The music of Black America: Kathleen Battle sings Mozart
>> Thursday, January 8, 2009
Kathleen Battle (born August 13, 1948, Portsmouth, Ohio, USA) is an African-American soprano known for her agile and light voice and her silvery, pure tone. One of the most prominent recitalists and opera singers of her generation, she is admired for her wide ranging recital repertoire and performances of the operas of Handel and Mozart. Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid 1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975 and by the early 1980s had become a favorite at many of the world's best opera houses within the soubrette repertoire. Battle expanded her repertoire into light lyric soprano and lyric coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1985, Michael Walsh of Time magazine called her the best lyric coloratura in the world. Although she no longer appears in operas, Battle remains active in concert and recital performances.
Information Source: Wikipedia
The following is a performance of the "Alleluja" from Mozart's Exultate Jubilate, conducted by Andre Previn.
10 comments:
I don't have to tell you about my love for Kathleen Battle's talent. If anyone sounded like Aloysia Weber, it was she when she was young.
Most people don't share my good opinion of her because of her well-publicized diva tantrums and demanding personality, but a voice like that will not show itself for a long time. Still, I can't help but blame her for her being blackballed. In the world of music no one is indispensable, apparently.
She is excellent but fame is fleeting and spoiled children abound in the world and pay the price for their behavior.
Believe me, I've worked with a few "divas" in my day, and they're absolutely impossible! There's no excuse for such unprofessional behavior. In days gone by, perhaps we were too tolerant of spoiled brat divas, but those days are long gone.
Still, it's a shame that we lost her when we did. She was in her prime. She not only robbed herself, but the rest of the world. Hard lessons.
I'll have to add, too, that it must have been pretty bad for such a talent to have been so completely blackballed the way she was.
The problem is, it's put up with in other genres. Look at Rock stars. They're the worst, and most of them don't have 1/1000th of the talent she has.
I blame both sides: Ms. Battle for thinking the Opera world would be as indulgent as the Rock world, and the powers that be that could have at least given her a "Time Out" rather than sent her into complete exile. In the end, we're the ones who lost out.
The rock world is more patient/indulgent with spoiled diva behavior because, let's face it, rock stars make more money than opera singers. So their mangers, recording companies, etc. are going to put up with more crap than anyone else. It's about the almighty dollar.
But I agree with you, they should have let her off with a warning, or even "detention" before they completely blackballed her. That's why I think it must have been really bad for them to have taken such drastic action. And I agree, we ended up the losers.
I agree with Steph - I have always loved Kathleen Battle's voice. But temper tantrums should have ended when one passed the "terrible twos".
When I listen to Kathleen Battle or Leontyne Price or any of the other great African-American classical musicians (or any other great African-American musicisns, for that matter), I wonder how much talent was blocked and/or destroyed throughout history because of bigotry and racism. Sad to think of that, isn't it?
Another note: who but Mozart could take a one-word aria and turn it into something so beautiful?!!
She did have warnings. She just didn't heed them.
I worked with her once. That was more than enough. She was the most difficult person I've ever dealt with (and I've been in the music biz since 1974).
She recently came back and gave a recital in New York. I read a review; she made her pianist start one piece three times before she agreed to go on. I guess she's still a bit on the difficult side.
I see the discussion is already in progress about her diva tantrums. Her voice is gorgeous, that lovely bell tone quality, but that is no excuse for poor behavior.
On a personal note, is Ms. Battle married? does she have children?
Ken
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