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<\/a><\/p>\nHer funeral at Warsaw\u2019s Pow\u0105zki cemetery, a burial ground for many Polish celebrities, drew hundreds of fans of her powerful voice that spanned four octaves. They came with flowers, her picture, and the national white-and-red flag with a black ribbon attached to it in a sign of mourning.<\/p>\n
Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski said in a message that her \u201cunique talent and unconventional ways will not be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was exceptional, unusual, one of the best recognizable personalities on Poland\u2019s musical stage in recent decades,\u201d Zdrojewski said in a letter that was read during a funeral Mass at the packed St. Borromeo Church in Pow\u0105zki.<\/p>\n
From 1966 to 1969, Villas \u2014 a cascade of curly blond hair and crinoline dresses her trademarks \u2014 sang at the Casino de Paris and at the famed Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, performing with luminaries such as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Paul Anka and Eartha Kitt.<\/p>\n
She also recorded songs for Capitol Records.<\/p>\n
She appeared in several United States movies, including 1969\u2019s \u201cPaint Your Wagon\u201d with Lee Marvin and \u201cHeaven with a Gun\u201d with Glenn Ford.<\/p>\n
In 1970, she returned to Poland to tend to her ailing mother, and found herself trapped as the communist authorities refused to approve her passport. She did not return to the U.S. until 1987 with a tour that started at New York\u2019s Carnegie Hall.<\/p>\n
Born Czes\u0142awa Cie\u015blak in Belgium in 1938 to a Polish coal miner, she once said her career was launched in 1960 by the head of state Polish Radio, composer W\u0142adys\u0142aw Szpilman \u2014 whose own story of survival during the Holocaust was the theme of director Roman Pola\u0144ski\u2019s 2003 Oscar-winning movie \u201cThe Pianist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Villas was also known as a colorful personality who refused to bend to the requirements of a career. Since the late 1980s, she had given only occasional performances.<\/p>\n
Do nast<\/strong>\u0119pnego razu… <\/strong>(Till next time…)<\/p>\n \n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Family members and hundreds of fans bid farewell Monday to Violetta Villas, a Polish coloratura soprano who spurned opera for popular music and once reigned in a Las Vegas cabaret. Villas died at her home earlier this month of untreated pneumonia and complications from a broken leg. She was 73 and lived alone in a…<\/p>\n