A sonic exploration and tonal analysis of contemporary creative music in a myriad of improvisational/composed settings, textures, and expressions.
Welcome to Sound Projections
I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.
Thus this magazine will strive to critically question and go beyond the conventional imposed notions
and categories of what constitutes the generic and stylistic definitions of ‘Jazz’, ‘classical music’, ‘Blues.’
'Rhythm and Blues’, ‘Rock and Roll’, ‘Pop’, ‘Funk’, ‘Hip Hop’, etc. in order to search for what individual
artists and ensembles do cretively to challenge and transform our ingrained ideas and attitudes of what
music is and could be.
So please join me in this ongoing visceral, investigative, and cerebral quest to explore, enjoy, and pay
homage to the endlessly creative and uniquely magisterial dimensions of MUSIC in all of its guises and expressive identities.
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Kathleen Battle (b. August 13, 1948): Legendary, iconic, and innovative singer, song stylist, arranger, actor, ensemble leader, producer, and teacher
With her captivating lyric soprano voice, Kathleen Battle was among the most acclaimed figures in contemporary opera.
Kathleen Battle
(b. August 13, 1948)
Artist Biography
by Richard LeSueur
One of the most famous African-American sopranos, Kathleen Battle
received her vocal training at the Cincinnati College Conservatory,
where she studied voice with Franklin Bens and also worked with Italo
Tajo. While at Cincinnati she came to the attention of conductor Thomas Schippers who brought her to the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina to sing the Brahms Requiem in 1972. She made her stage debut in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia as Rosina with the Michigan Opera Theater in Detroit in 1975. Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro was her New York City Opera debut role in 1976. During this time, she also sang orchestral concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. James Levine brought her to the Metropolitan Opera in New York as the Shepherd in Wagner's
Tannhäuser in 1978, and she appeared frequently at the Met in important
roles until 1994. She first appeared in Europe in 1978 at the Italian
Spoleto Festival, and in 1979 debuted at the Glyndebourne Festival.
Her first appearance at Salzburg was in 1982 at an all-Mozart
concert, and she often returned in concert, recital and opera. Her
important opera roles at Salzburg were Susanna, Zerlina, and Despina,
three Mozart
roles with which she has been associated at many opera houses around
the world. She has appeared at most of the major opera houses of the
world including San Francisco, Chicago, Covent Garden, London, Geneva,
Vienna, and Berlin. In 1985, she was the soprano soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass at St. Peter's Cathedral at the Vatican, in a performance conducted by Herbert von Karajan. She sang Handel's Semele in a highly acclaimed performance in 1985 at Carnegie Hall and later recorded the role. In 1990 she was joined by Jessye Norman for a concert of spirituals which was conducted by James Levine at Carnegie Hall. Although best known for roles in the operas of Mozart and Strauss (Zdenka, Sophie and Zerbinetta), Battle has also had great success in Massenet's Werther, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale, and La fille du regiment, Verdi's Un ballo in maschera and Falstaff and Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and L'Italiana in Algeri. Battle has maintained an active recital career, and her Schubert interpretations are very fine. Her recital programs have also featured songs by Mozart, Strauss, Fauré and Rodrigo. Kathleen Battle's
voice is a high, very pure soprano with great charm. She has excellent
technical control, which has allowed her to sing the difficult
coloratura roles of Rosina and Zerbinetta though her approach is always
more lyric that that of most coloratura sopranos. She is an excellent
actress and tries to give full characterization to each of her roles.
Several of her best roles were televised live from the Metropolitan
Opera, New York and later released on video.
A perfectionist in her own work, Battle
became more and more difficult to deal with as her career moved
forward. Some felt that her demands were becoming unreasonable, and her
behavior became erratic. These difficulties came to public attention
when she was dismissed from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994 for
"unprofessional conduct." Battle has continued to appear in concert and recital and remains a favorite of the public.
After the bitterness of the soprano Kathleen Battle’s
rift with the Metropolitan Opera in 1994, it looked as if she would
never return to the company’s stage. That year, Joseph Volpe, then the
Met’s general manager, in an extraordinarily blunt statement, dismissed
her from a production of Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” for
“unprofessional actions” during rehearsals that were “profoundly
detrimental” to artistic collaborations among cast members. She was
dropped from the Met’s roster for good, it seemed.
But
on Sunday, at the invitation of the current general manager, Peter
Gelb, Ms. Battle was back, not for an opera production (soon after that
1994 incident she turned her attention to recitals) but for a special
concert program she has been presenting in various cities in recent
years, titled “Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad — A Spiritual
Journey.” The house was sold out. Audience members who had waited 22
years to hear her at the Met had to wait a little longer on Sunday,
because the concert started 40 minutes late. It was worth the delay.
Performing
with an impressive choir called Voices of the Underground Railroad, two
fine pianists and some special guests (including Wynton Marsalis), Ms.
Battle, 68, sang with remarkable freshness and beauty. Even at the
height of her operatic career, her voice
was a light lyric soprano, ideal for roles like Strauss’s Sophie and
Mozart’s Susanna. Yet during those years she sang with such focus and
bloom that her sound had penetrating richness and radiant presence.
For
much of this recital on Sunday her singing had these same special
qualities. There were some breathy passages and slight signs of strain.
But for the most part she sounded wonderful, especially in her lovely
high range. In the spirituals “Lord, How Come Me Here?” and “Let Us
Break Bread Together,” among many others, she sent high phrases soaring
and sang with ethereal elegance.
Ms. Battle and Luciano Pavarotti in Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” at the Met in 1991.Creditvia Metropolitan Opera Archives
Her
dismissal from the Met was arguably justified by well-reported
instances of disruptive and petulant behavior. She had similarly
strained relationships with other companies. Yet, during this recital I
kept thinking about what a sad loss her absence has been to opera lovers
in New York and around the world.
When this concert was announced
in April, Ms. Battle said that the program “brings together my musical
background and my cultural heritage.” Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, the
youngest of seven children, she became active as a child
in the music of her African Methodist Episcopal church. After her
training at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music,
she began teaching music in grade school. But she was discovered by the
conductor Thomas Schippers, who brought her to the attention of James
Levine, who became a dedicated mentor.
These
spirituals clearly touch her deeply. The focus of the program was the
Underground Railroad, the secret network of “conductors” and “pilots”
who, at enormous risk, helped thousands of slaves in the South find safe
havens and nighttime routes to freedom in the North. Interspersed
between the performances of two dozen spirituals by Ms. Battle and the
34-voice choir (conducted by Stephanie Fisher and Rachel Blackburn),
there were readings by Jussie Smollett (who acted as narrator) and some
choir members of words by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights giants. The great
actress Cicely Tyson, 91, riveted the audience with an excerpt from a
speech by the slave-born abolitionist Sojourner Truth.
The
jazz-infused arrangements of the spirituals were played vibrantly by
the stylish pianist Joel A. Martin and, in some pieces, the pianist
Cyrus Chestnut. Though many arrangements gave solo opportunities to
outstanding singers from the choir, Ms. Battle, of course, was the star.
I was especially moved by the spirituals when she sang with just the
piano, like “City Called Heaven,” in which she conveyed a poignant mix
of longing for the promised city, sadness and childlike innocence.
Ms.
Battle remains a prima donna to her core. Her performances were
sometimes marred by mannerisms and quirks. Like the schoolteacher she
once was, she would hold up a hand to quiet down her pianist, or mouth
words to the chorus or, in a couple of strange moments, direct silent
gestures to people in the audience.
But
this long program, with five encores, was her day, her return. And,
given that audiences at the Met are almost always overwhelmingly white,
it was meaningful to see so many African-Americans in the house. The
final standing ovation was tumultuous.
Correction:
A
music review on Tuesday about “Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad — A
Spiritual Journey” at the Metropolitan Opera, which included readings,
misidentified the source of the words by Sojourner Truth that were read
by Cicely Tyson. It is a speech she gave in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, not a
memoir. The final sentence of the review was truncated in some editions.
It should have read, “The final standing ovation was tumultuous.”
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: After 22 Years and Bad Feelings, a Warm Embrace. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper
It
may be the biggest unfiring in opera since Maria Callas’s New York
comeback: Kathleen Battle, a prima donna whose dismissal by the
Metropolitan Opera more than two decades ago made front-page news, will return to the Met next season to sing a recital of spirituals.
The
concert, scheduled for Nov. 13, will provide a burst of old-school star
power at a time when the Met has been struggling with declining
attendance. Arrangements for her appearance came after Ms. Battle, 67,
was courted by Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager. “I think great
artists should be on the stage of the Met,” Mr. Gelb said in an
interview. “There aren’t enough of them.”
Ms. Battle was a Grammy-winning
soprano who had appeared with the Met 224 times by 1994, when Joseph
Volpe, then general manager, fired her from a production of Donizetti’s
“La Fille du Régiment” a week before opening night, citing, with a
bluntness unusual in classical music, her “unprofessional actions during
rehearsals.” Stories quickly circulated about what was described as
divalike behavior and rudeness toward colleagues, including demands that
other singers leave rehearsals when she was singing and not look at her
mouth during duets.
Ms. Battle was
said to arrive late to rehearsals, leave early or not to show up at all.
Nor was “Fille” the first case of her being temperamental: The year
before, she withdrew from a Met production of Strauss’s “Der
Rosenkavalier” after clashing with the conductor. A few months before
that, in a season-opening appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
she was said to have changed hotels several times and banned an
assistant conductor from her rehearsals.
“I was not told by anyone at the Met
about any unprofessional actions,” she said in a statement after being
fired, adding, “All I can say is I am saddened by this decision.”
Her
dismissal — and return — calls to mind past tempestuous clashes between
opera divas and impresarios. Callas, one of the great sopranos of the
20th century, was fired by the Met
in 1958 after a dispute over which roles she would agree to sing. She,
too, was rehired, in 1965, and returned to give two final Met
performances of “Tosca” that are now considered legendary. (“Kathy
Battle,” Mr. Volpe later recalled telling her manager when he terminated
her contract, “is no Callas.”)
Kathleen Battle in a solo recital at Carnegie Hall in 2008. Credit: Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times
She
will give a recital called “Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad — A
Spiritual Journey,” accompanied by Joel Martin on the piano and by a
choir led by James Davis Jr., the director of Music Ministries and Fine
Arts at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Ms. Battle, who has
performed versions of the program in Philadelphia, Detroit and
Baltimore, said that she was excited to bring it to the Met.
“Spirituals
have the power to uplift and to heal, and we certainly need that in
today’s world,” she said in a statement. “This is a program which brings
together my musical background and my cultural heritage, in the
acoustical splendor of the Met.”
Mr. Gelb said
that he had long been trying to get Ms. Battle, who turned away from
staged opera after her firing and has since largely pursued a recital
career, to return to the opera house. “When I first was appointed, I
tried to persuade her to come back to the Met to sing a role in a Mozart
opera,” he said. “But she couldn’t get her head around that.”
Then
he thought about having her bring her “Underground Railroad” program,
and in December Mr. Gelb and Ms. Battle visited the stage together,
configured for a recital with the orchestra pit raised and acoustical
screens put up, to see if she would be comfortable. “She sounded
fantastic, and she said she’d do it,” he said.
Ms.
Battle was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1948, the daughter of a
steelworker father and mother who volunteered at the family’s African
Methodist Episcopal Church. An elementary school music teacher in
Cincinnati before becoming a solo singer, she was championed by James
Levine, who conducted many of her Met performances, including her
company debut in 1977 as the Shepherd in Wagner’s “Tannhäuser.”
On
Feb. 23, 1985, Handel’s 300th birthday, she appeared to great acclaim
in a concert performance of his “Semele” at Carnegie Hall. (“It had to
be,” Donal Henahan wrote in The New York Times, “the performance of her
young and still-blossoming career.”) A smiling natural in Mozart and
Strauss’s ingénue roles, her fresh and pure (if slender) tone and
seemingly effortless agility translated beautifully to recording, and
she eventually became one of Deutsche Grammophon’s biggest stars. But a
reputation for causing backstage strife began to dog her: Colleagues at
the San Francisco Opera were seen wearing T-shirts reading “I Survived
the Battle” after one of her appearances.
Mr.
Volpe, who recounted the episode of her firing in his memoir in a
chapter called “Battle Hymn,” said in a telephone interview that he was
pleased to hear of her pending return. “I’m delighted to see that she
will be giving a recital at the Met,” he said, “and I send her my best
wishes.”
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: You’re Unfired: Kathleen Battle Is Returning to the Met. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper
The Met Drops Kathleen Battle, Citing 'Unprofessional Actions'
About the Archive:
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s
print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996.
To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The
Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Kathleen
Battle, the soprano who in recent years has been as famous for her
fiery temperament as for the beauty of her voice, was dismissed
yesterday from the Metropolitan Opera's production of Donizetti's "Fille
du Regiment" for what the company called "unprofessional actions"
during rehearsals.
Several
people involved with the production said that Miss Battle had been
difficult and uncooperative even after rehearsal schedules were changed
to accommodate her demands, and that she had upset other members of the
cast.
In
effect, Miss Battle is being dropped from the Met roster: the
production was the only one for which she was under contract, and Joseph
Volpe, the Met's general manager, said in an interview that when he
dismissed Miss Battle, he "canceled all offers that have been made for
the future." 'Profoundly Detrimental'
In an extraordinary statement from an institution that usually maintains an air of patrician diplomacy, Mr. Volpe said:
"Kathleen
Battle's unprofessional actions during rehearsals for the revival of
'La Fille du Regiment' were profoundly detrimental to the artistic
collaboration among all the cast members, which is such an essential
component of the rehearsal process. I could not allow the quality of the
performance to be jeopardized. I have taken this step to insure that
everyone involved in the production will be able to rehearse and perform
in an atmosphere that makes it possible for them to perform at their
best."
In
a statement released by her management company, Columbia Artists, Miss
Battle said: "I was not told by anyone at the Met about any
unprofessional actions. To my knowledge, we were working out all of the
artistic problems in the rehearsals, and I don't know the reason behind
this unexpected dismissal. All I can say is I am saddened by this
decision."
Mr.
Volpe would not be more specific about his reasons for dismissing Miss
Battle. But several people at the Met, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said that the problems began when Miss Battle objected to
attending the two or three daily rehearsals that are typical in the
weeks before a production opens. When the schedule was revamped to suit
her, they said, she arrived late, left early or did not show up at all.
She is said to have demanded that other singers leave the rehearsals
when she was singing, and was described as having been "very nasty" to
members of the cast.
The production is to open on Monday with Harolyn Blackwell substituting for Miss Battle.
Almost
exactly a year ago, Miss Battle stormed out of a rehearsal of "Der
Rosenkavalier" at the Met after a dispute with the conductor, Christian
Thielemann, and told Mr. Volpe that if he did not come to her dressing
room to hear her complaints within five minutes, she would withdraw from
the production. Mr. Volpe did not appear, and she quit. Stories
Circulate Quickly
A
few months earlier, when Miss Battle opened the Boston Symphony
Orchestra season, she reportedly banned an assistant conductor and other
musicians from her rehearsals, changed hotels several times, and left
behind what a report in The Boston Globe called "a froth of ill will."
Record executives have complained that her demands to have her cover
photographs retouched or reshot have delayed the release of her
recordings and played havoc with scheduling. Indeed, stories of her
backstage tantrums travel through the music world at lightning speed.
The
current clash recalls the confrontations between Maria Callas and
Rudolf Bing in the late 1950's, particularly Mr. Bing's 1958 public
dismissal of the soprano. But there are differences. The Callas-Bing
dispute was over a contractual point, not over Callas's behavior at
rehearsals. Also, Callas was at the peak of her career. Miss Battle,
who is 45, has lost some of the freshness that once made her so valuable
in ingenue roles.
Disputes
between singers and managers sometimes seem part of the fabric of the
opera world. Maria Ewing, James McCracken and Eva Marton have all
stormed out of the Met when coveted roles or broadcast performances were
given to other singers. But it is rare for a company to publicly
question a star's professionalism. The most famous recent case was
Luciano Pavarotti's dismissal from the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1989
after a dispute about the frequency of his cancellations.
Miss
Battle was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, and was a music teacher in a
Cincinnati elementary school before she had her earliest break as a
singer. That came in 1972, when she auditioned for Thomas Schippers, the
director of the Cincinnati Symphony and the Spoleto Festival, who hired
her for a series of performances. A year later, James Levine heard her
at the Cincinnati May Festival, and began engaging her when he appeared
as guest conductor around the country.
She
came to New York in 1975 to sing in the Broadway production of Scott
Joplin's opera "Treemonisha," and in 1976 she made her debut at the New
York City Opera, as Susanna in "Le Nozze di Figaro." Mr. Levine brought
her to the Met as the Shepherd in Wagner's "Tannhauser" in 1977. Her
pure, clear tone immediately impressed opera fans starved for
distinctive singing, and she quickly found herself in demand in opera
houses all over the world.
What
effect her dismissal from the Met will have on her career is uncertain.
Her recordings continue to sell in vast quantities, and as one of the
few opera stars who is a household name, she is still a hot commodity at
the box office and consequently is in demand as a soloist.
Mr.
Volpe, when asked whether he was likely to invite Miss Battle back to
the Met, said: "I never say never. I don't want to say that this break
is forever."
A version of this article appears in print on February 8, 1994, on Page A00001 of the National edition with the headline: The Met Drops Kathleen Battle, Citing 'Unprofessional Actions'. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s
print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996.
To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The
Times does not alter, edit or update them.
People
who go to the matinees of “Treemonisha”—which will move from the Uris
Theater to the Palace Theater on Nov. 4 for a run through Dec. 21—have
no need to feel cheated because the title part isn't being sung by
Carmen Balthrop. Kathleen Battle, her substitute, has a perfectly lovely
lyric soprano that meets the demands of the role with gracious eaase.
It's
a little hard to tell how big the voice is, given the distorted and
clumsily handled amplification. But in relation to the others in the
cast it seems of healthy size, and her timbre, range and artistry are
all that one might ask for. It would be nice to hear her in “real”
operatic roles.
Miss
Battle Is a charmer, dramatically, as well—pert to look at and fully
comfortable in Frank Corsaro's production. There can't be too many
instances, on Broadway or in opera, where an understudy has been of this
quality.
JOHN ROCKWELL
A version of this archives appears in print on October 23, 1975, on Page 47 of the New York edition with the headline: Kathleen Battle Is Standout As ‘Treemonisha’. Order Reprints|Today's Paper
Kathleen
Battle's dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994 ended her
stellar but conflict-filled operatic career. Now, at 61, the media-shy
African-American soprano is reluctant to discuss opera. She'd rather
talk about her concerts and recitals - including gigs with the likes of
Stevie Wonder, performances for the Pope, and her appearance in Ottawa
on Tuesday at the Music and Beyond Festival.
You don't often do interviews these days. Why is that?
I never have. In this case, this is a brand new festival, and in this day it's so important to support the arts.
Do you get requests from your fans urging you to return to the opera stage?
When
I do concerts and recitals, the two most common requests are spirituals
and opera. My upcoming recital in Ottawa doesn't have any opera - but
Liszt's Die Lorelei has an operatic quality, and so does the
Rachmaninoff I'll be singing in the second half. And it isn't such a
great leap from Rachmaninoff to spirituals, because they both have a
soulful feeling.
Why are spirituals so special for you?
I
think of Roland Hayes, who was a great classical tenor who also did
beautiful arrangements of spirituals. He sang Schubert and spirituals
with the same commitment. He brought his classical training to bear,
without leaving behind his cultural roots.
Is that your ethos as well?
Exactly.
I bring my classical training - some of it, but not all of it - and
also my background and culture, to spirituals. And I try to leave room
for that unpredictable factor, where the feeling of the song is allowed
to come through. The same ethos can be applied to singing Mozart, or
Schubert, or Bach. It's not just about what's on the page.
And you've also worked with some well-known pop music figures.
Some of the music I listen to is pop. I sing it in the shower - and then for public consumption.
I've appeared with Alicia Keys a couple of times. We did Superwoman
for the American Music Awards show. But before that, the first time I
sang with her was special and unique. I had met her at Oprah's Legends
Weekend. Then she called me and said there was a song that Bono had
written for himself and Pavarotti, called Miss Sarajevo. Alicia
ingeniously decided to retrofit it to herself and me. We sang it for an
AIDS charity called Keep a Child Alive. Bono was there, and he gave us a
standing ovation.
Stevie Wonder
also requested I sing at his special tribute, and I sang one of his
songs. Both Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder first heard me sing classical
music, so there was something in my voice that seemed to work for them
in a pop style.
What was it like to sing for Pope Benedict XVI in 2008? That
was a pretty heady experience. I'd had the previous experience of
singing a Schubert Mass with Herbert von Karajan at the Vatican. In both
cases, I didn't really meet the Pope. But Benedict looked over and
winked at me in a very favourable way. It was his wink of approval! What other highlights from your career spring to mind?
Some
of the things that have been the most meaningful to me have been
experiences I've shared with my family. My mother and father were at
Carnegie Hall, when I did Mahler's Fourth Symphony. But it's
hard to say because I've been so lucky and blessed. There are a lot of
things that stand out - too numerous to mention. I like to leave it to
others to say.
Kathleen Battle will perform Tuesday in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre's Southam Hall.
Kathleen Battle walked away from this interview, but
not before the diva talked about her plans for Dallas
by Thor Christensen
Special Contributor
June 27, 2018
Dallas News
It's hard to talk about Kathleen Battle's career without broaching the
subject of her reputation for putting the "d" — as in "difficult" — into
the word "diva."
In 1994, the Metropolitan Opera fired the superstar soprano during rehearsals for Donizetti's Fille du Régiment for
what the New York company deemed "unprofessional actions." A year
earlier, beleaguered staffers at the San Francisco Opera wore T-shirts
proclaiming "I survived the Battle."
But wait — is this same Kathleen Battle on the phone today? This
pleasant, even-tempered woman who's doling out compliments to her
colleagues and talking enthusiastically about her show Thursday night at
the Winspear Opera House?Turns out, it's one and the same:
Fifteen minutes into an otherwise smooth interview, Battle takes a deep
breath, stops talking and puts down the phone, never to return. No
goodbye. No explanation. Nada.Even stranger is the fact that the
interview-killing question wasn't even a tough one. It was a softball
query about how it feels to have her career still going strong as she
approaches 70 (her milestone birthday is Aug. 13).
Apparently, age is a touchy subject for some aging divas.
Kathleen Battle performs Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey pat the Winspear Opera House. (AT&T Performing Arts Center)
Before the conversation went kaput, Battle was happy to
talk about her younger days, when she first learned to balance opera
with the spirituals that make up Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey, the program she'll perform Thursday night.The
youngest of seven kids in a blue-collar family near Cincinnati, she
grew up singing in an African Methodist Episcopal church. When Battle
became a budding opera star at the University of Cincinnati's music
school, conductor Robert Sadin took her aside and persuaded her to look
beyond the libretto.
"He said 'You're not just going to sing Mozart and Rossini: You're a
black woman and you came from a church background.' He sensed something
in me and my delivery that might meld well with music outside the
classical genre."
In fact, Sadin was the one who introduced Battle to jazz stars such as Grover Washington Jr. and Wynton Marsalis and produced So Many Stars, the 1995 crossover album that helped her rebound after the Met fired her.
"That
was Robert Sadin dragging me along, leading me to the well ... and I
was willing to drink," she says. "He and [former Met music
director] James Levine are both geniuses. They've both been a boon to my
career. "
Battle has collaborated with countless pop, jazz and
R&B stars over the decades, from Stevie Wonder to Alicia Keys to
Queen Latifah. But in recent years, she's focused on putting her own
imprint on Christian spirituals that date back to the days of slavery.
"I never try to be didactic or teach an overt lesson, but there are definitely messages throughout it," she says of Underground Railroad.
"There are many quotes in this program from Harriet Tubman and
Frederick Douglass, although I've actually left out the dark part where,
after his escape from slavery, Douglass said he could not stand to hear
even the happy spirituals because they brought him an overwhelming
feeling of sadness."
Underground Railroad evolves from
city to city: Thursday night's show will feature the South Dallas
Cultural Choir as originally planned, but it will also include dance
pieces choreographed at the last minute by Dark Circles Contemporary
Dance founder Joshua Peugh and performed by Lailah Duke and Xavier Mack
of Dallas Black Dance Theatre.
Battle said Peugh was assigned to pick her up at the airport earlier
this week, and when she found out her driver was a choreographer, she
decided to collaborate with him during rehearsals.
"I'll add or subtract every time I do this program: It's site-specific," she says.
"People have said 'Why don't you just rubber-stamp Underground Railroad?
Wouldn't it just be easier that way?' I don't know. It may be a
character flaw, but I can't do that. I have to refresh the program every
time, and there's an almost astonishing reset here for Dallas: It's so
dynamic and exciting, and I'm very proud of it." ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Thor Christensen is a Dallas writer Thorchris2@yahoo.com
Details
Kathleen Battle performs Underground Railroad – a Spiritual Journey at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St. $29 to $89, plus fees. www.attpac.org.
Watch: A 1992 Duet of Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis Playing Bach and Handel
In 1992, Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis joined forces to record Baroque Duets. The set featured works by composers such as Handel, Scarlatti and Bach. That year, Battle earned a Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance, for Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall.
Marsalis, whose other studio releases that year involved all things
jazz, nonetheless demonstrated that he hadn’t lost a step when
interpreting the classical repertoire.
In addition to the album, the duo also recorded video of their
performances. While it looks to only be available on VHS, you can thank
YouTube and the amateur archivists of the world for making several
selections of it available in this digital age. Here, Battle and
Marsalis perform Handel’s “Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne,” also
known as “Eternal Source of Light Divine.” And it’s a divine performance
indeed, with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s sharp support of Battle’s
soaring voice and Marsalis’ exceptionally clear trumpet. Listen
carefully, and you’ll feel like royalty, too.
They follow up with another Handel work — the aria “Let the Bright Seraphim” (from the opera Samson) — and a Bach cantata, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, to complete the trip down memory lane. We knew we shouldn’t have tossed our VHS player.
Kathleen Battle, Wynton Marsalis: Baroque Duet Part 07:
Kathleen Battle It was under the dark cloud of the Stephon Clark shooting in
Sacramento and the continuing protests of Black Lives Matter that lyric
soprano Kathleen Battle brought her evocative combination of words and
music, “Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey” to the Valley
Performing Arts Center in Northridge on Thursday. Previously performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (in 2016)
and later at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., “Underground
Railroad” combines the hope for a better life expressed through
African-American spirituals with the impassioned anti-slavery rhetoric
of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. Gowned in black and swathed in a scarlet silk wrap, Battle, who will
turn 70 in August, showed that she is still every inch the diva. She was
accompanied by pianist Joel A. Martin and the 24 members of the Albert
McNeil Jubilee Singers, under the direction of Dr. Diane White-Clayton.
Angela Bassett
The
concert’s series of emotionally charged recitations were delivered with
artistry and thunderclap righteousness by actress Angela Bassett, who
with perfect coiffure and glittery couture looked ready for the red
carpet at the Academy Awards. The sentiments varied from Harriet Tubman’s lament that the
Underground Railroad could not deliver all the slaves in the South to
freedom, to Frederick Douglass’s incendiary address to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society on July 4, 1852, “What, to the slave, is
the Fourth of July?” This is the same address that Peter Sellars and
John Adams incorporated so effectively during the Fourth of July climax
of Girls of the Golden West.
For African-American slaves, gathering in church and raising their
voices in these spirituals offered a ray of hope that deliverance might
come, if not on Earth then in the heavenly fields across Jordan.
Spirituals created a holy bond within slave communities rooted in the
belief that there was a savior who was aware of their plight. But it was the creation of the Underground Railroad that gradually
turned spirituals and field songs into coded messages of resistance,
offering guidance to those that were willing to get on board for the
Promised Land. Once famous for her inspired interpretations of characters from
Mozart operas and Handel oratorios, Battle’s voice remains a flute-like
instrument that can soar to its uppermost range with glistening clarity. As a singer of gospel music, she does not convey the religious fervor
of Mahalia Jackson or the sheer vocal magnitude of Jessye Norman.
Battle’s voice is a luminous instrument that would have been better
served in a smaller hall, or ideally a church setting. There were also
times when the lightness of her voice felt at odds with the
rambunctious, roadhouse-style piano playing by Martin. But when the
musical forces aligned, as they did during the first half in renditions
of “City Called Heaven,” “Hush,” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” the
effect was mesmerizing.
Kathleen Battle, center, performing a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera | Credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera It was during the second half of the concert that the combination of
words and music really found its dramatic and musical balance. The
lyricism of Battle’s interpretations of “Hold On, Gospel Train,” “In
Bright Mansions,” and, in particular, “Fix Me, Jesus” captured the
glorious combination of faith and hope that personifies the spiritual.
The second half of the concert also took much greater advantage of
Bassett’s ability as an orator. She infused Frederick Douglass’s
condemnation of an America that would allow the atrocities of slavery,
with fire and brimstone. She brought passionate urgency to the words of
Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and illuminated poems by Robert
Hayden and Dr. Charles Blockson. But it was Douglass’s words questioning whether the act of granting a
black man’s freedom actually brought equality that really struck a
chord. The paradox illuminated by those words, spoken over 150 years
ago, echoed throughout the hall with all the resonance of current tragic
events. After the final rousing work on the program, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody
Turn Me Round,” Battle offered a remarkable solo rendition of “Were You
There When They Crucified My Lord?” It was a profound way to begin the
Easter holiday.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jim Farberwrote his first classical music review in 1982 for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. Since then, he has been a feature writer and critic of classical music, opera, theater, and fine art for The Daily Variety, the Copley Newspapers and News Service, and the Los Angeles Newspaper Group (Media News).
American soprano Kathleen Battle's luminous voice has been called by The Washington Post "...without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the world." Yet beyond the glory of her singing, in a career filled with countless accolades, honors and major milestones, what has perhaps distinguished her most is her almost magical ability to create an unwavering emotional bond between herself, her music and her audience. On Thursday, March 29 at 8pm, that special bond will be on full display when Ms. Battle makes her debut at The Soraya with Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad-A Spiritual Journey accompanied by pianist Joel Martin and the LA-based choir, The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers.
"Kathleen Battle is an American treasure and we are delighted to present the Los Angeles premiere of her extraordinary piece honoring the legacy of the Underground Railroad," said Thor Steingraber, The Soraya's Executive Director. "The plight of people escaping slavery in this country is an indelible part of our history. This chapter of human migration-the journey of determined individuals seeking new opportunity or the plight of those tragically displaced-is as relevant a matter today as any time in history." Tickets for Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad-A Spiritual Journey priced from$43-$103, are now available at ValleyPerformingArtsCenter.org or by calling (818) 677-3000. The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) is located on the campus of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), 18111 Nordhoff Street Northridge, CA 91330-8448, at the corner of Nordhoff and Lindley. About Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad - A Spiritual JourneyKathleen Battle: Underground Railroad-A Spiritual Journey is a program of music inspired by the journey to freedom along the Underground Railroad, the 19th-century network of safe houses that allowed African-Americans to escape from slavery. Ms. Battle said. "Spirituals have the power to uplift and to heal, and we certainly need that in today's world. This is a program, which brings together my musical background and my cultural heritage. The concert program will feature numerous well-known Spirituals, gospel and traditional pieces, including "Lord, How Come Me Here?," "Go Down, Moses," "Wade in the Water," "Roll, Jordan, Roll," "City Called Heaven," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "I Don't Feel No-Ways Tired," "Fix Me, Jesus," "Balm in Gilead," "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn You Me Roun'," "Let Us Break Bread Together," and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hand." In writing about Ms. Battle's performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 2016, The New York Times'Anthony Tommasini said, "Ms. Battle sang with remarkable freshness and beauty...she sent high phrases soaring and sang with ethereal elegance. These spirituals clearly touch her deeply. The focus of the program was the Underground Railroad, the secret network of "conductors" and "pilots" who, at enormous risk, helped thousands of slaves in the South find safe havens and nighttime routes to freedom in the North. The final standing ovation was tumultuous." In the program notes, Janet E. Bedell writes, "the Underground Railroad was a secret organization. To this day, no one knows exactly how it was organized and how many people worked for it. This was intentional, for using this road to freedom was highly dangerous for both slaves and the people who assisted them. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 made it a crime for slaves to leave their masters, and a yet tougher revision of the law passed in 1850 required that courts and police return escaped slaves-even if they had been free for years-to their owners. Since escaping to the North therefore no longer remained a safe option, ex-slaves were only fully protected if they continued to Canada. Slave catchers operated throughout the country, often accompanied by specially trained bloodhounds; they were ruthless and well paid for their work. Those who were caught aiding the fugitives could be financially ruined and, if they were African Americans, sold into slavery themselves.It is estimated that more than 3,000 individuals were active in helping the fugitives, among them such remarkable African-American leaders as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, both born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland. A few lucky fugitives were placed by sympathetic transport officials and captains on stagecoaches or ships, but most made the arduous journey entirely on foot. Usually moving at night, they were taught to follow the North Star to keep traveling in the right direction; thus, Frederick Douglass named his pioneering African-American newspaper The North Star. Many spirituals contained coded language that alerted slaves to leave the plantation, to find their way to a safe station, and to watch out for slave catchers in the neighborhood. In her book "The Music of Black Americans," Eileen Southern eloquently sums up the role of music in the lives of African-American slaves: "Music was a primary form of communication for the slaves, just as it had been for their African forebears. Through the medium of song, the slave could comment on his problems and savor the few pleasures allowed him; he could voice his despair and his hopes, and assert his humanity in an environment that constantly denied his humanness. As in the African tradition, the songs of the slaves could tell his history and reveal his everyday concerns." Today, the religiously inspired songs of the slaves are known as "spirituals."
As African-American solo vocalists such as Marian Anderson and Roland Hayes finally made their way into concert halls in the early 1900s, they usually ended their programs with a group of spirituals. Often these used concert arrangements created by Harry T. Burleigh, also known as The Man who inspired the slow movement of Dvo?ák's "New World" Symphony, with its plaintive melody in spiritual style. These haunting songs have endured, both as treasures of American music and as an important piece of the country's history.
Soprano Kathleen Battle's luminous voice has been called "...without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the world" (The Washington Post). Yet beyond the glory of her singing, in a career filled with countless accolades, honors and major milestones, what has perhaps distinguished her most is her almost magical ability to create an unwavering emotional bond between herself, her music and her audience. In her youth, this native of Portsmouth, Ohio, the youngest of seven children, sang in church and school, and envisioned a future as a music teacher. Fortunately for audiences around the world, she found other ways to share her love of music-and through her natural gifts, innate intelligence, and hard work, her soaring voice has carried her to the heights of the classical music world. Indeed, throughout a remarkable career that has brought her to the stages of the world's leading opera houses and major concert halls, critics have never tired of rhapsodizing over her limpid, unmistakable sound. In quite poetic terms, they have compared it to "the ethereal beauty of winter moonlight" (The Washington Post), "a paradoxical meeting of earth and sky" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and "cream from a miraculous, bottomless pitcher" (The New York Times).
The range of Ms. Battle's repertoire spans three centuries from the Baroque era to contemporary works. She has enjoyed some of her greatest successes in the opera house in repertoire ranging from Handel (Cleopatra in the Metropolitan Opera's premiere staging of Giulio Cesare) to Richard Strauss (Sophie, Zdenka, Zerbinetta). For her Covent Garden debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Ms.Battle became the first American to be honored with a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a New Opera Production. She has similarly distinguished herself as one of our generation's finest interpreters of Mozart (Susanna, Despina, Pamina, and Zerlina), as well as the Bel Canto operas of Rossini (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Donizetti (L'Elisir d'Amore, Don Pasquale, La Fille du Regiment). In the words of critic Tim Page, "Miss Battle's natural territory is music of sweetness, serenity, and girlish ecstasy. Within this repertoire she is all but unequaled."
In recital, Kathleen Battle, the winner of five Grammy awards, has mesmerized audiences around the globe with her unique artistry and vocal beauty. Of her Carnegie Hall recital debut, New York Newsday declared, "In an age when the vocal recital has practically gone the way of the dinosaur, this was a thrilling case for its return." For the CD of this recital, released on DG, Ms. Battle received one of three Grammy Awards for Best Classical Vocal Soloist; Ms. Battle has won a total of five Grammy Awards. Kathleen Battle's gifts as a singer extend beyond the realm of classical music. Her work as a great interpreter of spirituals is documented on a joint recital with Jessye Norman, Spirituals in Concert (DG). Her pure emotional power in this music of joy and sorrow cuts through all cultural boundaries. As the Vienna Kurier put it, "Kathleen Battle sang so beautifully in the spiritual 'Heaven is one beautiful place,' she came pretty close to heaven."
Ms. Battle drew considerable attention with the world premiere of Honey and Rue, a song cycle with music by Oscar and Grammy-winner composer André Previn and lyrics by Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, commissioned for Ms. Battle by Carnegie Hall on the event of their 100th anniversary. Since then, she has performed the work with leading orchestras and in recital throughout the world. The Los Angeles Times called her performance of this work "spellbinding," while the Cincinnati Herald remarked, "her voice was like the ebb and flow of the seas as an almost sacred silence enclosed the auditorium." The recording of this cycle was released by DG, on a disc which also includes Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and arias from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.
Always seeking to expand her artistic horizons, Ms. Battle was joined by leading jazz musicians for her first crossover album, So Many Stars (Sony Classical), a collection of lullabies, spirituals, and folksongs. Commenting on her extraordinary gifts as a jazz artist, The Detroit News noted, "When Battle and her core jazz trio held the stage, the musical splendor was almost more than the ear could take in." Since her student years, Kathleen Battle has collaborated with colleagues who rank among the world's most talented musicians. She has been a favorite soloist with the world's leading orchestras and esteemed conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, James Levine, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Mazell, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Slatkin, and Sir Neville Marriner. Her partnerships with soprano Jessye Norman, tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo, violinist Itzhak Perlman, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, guitarist Christopher Parkening, flautists Jean-Pierre Rampal and Hubert Laws, and the late saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., to name but a few, are documented on numerous recordings and video discs. Kathleen Battle has established herself as a distinguished recording artist through a wide range of releases encompassing complete opera, concert, choral and solo albums on all major labels. Memorable concerts recorded live and now available on CD and home video include Mozart's Coronation Mass from the Vatican and the 1987 New Year's Concert, both with Herbert von Karajan conducting; the CDs are on the DG label with the video versions on Sony. Her performance of the title role in the DG recording of Handel's Semele, with Marilyn Horne, Samuel Ramey, and John Nelson conducting, earned Ms. Battle a fifth Grammy Award. This recording commemorates a now legendary concert performance of Handel's masterpiece, starring Ms. Battle and virtually the same cast as the recording, which created such a sensation that Carnegie Hall recognized it as one of its one hundred milestones during its centennial year.Kathleen Battle has made immeasurable contributions as an ambassador for classical music, performing for Presidents and dignitaries, and attracting diverse new audiences through television broadcasts of her operas and concerts, as well as through appearances on popular network talk shows. Her performance on the PBS broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera's 1991 season opening gala won her an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Classical Program on Television. A documentary film on the recording of Sony's Baroque Duet album with Wynton Marsalis and John Nelson conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke's was nominated for an Emmy. Ms. Battle's critically acclaimed "Metropolitan Opera Presents" performances of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia are available on DG VHS and DVD, while Sony has captured her Zerlina in Karajan's production of Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival as well.
Praised for the keen intelligence, which informs her musical sensitivity, Ms. Battle earned both her Bachelor and Master degrees from the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. She has been awarded eight honorary doctoral degrees-from her Alma Mater, the University of Cincinnati; Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey; Ohio University; Xavier University in Cincinnati; Amherst College; Seton Hall University; Wilberforce University, Ohio; Manhattanville College; and the Shawnee State University. In honor of her outstanding artistic achievements, Ms. Battle was inducted into the "NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame", and in 2002 into the "Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame". She is the first recipient of the "Ray CharlesAward" bestowed upon her by Wilberforce University. Heady accomplishments indeed for an artist whose earliest connection to music was simply feeling "blessed to have a voice that somebody else wanted to hear." About The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers
The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, a traveling company of 12 to 18 and a resident group of 29, have garnered international acclaim and focused worldwide attention on the vast body of folk music termed "African-American." In 1968 the Singers undertook their first European tour. Today, after 18 sold-out European tours, 12 tours of the United States and Canada, tours of the Middle and Far East, Africa and South America, they are among the most honored singing ensembles in the world. They were selected three times to serve the U.S. State Department and USIS Cultural Exchange Program in areas of the world, known in those days as "behind the Iron Curtain," including East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iran, India, North and West Africa, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Founder-Director Albert McNeil is well-known to the national choral community, having been honored on four occasions with "Command Performances" before the prestigious American Choral Directors Association in 1981 in New Orleans, in 1985 at their Salt Lake City convention at their convention and their 1997 convention in San Diego, California at Los Angles during the ACDA Western Division Convention held on the campus of Loyola-Marymount University campus. The Jubilee Singers were invited to sing for Pope John Paul II during his 1987 visit to the singers' home-base, Los Angeles. The Singers were headliners at the First Choral Festival in Jaffa, Israel in 1988. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday the following year, they performed with the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the program aired by CBS-TV. They have had collaborative concerts with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Dale Warland Singers, Chanticleer, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and Pro Musica of El Paso. The Singers made their first Far East Tour of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. That season they went on to Spain to complete concerts at the XXIII Semana de Musica de Camara in Segovia, in the Real Coliseo Carlos III in El Escorial, performing not only their regular fare of Spirituals, but the Siglo de Oro Espanol (Renaissance music of Victoria and Morales). About Joel A. Martin, piano
Joel A. Martin's classical piano career spans 40+ years, including solo performances with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, New Hampshire Festival Orchestra, Springfield (Massachusetts) Symphony Orchestra, and Hartford Symphony. He has given recitals at Purchase College Performing Arts Center, Severance Hall, Phillips Collection, Guggenheim Museum, Kennedy Center, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Kaukametsa Hall in Finland, and L'Opéra Comique in Paris in a command performance for French President François Mitterand. He has performed on stage or in the pit for Broadway shows The Full Monty, The Wild Party with Eartha Kitt, and The Ride Down Mount Morgan with Patrick Stewart, and he was the Assistant Pianist for the Tony Award-winning musical Caroline, or Change. From 2006-2010, Mr. Martin was the five-time Gold Medal pianist-arranger-collaborator for the American Traditions Competition for Singers in Savannah, Georgia, before elevating to a two-year stint as Artistic Director. In the last couple of years, he has collaborated with and/or written music for Grammy Award-winners Brooklyn Youth Chorus, cellist Eugene Friesen of the Paul Winter Consort, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jaimoe of the Allman Brothers, among many other artists. In October 2013, Mr. Martin produced his seventh Jazzical CD, Jazzical Meets Menken, honoring multiple Oscar-Grammy-Tony Award-winning Disney/Broadway composer Alan Menken. With stellar performances by Broadway legends Liz Callaway, Amanda McBroom, Christine Pedi, and the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, Jazzical Meets Menken included two world premieres penned by Alan Menken specifically for this CD. On July 18, 2014-the capstone event of International Mandela Day celebrations at the United Nations-Mr. Martin produced Footsteps of Mandela, an all-star tribute concert to Mandela at NYC's Riverside Church. He has since produced several critically acclaimed Footsteps concerts in West Palm Beach, Hartford, and Bridgeport. Plans for 2017 include a national tour of Footsteps of Peace, producing six CD projects for jazz and gospel singers, duo pianos, and cello-piano duo. He will release his eighth Jazzical CD, Jazzical Rocks!, featuring the Jazzical Symphony Orchestra in January, 2017 with a national tour to follow. About The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya).
The Soraya opened its 2017-2018 season on September 16 with a performance of AMADEUS Live (Milos Foreman's 1984 Academy Award-winning Best Picture with live orchestra) with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and members of the LA Opera Chorus. The evening honored the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Foundation in recognition of the family's recent $17 million gift that will rename VPAC as the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Performing Arts Center, known as The Soraya. The gift is one of the largest in the history of the California State University and the system's largest single gift to support the arts; gift to support the programming and operations of the award-winning Valley Performing Arts Center - which has become one of the cultural jewels of the region in the six years since it opened. The 2017-18 Soraya season signals a new era for the premier event venue. Under the leadership of Executive Director Thor Steingraber, the renamed Younes and Soraya Nazarian Performing Arts Center expands its programming and outstanding multidisciplinary performances. The mission of The Soraya is to present a wide variety of performances that not only includes new and original work from the Los Angeles region but also work from around the world that appeal to all of LA's rich and diverse communities.
Located on the campus of California State University, Northridge, The Soraya's season offers a vibrant performance program of nearly 50 classical and popular music, dance, theater, family and international events that will serve to establish The Soraya as the intellectual and cultural heart of the San Fernando Valley, and further establish itself as one of the top arts companies in Southern California. The award-winning, 1,700-seat theatre was designed by HGA Architects and Engineers and was recently cited by the Los Angeles Times as "a growing hub for live music, dance, drama and other cultural events."
Jill Newman Productions Presents: Kathleen Battle: Something To Sing About III with Cyrus Chestnut
Produced by Jill Newman Productions
@ Blue Note Jazz Club – Shows @ 8PM & 10:30PM
(Doors @ 6PM & 9:45PM)
Soprano Kathleen Battle’s luminous voice has been called “…without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the world” (The Washington Post). Yet beyond the glory of her singing, in a career filled with countless accolades, honors and major milestones, what has perhaps distinguished her most is her almost magical ability to create an unwavering emotional bond between herself, her music and her audience.
The range of Miss Battle’s repertoire spans three centuries from the Baroque era to contemporary works. She has enjoyed some of her greatest successes in the opera house in repertoire ranging from Handel (Cleopatra in the Metropolitan Opera’s premiere staging of Giulio Cesare) to Richard Strauss (Sophie, Zdenka, Zerbinetta). For her Covent Garden debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Miss Battle became the first American to be honored with a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a New Opera Production. She has similarly distinguished herself as one of our generation’s finest interpreters of Mozart (Susanna, Despina, Pamina, and Zerlina), as well as the bel canto operas of Rossini (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Donizetti (L’Elisir d’Amore, Don Pasquale, La Fille du Regiment). In the words of critic Tim Page, “Miss Battle’s natural territory is music of sweetness, serenity, and girlish ecstasy. Within this repertoire she is all but unequaled.”
In recital, Kathleen Battle, the winner of five Grammy awards, has mesmerized audiences around the globe with her unique artistry and vocal beauty. Of her Carnegie Hall recital debut, New York Newsday declared, “In an age when the vocal recital has practically gone the way of the dinosaur, this was a thrilling case for its return.” For the CD of this recital, released on DG, Miss Battle received one of three Grammy Awards for Best Classical Vocal Soloist; Miss Battle has won a total of five Grammy Awards. The Australian echoed the sentiment of critics around the world, saying, “The Sydney Opera House has played host to any number of great singers…but it’s unlikely there has ever been (or perhaps ever will be) a performance to match the recital American soprano Kathleen Battle gave.”
Kathleen Battle’s gifts as a singer extend beyond the realm of classical music. Her work as a great interpreter of spirituals is documented on a joint recital with Jessye Norman, Spirituals in Concert (DG). Her pure emotional power in this music of joy and sorrow cuts through all cultural boundaries. As the Vienna Kurier put it, “Kathleen Battle sang so beautifully in the spiritual ‘Heaven is one beautiful place,’ she came pretty close to heaven.”
Miss Battle drew considerable attention with the world premiere of Honey and Rue, a song cycle with music by Oscar and Grammy-winner composer André Previn and lyrics by Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, commissioned for Miss Battle by Carnegie Hall on the event of their 100th anniversary. Since then, she has performed the work with leading orchestras and in recital throughout the world. The Los Angeles Times called her performance of this work “spellbinding,” while the Cincinnati Herald remarked, “her voice was like the ebb and flow of the seas as an almost sacred silence enclosed the auditorium.” The recording of this cycle was released by DG, on a disc which also includes Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and arias from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Always seeking to expand her artistic horizons, Miss Battle was joined by leading jazz musicians for her first crossover album, So Many Stars (Sony Classical), a collection of lullabies, spirituals, and folksongs.
Kathleen Battle has made immeasurable contributions as an ambassador for classical music, performing for Presidents and dignitaries, and attracting diverse new audiences through television broadcasts of her operas and concerts, as well as through appearances on popular network talk shows. Her performance on the PBS broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s 1991 season opening gala won her an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Classical Program on Television. A documentary film on the recording of Sony’s Baroque Duet album with Wynton Marsalis and John Nelson conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s was nominated for an Emmy. Miss Battle’s critically acclaimed “Metropolitan Opera Presents” performances of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, and Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia are available on DG VHS and DVD, while Sony has captured her Zerlina in Karajan’s production of Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival as well.
Praised for the keen intelligence, which informs her musical sensitivity, Kathleen Battle earned both her Bachelor and Master degrees from the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. She has been awarded eight honorary doctoral degrees—from her Alma Mater, the University of Cincinnati; Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey; Ohio University; Xavier University in Cincinnati; Amherst College; Seton Hall University; Wilberforce University, Ohio; Manhattanville College; and the Shawnee State University. In honor of her outstanding artistic achievements, Miss Battle was inducted into the “NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame”, and in 2002 into the “Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame”. She is the first recipient of the “Ray Charles Award” bestowed upon her by Wilberforce University. Heady accomplishments indeed for an artist whose earliest connection to music was simply feeling “blessed to have a voice that somebody else wanted to hear.”
Kathleen Deanna Battle (born August 13, 1948) is an American operaticsoprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone.[1][2] Born in Portsmouth, Ohio,
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. Battle expanded her
repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera
in 1994. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a
concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016.[3]
Life and career
Early years and musical education
Battle was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, US, the youngest of seven children. Her father was a steelworker, and her mother was an active participant in the gospel music of the family's African Methodist Episcopal church. Battle attended Portsmouth High School where her music teacher and mentor was Charles P. (Phil) Varney. In a 1985 Time Magazine
interview, Varney recalled the first time he heard the eight-year-old
Battle sing, describing her as "this tiny little thing singing so
beautifully." "I went to her later", Varney recalled, "and told her God
had blessed her, and she must always sing."[4] In that same interview, music critic Michael Walsh described Battle as "the best lyric coloratura in the world".[4] Battle was awarded a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where she studied voice with Franklin Bens and also worked with Italo Tajo.[5]
She majored in music education, and proceeded to a master's degree in
Music Education. In 1971 she began a teaching career at an inner-city
public school in Cincinnati, continuing to study voice privately while
teaching 5th and 6th grade music. Later, she studied singing with Daniel Ferro in New York.[6]
1970s
In 1972, her second year as a teacher, a friend and fellow church choir member phoned her and informed her that the conductor Thomas Schippers was holding auditions in Cincinnati. At her audition Schippers engaged her to sing as the soprano soloist in Brahms' German Requiem at the 1972 Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Her performance there on July 9, 1972 marked the beginning of her professional career.[7][8]
During the next several years, Battle would go on to sing in several
more orchestral concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland.[5]
In 1973 she was awarded a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund
for Music to support her career. William Mullen, managing director of
the Santa Fe Concert Association was on the panel of judges who made the
award. In 2004 he recalled:
We would meet monthly, listen to up-and-coming concert artists and give
money to deserving artists for further study. A very young Kathleen
Battle sang for us. The other judges thought her voice was too small,
but I thought she had an incredible ability to communicate through
music. I talked the other judges into giving her a grant.[9]
During this period, she received three Grammy awards for her recordings: Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart (1986), Salzburg Recital (1987), and Ariadne auf Naxos (1987). Battle's 1986 collaboration with guitarist Christopher Parkening entitled Pleasures of Their Company
was nominated for the Classical Album of the Year Grammy award. She
also received the Laurence Olivier Award (1985) for her stage
performance as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Royal Opera
House, London. Critical response to Battle's performances had rarely
varied throughout the years following her debut. In 1985, Time Magazine pronounced her "the best lyric coloratura soprano in the world".[4]
1990s
The 1990s saw projects ranging from a concert program and a CD devoted to spirituals to a recording of baroque music, from performances of complete operas to recitals and recordings with jazz musicians.
In 1990, Battle and Jessye Norman performed a program of spirituals at Carnegie Hall with James Levine conducting.[17] In the same year, she returned to Covent Garden to sing Norina in Don Pasquale and performed in a series of solo recitals in California, as well as appearing at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic".[12][18]
Battle's Carnegie Hall solo recital debut came on April 27, 1991 as
part of the hall's Centennial Festival. Accompanied by pianist Margo
Garrett, she sang arias and songs by Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Richard Strauss, as well as several traditional spirituals. The contralto Marian Anderson,
who had ended her farewell tour with a recital at Carnegie Hall in
April 1965, was in the audience that night and Battle dedicated
Rachmaninoff's "In the Silence of the Secret Night" to her.[19] The recording of the recital earned Battle her fourth Grammy award. Another first came in January 1992 when Battle premiered André Previn's song cycle Honey and Rue with lyrics by Toni Morrison. The work was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and composed specifically for Battle.[20]
In December 1993 she was joined by Martin Katz and Kenny Barron on piano and Grady Tate (drums), Grover Washington, Jr. (saxophone) and David Williams (bass) at Carnegie Hall for a concert featuring the music of Handel, Haydn, and Duke Ellington as well as Christmas spirituals.[21] During this time she also collaborated with other musicians including trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in a recording of baroque arias entitled, Baroque Duet; violinist Itzhak Perlman on an album of Bach arias; and flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal for a recital at Alice Tully Hall (also released on CD). In May 1993 Battle added pop music to her repertoire with the release of Janet Jackson's album Janet, lending her vocals to the song "This Time". An album of Japanese melodies, First Love, followed in November 1993.
On the opera stage, she performed in a variety of Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti operas.[22] Between 1990 and 1993, she performed in several productions at the Metropolitan Opera: Rosina in The Barber of Seville (1990), Pamina in The Magic Flute (1991 and 1993), and Adina (with Luciano Pavarotti as Nemorino) in L'elisir d'amore (1991, 1992, and the Met's 1993 Japan Tour).[15] She also won her fifth Grammy Award in 1993, singing the title role of Semele on the Deutsche Grammophon recording conducted by John Nelson.[23]
Although Battle gave several critically praised performances at
the Metropolitan Opera during the early 1990s, her relationship with the
company's management showed increasing signs of strain during those
years.[24] As Battle's status grew, so did her reputation for being difficult and demanding.[25] In October 1992 when she opened the Boston Symphony Orchestra
season, she reportedly banned an assistant conductor and other
musicians from her rehearsals, changed hotels several times, and left
behind what a report in The Boston Globe called "a froth of ill will".[25] In February 1994, during rehearsals for an upcoming production of La fille du régiment
at the Metropolitan Opera, Battle was said to have subjected her fellow
performers to "withering criticism" and made "almost paranoid demands
that they not look at her."[26] Then-General Manager Joseph Volpe
responded by dismissing Battle from the production for "unprofessional
actions" during rehearsals. Volpe called Battle's conduct "profoundly
detrimental to the artistic collaboration among all the cast members"
and indicated that he had "canceled all offers that have been made for
the future."[25] Battle was replaced in La fille du régiment by Harolyn Blackwell.[27] At the time of her termination from the Met, Michael Walsh of Time magazine reported that "the cast of The Daughter of the Regiment applauded when it was told during rehearsal that Battle had been fired."[26] After she sang with the San Francisco Opera at this time, several backstage workers wore T-shirts that read: "I survived the Battle".[28]
In a statement released by her management company, Columbia Artists,
Battle said: "I was not told by anyone at the Met about any
unprofessional actions. To my knowledge, we were working out all of the
artistic problems in the rehearsals, and I don't know the reason behind
this unexpected dismissal. All I can say is I am saddened by this
decision."[25] Since then, Battle has not performed in opera.
For the remainder of the decade, she worked extensively in the
recording studio and on the concert stage. She was a featured guest
artist on the May 1994 album Tenderness, singing a duet, My Favorite Things, with Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Al Jarreau. In 1995 she presented a program of opera arias and popular songs at Lincoln Center with baritoneThomas Hampson, conductor John Nelson, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's.[29] She also released two albums in 1995: So Many Stars, a collection of folk songs, lullabies, and spirituals (with accompanying live concert performances) with Christian McBride and Grover Washington, Jr. (with whom she had performed in Carnegie Hall the previous year;[30] and Angels' Glory, a Christmas album with guitaristChristopher Parkening, a frequent collaborator.[31] In 1997 came the release of the albums Mozart Opera Arias and Grace, a collection of sacred songs. In October 1998, she joined jazz pianist Herbie Hancock on his album Gershwin's World in an arrangement of Gershwin's Prelude in C♯ minor. December 1999 saw the release of Fantasia 2000 where she is the featured soprano in Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Chorus and conducted by long-time collaborator James Levine. In solo recitals she performed in cities including Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago in programs that featured art songs from a variety of eras and regions, opera arias, and spirituals.
2000–present
Battle
has continued to pursue a number of diverse projects including the
works of composers who are not associated with traditional classical
music, performing the works of Vangelis, Stevie Wonder, and George Gershwin.
In August 2000, she performed an all-Schubert program at Ravinia.[32] In June 2001, she and frequent collaborator sopranoJessye Norman performed Vangelis' Mythodea at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece. In July 2003 she performed at the Ravinia Chicago Symphony Orchestra Gala with Bobby McFerrin and Denyce Graves. In 2006 she and James Ingram sang the song They Won't Go When I Go in a Tribute to Stevie Wonder[33] and she began including Wonder's music in her recitals.[34] In July 2007 she debuted at the Aspen Music Festival performing an all-Gershwin program as part of a season benefit.[35] In October 2007, at a fundraiser for the Keep a Child Alive Charity, Kathleen Battle and Alicia Keys performed the song Miss Sarajevo written by U2's Bono.[36]
Battle singing the Lord's Prayer in honor of the Pope
On April 16, 2008, she sang an arrangement of The Lord's Prayer for Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of his papal visit to the White House. This marks the second time she sang for a pope. (She first sang for Pope John Paul II in 1985 as soprano soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass.)[37] Later that year, she performed "Superwoman" on the American Music Awards with Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah.
Since that time she has appeared in the occasional piano-voice recital,
including a recital of works by Schubert, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff in Costa Mesa, California accompanied by Olga Kern (February 2010) and a recital in Carmel, Indiana accompanied by Joel A. Martin (April 2013).[38][39]
After a 22-year absence from the Metropolitan Opera House, Battle
performed a concert of spirituals at the Met in November 2016.[3]
Broadway debut: Treemonisha in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha (Gunther Schuller, Conductor), (Wednesday and Saturday matinee performances), Uris Theatre, New York City, October 1975.[40]
"Ms. Battle sang with remarkable freshness and
beauty... she sent high phrases soaring and sang with ethereal
elegance... I kept thinking about what a sad loss her absence has been
to opera lovers in New York and around the world... This long program,
with five encores, was her day, her return... The final standing ovation
was tumultuous." —The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini
“The purity and luster of her upper voice was simply ravishing.” —The Washington Post, Joe Banno
"The magic was back and nobody (including her) wanted
it to end... This was easily some of the best singing of her career...
Mesmerizing... Plucked high notes out of the air with spot-on pitch..." —WQXR, David Patrick Stearns
"The distinctive loveliness of her tone was easily discernible...she was magnificent...with impressive intensity." —Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed
"She sounded relaxed, radiating joy, singing with
pinpoint diction, perfect pitch, and elongated phrasing that gave the
impression of endless melody... and when the last pianissimo died
sweetly in the air, everyone knew something special had just happened."
—Detroit Free Press
About
Kathleen Battle’s soaring voice has
carried her to the heights of the classical music world. The range of
the five-time Grammy winner’s repertoire spans three centuries from the
Baroque era to contemporary works, which she performs with symphony
orchestras and in recital halls around the world. Perhaps what
distinguishes this luminous soprano most is her almost magical ability
to create an unwavering bond with audiences through a voice that is
“…without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the
world” (The Washington Post).
Carefully put together, well organized, tightly arranged--there is thoroughness and predictability in the highly successful career of soprano Kathleen Battle.
Even down to the details of making appointments. Reached late Sunday afternoon at her Indian Wells resort hotel between engagements, the Ohio-born singer was agreeable about rescheduling a phone interview to the next day. But a friendly request that she receive a photographer sometime Monday met with an immediate and firm "No," though that syllable was uttered sweetly.
Similarly, in fording the byways of phone conversation, the caller from another part of the California forest senses a certain edge to the little-girl voice at the other end of the telephone when some subjects--such as relationships with colleagues--are broached.
But the 41-year-old Metropolitan Opera singer--whose other principal musical bases seem to be in London, Vienna and Salzburg--can be expansive about those subjects she will treat.
In response to a philosophical question about art and life, she responds carefully: "The question is not, as you ask, if art is enough to fulfill my life, but if I am true to the path I have set for myself, if I am the best I can be in the things I do. Am I living up to the reasons I became a singer in the first place?"
On the steadiness and single-mindedness of her career path, she is voluble.
Outlining the program for her latest Ambassador Auditorium appearance (on Thursday), Battle reveals that the one scheduled operatic item on that agenda is Norina's aria from "Don Pasquale." In the next moment, she mentions that she will sing her first Norina, at Covent Garden, in March.
As she had told the same interviewer three years ago: "I was advised early (in my career) to sing only certain things, and I never thought to do anything else. . . . Early on, there was no question that my voice and talent had a limited scope."
That ostensibly modest statement need not be interpreted as self-deprecation. Within that "limited scope," Battle has conquered worlds.
She refers fleetingly to her eminence in the world of international singers: "Nobody enters this profession to attain celebrity status. We enter because at some time we thought, wouldn't it be nice to make a living at something I love doing?"
And her life, she is quick to point out, careful not to reveal any personal details, consists in more than just being a musician.
"I'm a consumer as well as a performer. Among my leisure-time activities is going to the theater. I'm very interested in that. When I first moved to New York from Cincinnati (12 years ago) I decided to take advantage of all the things the city offers. I go to live events."
And her performing life, both on the stage and on recordings, does not stand still.
"I like collaborations. I had such a satisfying time working with (guitarist) Christopher Parkening (on a joint recording, three years ago). That album was a wonderful experience.
"Feeding on that, I am now halfway through making, for Deutsche Grammophon, an album of Bach arias with (violinist) Itzhak Perlman. We'll finish this summer. It was DG's idea.
"And I'm planning a Baroque album with (trumpeter) Wynton Marsalis, the centerpiece of which will be (Bach's cantata) 'Jauchzet Gott."
She mentions an upcoming commission--"but I can't name the principals, the composer or the librettist." And, tantalizingly, "a project with Jessye Norman," about which she doesn't want to say too much, only that, "It involves spirituals." It's a busy time on this plateau.
"But, it's not as if I'm trying to stretch. I have enough on my plate."
Kathleen Battle was born August 13, 1948, in Portsmouth, Ohio. She is the
youngest of seven children. Her father was a steelworker, and her mother
was an active participant in the gospel music of the family's African
Methodist Episcopal church. Battle attended Portsmouth High School where
her music teacher and mentor was Charles P. (Phil) Varney. In a Time
Magazine interview with music critic Michael Walsh, he recalled first
hearing the eight-year old Battle sing, describing her as "this tiny
little thing singing so beautifully." "I went to her later", Varney
recalled, "and told her God had blessed her, and she must always sing."
In that same interview, Walsh described Battle as "the best lyric
coloratura in the world". Battle was a good student and was awarded a
scholarship to the University of
"Una voce poco fa" Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini)
Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music where she studied voice with Franklin
Bens and also worked with Italo Tajo. She majored in music education
rather than performance in undergraduate school and went on to get a
master's degree in Music Education as well. In 1971 Battle embarked on a
teaching career in Cincinnati, taking a position at a Cincinnati
inner-city public school. While teaching 5th and 6th grade music, she
continued to study voice privately. In 1972, her second year as a
teacher, a friend and fellow church choir member phoned her and informed
her that the conductor Thomas Schippers was holding auditions in
Cincinnati. At her audition Schippers engaged her to sing as the soprano
soloist in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem at the 1972 Festival
dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Her performance there on July 9, 1972
marked the beginning of her professional career.
"Giunse alfin il momento... Deh vienni non tardar"Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart)
During
the next several years, Battle would go on to sing in several more
orchestral concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. In 1973 she
was awarded a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music to
support her career. William Mullen, managing director of the Santa Fe
Concert Association was on the panel of judges who made the award. In
2004 he recalled: "We would meet monthly, listen to up-and-coming
concert artists and give money to deserving artists for further study. A
very young Kathleen Battle sang for us. The other judges thought her
voice was too small, but I thought she had an incredible ability to
communicate through music. I talked the other judges into giving her a
grant." Thomas Schippers introduced Kathleen Battle to his fellow
conductor James Levine who selected Battle to sing the Mater Glorioso in
Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Cincinnati Symphony's May Festival in 1974. This was the beginning of a friendship and close professional
association
between Battle and Levine that would last for years and resulted in
several recordings and performances in recital and concert performances,
including engagements in Salzburg, Ravinia, and Carnegie Hall. In
October 1975, she sang the role of title role in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha
on Broadway in New York City at the Uris Theatre with conductor Gunther
Schuller. Battle made her professional operatic debut in 1975 as Rosina
in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Michigan Opera Theatre. She made her New York City Opera debut the following year as Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and in 1977 made both her San Francisco Opera debut as Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera and her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Shepherd in Wagner's Tannhäuser.
The latter performance was conducted by James Levine. Battle made her
Glyndebourne Festival debut (and UK debut) singing Nerina in Haydn's La fedeltà premiata
in 1979. Throughout the 1980s, Battle performed in recitals, choral
works and opera. Her work continued to take her to performance venues
around the
(part 1)
(part 2)"Großmächtige Prinzessin"Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss)
world. In 1980 she made her Zürich Opera debut as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. In 1982, she made her Salzburg Festival debut in Così fan tutte,
followed three days later by an appearance in one of the Festival's
Mozart Matinee concerts. In 1985, she was the soprano soloist in
Mozart's Coronation Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican,
conducted by Herbert von Karajan. That same year she made her Royal
Opera debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. In 1987 Karajan
invited Battle to sing Johann Strauss' "Frühlingsstimmen" for the Vienna
New Year's Day concert, the only time Karajan conducted the
internationally televised annual event, and the first time a singer had
been engaged for such a contribution. In opera she sang a variety of
roles including Oscar at Chicago Lyric Opera and a highly acclaimed Semele at Carnegie Hall. She returned to Salzburg various times to sing Susanna,
"Frühlingsstimmen" (J. Strauss)
Zerlina,
and Despina, Mozart roles which she also sang at several other opera
houses during that period. Battle became an established artist at the
Metropolitan Opera in the 1980s, singing over 150 performances with the
company in 13 different operas, including the Met's first ever
production of Handel's Giulio Cesare. Other opera houses where
she performed included San Francisco Opera, English National Opera,
Grand Théâtre de Genève, Vienna State Opera, and Deutsche Oper
Berlin.During this period, she received three Grammy awards for her
recordings: Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart (1986), Salzburg Recital (1987), and Ariadne auf Naxos (1987). She also received the Laurence Olivier Award (1985) for
"Da tempeste"Giulio Cesare (Händel)
her stage performance as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos
at the Royal Opera House, London. Critical response to Battle's
performances had rarely varied throughout the years following her debut.
In 1985, Time Magazine, pronounced her "the best lyric coloratura
soprano in the world." The 1990s saw projects ranging from a concert
program and a CD devoted to spirituals to a recording of baroque music,
from performances of complete operas to recitals and recordings with
jazz musicians. In 1990, Battle and Jessye Norman performed a program of
spirituals at Carnegie Hall with James Levine conducting. In the same
year, she returned to Covent Garden to sing Norina in Don Pasquale and
performed in a series of solo recitals in California, as well as
appearing at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic".
Battle's Carnegie Hall solo recital debut came on April 27, 1991 as part
of the hall's Centennial Festival. Accompanied by pianist Margo
Garrett, she sang arias and songs by Handel, Mozart, Liszt,
Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Richard Strauss as well as several
traditional spirituals. The contralto, Marian Anderson, who had
"Pie Jesu" Requiem (Fauré)
ended
her farewell tour with a recital at Carnegie Hall in April 1965, was in
the audience that night as Battle dedicated Rachmaninoff's "In the
Silence of the Secret Night" to her. The recording of the recital earned
Battle her fourth Grammy award. Another first came in January 1992 when
Battle premiered André Previn's song cycle Honey and Rue with
lyrics by Nobel Laureate in Literature Toni Morrison. The work was
commissioned by Carnegie Hall and composed specifically for Battle. In
December 1993 she was joined by Martin Katz and Kenny Barron on piano
and Grady Tate (drums), Grover Washington, Jr. (saxophone) and David
Williams (bass) at Carnegie Hall for a concert featuring the music of
Handel, Haydn, and Duke Ellington as well as Christmas spirituals.
During this time she also collaborated with other musicians including
trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in a recording of baroque arias entitled, Baroque Duet; violinist Itzhak Perlman on an album of Bach arias; and flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal for a recital at Alice Tully Hall
"Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" (Schubert)
(also released on CD). In May 1993 Battle added pop music to her repertoire with the release of Janet Jackson's album Janet lending her vocals to the song, "This Time." An album of Japanese melodies, First Love,
followed in November 1993. On the opera stage, she performed in a
variety of Mozart, Rossini, and Donizetti operas, and made her role
debut as Marie in Donizetti's La fille du régiment at San
Francisco Opera (1993). Between 1990 and 1993, she performed in several
productions at the Metropolitan Opera: Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (1990), Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (1991 and 1993), and Adina (with Pavarotti as Nemorino) in L'elisir d'amore (1991, 1992, and the Met's 1993 Japan Tour). She also won her fifth Grammy Award in 1993, singing the title role of
"Oh! Quand je dors" (Liszt)
Semele
on the Deutsche Grammophon recording conducted by John Nelson. Although
Battle gave several critically praised performances at the Metropolitan
Opera during the early 1990s, her relationship with the company's
management showed increasing signs of strain during those years. As
Battle's status grew, so did her reputation for being difficult and
demanding. The soprano won an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual
Achievement in Classical Music/Dance Programming" for the Metropolitan
Opera Silver Anniversary Gala, 1992. In October 1992 "when Miss Battle
opened the Boston Symphony Orchestra season, she reportedly banned an
assistant conductor and other musicians from her rehearsals, changed
hotels several times, and left behind what a report in The Boston Globe
called 'a froth of ill will.'" In February 1994, during rehearsals for
an upcoming production of La fille du régiment, Battle was said
to have subjected her fellow performers to "withering criticism" and
made "almost paranoid demands that they not look at her." General
Manager Joseph
"Eternal Source of Light Divine" Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (Händel)
Volpe responded by dismissing Battle from the production for
"unprofessional actions" during rehearsals. Volpe called Battle's
conduct "profoundly detrimental to the artistic collaboration among all
the cast members" and indicated that he had "canceled all offers that
have been made for the future." Battle was replaced in La fille du régiment by Harolyn Blackwell. At the time of her termination from the Met, Michael Walsh of Time magazine reported that "the cast of The Daughter of the Regiment
applauded when it was told during rehearsal that Battle had been
fired." In a statement released by her management company, Columbia
Artists, Battle said: "I was not told by anyone at the Met about any
unprofessional actions. To my knowledge, we were working out all of the
artistic problems in the rehearsals, and I don't know the reason behind
this unexpected dismissal. All I can say is I am saddened by this
decision." Since then, Battle has not performed in opera. For the
remainder of the decade, she worked extensively in the recording studio
and on the concert stage. She was a featured guest artist on the May
1994 album Tenderness, singing a duet, "My
"Et incarnatus est" Great Mass in C Minor (Mozart)
Favorite Things," with Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Al Jarreau. In 1995
she presented a program of opera arias and popular songs at Lincoln
Center with baritone Thomas Hampson, conductor John Nelson, and the
Orchestra of St. Lukes. She also released two albums in 1995: So Many Stars
a collection of folk songs, lullabies, and spirituals (with
accompanying live concert performances) with Christian McBride and
Grover Washington, Jr. (with whom she had performed in Carnegie Hall the
previous year; and Angels' Glory, a Christmas album with guitarist Christopher Parkening, a frequent collaborator. In 1997 came the release of the albums Mozart Opera Arias and Grace, a collection of sacred songs. In October
"He Got the Whole World in His Hand" (traditional spiritual)
"Over My Head, I Hear Music in the Air" (traditional spiritual)
1998, she joined jazz pianist Herbie Hancock on his album Gershwin's World in the Ravel's "Prelude In C# Minor." December 1999 saw the release of Fantasia 2000
where she is the featured soprano in Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance"
performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by long-time
collaborator James Levine. In solo recitals she performed in cities
including Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago in programs
that featured art songs from a variety of eras and regions, opera arias,
and spirituals. Battle has continued to pursue a number of diverse
projects including the works of composers who are not associated with
traditional classical music, performing the works of Vangelis, Stevie
Wonder, and George Gershwin. In August 2000, she performed an
all-Schubert program at Ravinia. In
"Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" Requiem (Brahms)
June 2001, she and frequent collaborator soprano Jessye Norman, performed Vangelis' Mythodea at
the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece. In July 2003 she
performed at the Ravinia Chicago Symphony Orchestra Gala with Bobby
McFerrin and Denyce Graves. The director, Zhang Yimou, specifically
requested Ms. Battle to sing the theme "Lovers" for his 2004 film House of Flying Daggers.
In 2006 she and James Ingram sang the song "They Won't Go When I Go" in
a Tribute to Stevie Wonder and she began including Wonder's music in
her recitals. In July 2007 she debuted at the Aspen Music Festival
performing an all-Gershwin program as part of a season benefit. In
October 2007, at a fundraiser for the Keep a Child Alive Charity,
Kathleen Battle and Alicia Keys performed the song "Miss Sarajevo"
written by U2's Bono. On April 16, 2008, she sang an arrangement of "The
Lord's Prayer" for Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of his
"Lovers" House of Flying Daggers
(composed by Shigeru Umebayashi)
Papal State visit to the White House. This marks the second time she
sang for a pope. (She first sang for Pope John Paul II in 1985 as
soprano soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass.) On November 23,
2008, she performed "Superwoman" on the American Music Awards with
Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah. On February 8, 2010, she performed at
Carnegie Hall in a piano-accompanied recital of works by Schubert,
Liszt, and Rachmaninoff. Battle is the recipient of six honorary
doctorates from American universities, including the University of
Cincinnati, Westminster Choir College, Ohio University, Xavier
University, Amherst College, and Seton Hall University. She also
received the NAACP Image Award - Hall of Fame Award in 1999.
THE
MUSIC OF KATHLEEN BATTLE : AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF
RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS
WITH KATHLEEN BATTLE:
Spirituals in Concert
Amazing performance by two Opera Greats:
Kathleen Battle & Jessye Norman
Both shine throughout the concert and it should leave no doubt to anyone
that Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman are indeed two of the finest
sopranos.
James Levine (Conductor)
Hubert Laws (Flute)
Live from Carnegie Hall
March 18, 1990
"Lord, How Come Me Here"
(African American song lament; traditional)
Lord, how come me here?
Lord, how come me here?
Lord, how come me here?
I wish I never was born
There ain't no freedom here, Lord
There ain't no freedom here, Lord
There ain't no freedom here, Lord
I wish I never was born
They treat me so mean here, Lord
They treat me so mean here, Lord
They treat me so mean here, Lord
I wish I never was born
They sold my chillen away, Lord
They sold my chillen away, Lord
They sold my chillen away, Lord
I wish I never was born
Lord, how come me here?
Lord, how come me here?
Lord, how come me here?
I wish I never was born
I wish I never was born
I wish I never was born
Kofi Natambu, editor of and contributor to Sound Projections, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He has written extensively about music as a critic and historian for many publications, including the Black Scholar, Downbeat, Solid Ground: A New World Journal, Detroit Metro Times, KONCH, the Panopticon Review,Black Renaissance Noire, the Village Voice, the City Sun (NYC), the Poetry Project Newsletter (NYC), and the African American Review. He is the author of a biography Malcolm X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: The Melody Never Stops (Past Tents Press) and Intervals (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of Solid Ground: A New World Journal, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology Nostalgia for the Present (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/YBEIPNCRXVFW5E5MNBODPK2CG4)
Kathleen Battle
Angela Bassett 
Kathleen Battle, center, performing a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera | Credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
