Polish contralto brings signature Rossini role of ‘Tancredi’ to Boston

Contralto Ewa Podles in Rossini: A force of nature

BOSTON — Late in the second act of Rossini’s “Tancredi,” Ewa Podles lets forth a prolonged F below middle C — a note of such visceral power and purity that its resonance seems to pin the audience back in their seats.

It’s typical of the vocal feats that make the Polish contralto a force of nature, virtually unmatched among today’s opera singers. Her immense voice reaches more than two octaves, reaching up near high C but coming into its true glory in the lower depths.

And in Rossini’s youthful opera, written in 1813 when he was just 19, she has a perfect vehicle for displaying her talents, as she did Tuesday night at the Cutler Majestic Theatre.

“Tancredi” was an almost immediate hit, becoming so wildly popular that the tune from the aria “Di tanti palpiti” was sung and whistled in the streets of Italy the way “La donna e mobile” from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” would be two generations later. Though the opera faded along with most of Rossini’s other works, it has been revived in recent decades by such singers as Marilyn Horne and is one of the few works still in the modern repertory in which a contralto is the star.

So it’s natural that the title role of Tancredi, an exiled warrior in 11th-century Syracuse, has been a mainstay of Podles’ repertory during a career that spans more than 40 years. Age may be beginning to rob her voice of some freshness and flexibility, but she has not lost her cavernous sound and is still equal to the coloratura demands of Rossini’s music.

She could not have had a better partner than her Opera Boston co-star, Amanda Forsythe. As Amenaide, Tancredi’s beloved (and, in this production, pregnant with his child!), Forsythe displays a silvery light soprano that contrasts beautifully with Podles’ plummy tones. She is also an expert bel canto technician, tossing off Rossini’s acrobatics with ease. The duets in which their voices blended magically together were the high point of the evening.

The rest of the cast also lent terrific support. Tenor Yeghishe Manucharyan coped well with the difficult demands of the role of Argirio, Amenaide’s father, who, through the convolutions of the plot, condemns his own daughter to death. Bass DongWon Kim impressed with smooth, powerful singing as Orbazzano, who schemes to marry Amenaide before he falls victim to Tancredi’s righteous wrath. Gil Rose conducted the Opera Boston orchestra in a well-paced performance.

Director Kristin McIntyre updated the action to Europe in the 1930s in a partly successful attempt to make the machinations of the plot seem relevant. The opera, adapted from a then-popular tragedy by Voltaire, was originally written with a happy ending in which Tancredi and Amenaide are reunited. Opera Boston chose the revised tragic ending, which afforded Podles a poignant death scene to conclude the evening on a somber note.

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