.

On the other hand, Ms. Podles is far from being so almost universally loved. She is still active, and of course we don't know what will happen ten, fifteen years from now. However, if I was required to place a bet, I would put my money that she would never reach the recognition gathered by Ms. Horne.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I forgot to say that despite the glorious vocals, Podles' acting is Krakow 1960. Horne was very believable as Carmen at least vocally.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I also feel that Podleś won't be as iconic as Horne, but that has little to do with the quality of what the two ladies are doing. In operatic pantheon, sometimes the true greatness finds itself lying under the pedestal of mediocrity. As far as possible reasons go, I suppose there might be two: Horne's long cooperation with Joan Sutherland and the association between the two and the repertoire (as far as I know, Podleś is singing somewhat less glamorous stuff). 

And, by the way, what's with the "Powdles" - if you're actually pronouncing the English "w", I have no idea where it came from, but I assure you no such phone can be found in the sound of her name with best intentions.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Well, there are other possible reasons, to my ears.

Ms. Podles's voice is a *miracle*, but her timbre is so different in the low notes and the high notes, that in her worst moments she is almost two singers in one. The colour of her low notes is also not immediately likable. Her legato, especially when there are quick zone changes in the score, is not precisely flawless. The emission is 'cupa', with the occasional abuse of the glottis. On the other hand, she has stupendous breath control, and is (or rather, was, she is already 60 years old) capable of amazing coloratura for such a big voice.

When I heard her Tancredi for the first time, in 1997. I was amazed... To me, it was going back all the way to 1813 and listen to Malanotte. A dream. An operatic dream, but a dream nonetheless. I *never* go to visit the singers after a performance, but this time I did, just to say 'thanks'. Then again, in 2007 she was no longer capable of such incredible vocal feats. But the way she was able to sing with an almost Spartan sobriety, being still such a good portrait of a young and idealistic warrior, a true hero, was really touching.

But as much as I love Ms. Podles singing Tancredi, I'm afraid many people are not ready to forget her shortcomings (or, at least, what they perceive as her shortcomings), for the sake of her (great) virtues.

On the other hand, Ms. Horne is just short of perfection in many roles she had tackled. And even in roles that are difficult for her, such as Azucena, listen to the way she performs exactly what's written in the score here:






I was surprised by reading that Ms. Horne was sounding rather motherly as Adalgisa. Well, I'm one for giving back to Adalgisa her true self as a 'seconda donna', a soprano lighter and more lyrical than Norma. True, we have heard many mezzos singing Adalgisa, that would fit better unloading cargo in a wharf, than playing around with a Roman official in the Gallic forests. But Ms. Horne's timbre, if not (in my view) the ideal one for the role, was however able to produce some almost ethereal, pure, crystalline singing.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

schigolch said:


> Well, I'm one for giving back to Adalgisa her true self as a 'seconda donna', a soprano lighter and more lyrical than Norma. True, we have heard many mezzos singing Adalgisa, that would fit better unloading cargo in a wharf, than playing around with a Roman official in the Gallic forests.


I concur, even as a big fan of mezzos. Some roles just ain't for them, no matter how you slice it.

cheers for expounding. I really enjoy Podles for what she is (so different than other singers) and to me there is no way such a unique singer won't enter legend, although I concede she's more likely to get a niche of the legend.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

This is a compilation of Ewa Podles range from the second B below Middle C to high Eb. Truly amazing!!!!! Wisdom would advise her not to sing with those powerful chest notes as it might ruin her voice, but she is nearly 60, still singing wonderfully, and can still blow one away!!!!!


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