‘When I sing a concert performance, I always ask my colleagues to sing everything by heart,” the Polish contralto Ewa Podles recently said by telephone, in stilted but serviceable English, from Ann Arbor, Mich. “If I sing ‘I love you,’ I want a reaction!”

Ms. Podles, though, need not worry about getting a reaction from her audience. Few singers stir excitement among operagoers like Ms. Podles, who is acclaimed for giving the kind of towering, larger-than-life performances that are rare today. New Yorkers will get a chance to experience one when she makes her first appearance in the New York area in a year at the Caramoor International Music Festival, in Katonah, N.Y., on July 14 and 20, where she will perform in a concert version of “Il Trovatore.” “It is strange and difficult to make a drama like ‘Il Trovatore’ in a concert version,” Ms. Podles said. “Some operas, like ‘Norma’ or ‘Tancredi‚’ are perfect in concert because they are beautiful, but onstage nothing happens that is especially important. With ‘Il Trovatore’ you have to really show the emotions. It’s a challenge.”

Ms. Podles’s portrayals, though, are known for their blazing intensity. There is a distinctive, elemental quality to her voice, which is blessed with power and an awesome range. The fact that her career was long conducted outside the premier operatic centers has added to her mystique. More recently, the absence of her voice from the Metropolitan Opera House has further fueled the intrigue surrounding her.

Ms. Podles sang Handel’s “Rinaldo” at the Metropolitan Opera in 1984 and hasn’t been back since. The house has made amends and scheduled her return as La Cieca in Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda” in October 2008. “I don’t know what happened, but it’s better late than never. Maybe it’s the new one,” she said, referring to the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb. “Why did it take so long? You’ll have to ask them. I can understand if someone doesn’t like my voice, my art, my interpretation, my way of singing, my behavior. I don’t like Picasso, but that doesn’t mean he is a bad painter.”

She shrugged off the importance of her Met return. “I am so busy — too busy. I’ve been onstage 30 years, really 50, since I played Madame Butterfly’s baby when I was three years old.”

Ms. Podles, after all, hasn’t exactly stood by phone, waiting for the Met to call. Her latest role is Klytamnestra in Strauss’s “Elektra,” which she sang in Toronto. “It’s great theater, and there are so many words to interpret,” she said. “Text is so important, even if you’re repeating ‘cara sposa’ over and over in Rossini. You can sing perfect, but that’s not enough. I have to give more and more. Some people may think I exaggerate,” she said. “I try not to exaggerate, but to do what is necessary.”