Why Was Kathleen Battle Completely Banished From The Opera World And Never Forgiven?

Back in the 1980s or 90s, she sang "Daughter of the Regiment" in San Francisco. She was such a fucking nightmare that the crew were given "I SURVIVED THE BATTLE" t-shirts after she was done, plus she sang off-key when I saw her perform live.

If every opera house in the damn world decides a performer isn't worth the trouble, their career vanishes.

But what did she do that caused her to be regarded as a nightmare?

Her voice is gone now--she couldn't come back even if they let her.

Also, opera has famously happily indulged any number of divas of all races.. but Battle was something else again. A friend of mine who worked at the Met said, "Zinka Milanov and Grace Bumbry and many others were divas, but everyone loved them. Kathleen Battle was not a diva; she was a monster."

I never heard the details, R2, just mentions of "screaming shitfits".

No performer who sings off key can get away with screaming shitfits.

Here's a brief rundown of a few of her more notorious antics:

I loved her appearance on Janet Jackson’s song “This Tine” from the janet. album.

[quote]r2 But what did she do that caused her to be regarded as a nightmare?

For one thing, she demanded that no one in the company look at her… especially at her mouth, for some reason. (But this is from a New York magazine cover story I read around 1990, perhaps.)

From r6 article:

[quote]Kathleen Battle is the most universally despised individual in the world of classical music, transcending all lines of gender, ethnicity, and nationality. To know her is to loathe her.

Oh my.

Sounds like it wasn't just one thing.

She shit in my tuba.

the duke puked tuna in a tuba in Tunis

I think she's tremendous!

Loretta Devine IS Kathleen Battle.

If you haven't noticed...BLM is for men not women.

She returned to The Met in 2016. She's hopefully learned her lesson all these years later.

A favorite of mine from when she sang spirituals with Jessye Norman.

She's hoping to do a comeback with the famous opera divas Renata & Lucia.

By 1994, Battle had burned bridges all over the opera world. The Met was the last house still putting up with her, and that was mostly because she was a protégée of the powerful music director, fellow Ohio native James Levine (whose own public disgrace and exile would take much too long). Levine himself was no longer actually working with Battle by then, but he was willing to let her still be everyone else's problem.

I don't usually armchair-DSM people, but I believe Battle had/has a legitimate personality disorder. That, combined with the coddling and indulgence she got, the way people fed into her perceptions that she was an extraordinary being, made for a combustible mixture. She got worse and worse through the years. The targets of her abuse and bullying started out as the "little people" of the theater: makeup artists, costume fitters, stagehands, lighting techs. Then she moved up to fellow singers. Then she set her sights on visiting conductors (including Trevor Pinnock, who didn't know how to respond, and Christian Thielemann, who did). By the end, she actually thought she could treat the house's general manager like a lackey. That GM, Joseph Volpe, publicly fired her over Levine's objections.

There was nowhere for her to go in opera after that. Her behavior in later years, on the recital circuit, demonstrated either she had learned nothing or she was just incapable of changing.

She also may have overestimated how valuable she was. Great voices are always valued in opera, and if someone has a fan base, they'll get a great deal of leeway. But Battle was a light soprano. She was 45 years old in 1994. At no point in opera history has anyone ever said, "Gosh, where are we ever going to find a Despina for Così fan tutte, a Sophie for Rosenkavalier, an Adina for L'elisir d'amore?" She sang roles there are always younger women coming up and learning, but carried herself as though she were the world's leading Brünnhilde.

Ms. Battle was an uppity black person who got what she deserved.

Mary!

I knew a pianist who accompanied her in recital. Whenever she had a memory slip in a piece of music, she would stop, turn to the pianist and tell the audience that the pianist had played a wrong note and had thrown her off. Not a way to win friends and influence people.....By all accounts this WAS who she was.

On the other hand, her performance in the 1989 TV broadcast of Carmina Burana is breathtakingly beautiful. I'm linking the last section to hear her at her best - she sings two gorgeous solos, one at 1:16 and one at 5:08.

I saw Kathleen Battle in concert at Carnegie Hall a short time after she had been fired. Her behavior was the most bizarre I've ever seen for someone of her renown. I believe it was the orchestra of St Luke's but I can't remember who the conductor was, who were accompanying her that evening. During one aria the tempo apparently wasn't to her liking and she wanted to speed it up. She looked over at the conductor and made a motion with her hand as if to say "Hey bud, let's speed up this tempo."

The temple must still not have been to her liking because, in the course of singing, she made her way over to the conductor and again made that same gesture with her hand. But apparently, the tempo still was it fast enough for her, because she proceeded to lift up the hem of her dress so that the whole audience could see her stamp her dainty little foot on the floor, indicating the faster tempo that she was demanding the orchestra and conductor to take. I remember looking around the audience to see if anyone else was reacting to this truly bizarre behavior. I have never seen anything else like it, ever.

It truly was the most freakish behavior I've ever seen of a professional singer, and truly contemptuous of the orchestra, conductor, and the audience. I have never forgotten it.

R1 Ha! I had a young friend who was in the chorus for some of her shows back then and he told me the exact same thing about the T-shirts. He is still performing and tours internationally. I don't think he is a big name, but a steady career in opera for a black man is nothing to sneeze at.

[quote]I knew a pianist who accompanied her in recital. Whenever she had a memory slip in a piece of music, she would stop, turn to the pianist and tell the audience that the pianist had played a wrong note and had thrown her off. Not a way to win friends and influence people.....By all accounts this WAS who she was.

Still the case as late as the later 2000s. Around '07, there were accounts of her abusing her pianist in full view of the crowd at one of the summer festivals out west.

This is where I think she's different from a Lea Michele. Michele seems to know what's up and what people are saying and can behave better, even if it's only for self-preservation and career ambition, not because "Yay, now she's suddenly nice!" I think Battle is a prisoner of her nature. And she just doesn't GET that there's anything wrong with the things she's done. When Carol Vaness publicly confronted her after the infamous Met Nozze di Figaro run, called her the worst colleague she'd ever had and said she had instructed her agent never to book her with Battle again, Battle reportedly started shrieking, "What did I do? I never did anything to her!"

Well with a name like Battle there could be a familial belligerence.

R23- honestly, it sounds like the conductor was the wrong in that story. I mean, PICK UP THE FUCKING TEMPO. She shouldn’t have to ask more than once.

R27, it's just not done to publicly have a disagreement with the conductor about the tempo. One must be professional. Besides, that's what rehearsal is for, to work all of that out before the performance. And I mean, stomping the stage with your foot because she doesn't get what she wants? Horrible behavior.

It shouldn’t have come to that. He should’ve picked up the tempo as soon she motioned for it. Then there is no public disagreement.

From what I remember at that Carnegie Hall concert, the tempo was fine. It was the alternate aria from Barber of Seville that sometimes gets put in for Rosina the second act. Kathleen Battle was just being an enormous bitch.

[quote]Kathleen Battle was just being an enormous bitch.

I won't check the almanac, but I'll guess it was one of the days the sun rose in the east.

I had a pianist who proceeded to play the most absurd tempo to a lieder song that I has to stop him TWICE and begin again.

Usually the show must go over and you cover but this dolt chose allegro times 10 and I couldn't even distinguish the bars.

In the third run, he completely ignored me and played the same damn tempo again and I just had to start singing no matter where he was in the score.

It was most embarrassing.

I have a suspicion that some pianists are quite elitist and think THEY know better.

I have sympathy for Battle in that regard.

[quote]I never heard the details, [R2], just mentions of "screaming shitfits".

In my experience, dramatic operas consist of very little besides screaming shitfits.

I believe the Marriage incident was she removed all of Vaness's stuff from the star's dressing room so she could have it. Vaness had the leading role in the opera so would have the best dressing room. Battle would have none of it. As long as she was in the performance she would have the no 1 dressing room.

What got her fired was that during a rehearsal of Fille du Regiment she reduced the Met's beloved old mezzo Rosiland Elias to tears. Elias in a scene must accompany Battle's character on the piano. She is supposed to be playing badly so Elias played badly. In spite of this Battle started berating her in front of the entire company. Volpe at that point told her she she was out. Despite the pleading of her, her agent and Levine Volpe said she was out. What was remarkable was that Battle was so famous that people who knew very little about opera were discussing it. She at that point in time was that rarest of commodities an opera singer who could sell an enormous number of tickets. She transcended racism. What she couldn't transcend was making everybody she worked with miserable no matter how many tickets she sold. Opera a dying art form couldn't afford to be without her but still got rid of her. And nobody but nobody came to her defense.

R32 your pianist hated you. And clearly you had so little clout he could play exactly as he wanted to and sink you in front of an entire audience.

[quote]Opera a dying art form couldn't afford to be without her but still got rid of her.

Size and median age of the audience is a perennial concern in opera, but the Met enjoyed flush times for all of the '90s (not so much in the 2000s and 2010s). They could survive the loss of a single audience favorite without much consequence. Domingo and Pavarotti (separately) were still selling out a lot of shows, and there were younger names to get excited about: Dessay, Fleming, Gheorghiu, Mattila, Voigt, Von Otter, Bartoli, Graves, Zajick, Alagna, Hvorostovsky, Hampson, Terfel, Pape...

[quote] makeup artists, costume fitters, stagehands, lighting techs.

Little do they know that lighting techs make more than most non-famous opera singers.

[quore]I had a pianist who proceeded to play the most absurd tempo to a lieder song that I has to stop him TWICE and begin again.

This is what rehearsals are for. Did you really perform in front of an audience without prior practice?

When Volpe fired her it was one of the few moments of opera/classical music news that broke out to the wider public and became a brief national story. The cognoscenti knew the rumors of how awful she was but to most of the public who were aware of her she was this gorgeous, gorgeous-voiced, talented, charming minx. What Volpe did was significant because it meant her opera career was over and let others in the world shun her for good. She still had her recordings (including a Mozart disc with Predator Jimmy that had been in the can for years) and concertizing, but her superstar years were done. A sad-ish ending perhaps but she had a better career than most. She was not one of the all time greats, and especially as she grew older, her style become insufferably cloying and cutesy. But she had a beautiful voice which, small as it was, projected well.

[quote]It shouldn’t have come to that. He should’ve picked up the tempo as soon she motioned for it.

This is correct. If the singer wants to change the tempo, you change the tempo. That's how it works. There may be some instances where a young, untrained singer is forced to deal with what the the conductor wants regardless of their own wishes, but the vast majority of time, the soloist (instrument or voice) dictates the tempo and the conductor knows this.

Kathleen Battle being a terrible human being doesn't suddenly change the rules. The conductor in this instance was out of line.

Outside of Domingo, Pavarotti, Fleming and Bartoli none of the others were going to sell tickets in Battle numbers no matter how good they were.(yes they were wonderful) And of the first 4 superstar singers how many performances were they going to do in a Met season?

A friend who worked at the Met told me a story about why Kathleen Battle hadn't been fired before she was. There was a quid pro quo with her and James Levine. Apparently he procured her drugs and she got him little boys. True or not, that's what he told me.

There's a thought -- her behavior and irritability, not showing up to rehearsals she demanded, etc were drug-related. Wouldn't drugs have affected her voice?

Even if there weren't drugs involved, threatened exposure would've been enough to keep him loyal.

I'd be skeptical, because I've heard a version of that story about other female singers at the Met in Levine's time: that they kept being offered contracts because they had dirt on Levine. Since it was widespread knowledge that there was "dirt" to "have" about Levine, it was an easy story to sell.

But I usually can pinpoint other reasons Levine's favorite divas were his favorite divas.

“I has to stop him twice”

- perhaps the pianist knew that an illiterate idiot was ruining a song, so he decided to take matters into his own hands?

[Quote]There was a quid pro quo with her and James Levine. Apparently he procured her drugs and she got him little boys. True or not, that's what he told me.

R42 I wouldn't be surprised if it is true. Drugs might've explained her erratic behavior. Rumors did connect Levine to young black boys, like the ones depicted behind Miss Battle. It's a sick world, and nothing surprises me anymore.

[Quote]Wouldn't drugs have affected her voice?

Chaka Khan was a drug user for many years, but it never affected her voice (she was high as a kite while singing here). In fact, Etta James was also a drug addict (heroin and cocaine), but it didn't affect her voice, either. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Kathleen Battle had a magnificent voice, but she was also bipolar. She apparently had her manic side which made her workable, but her depressions were devastating to everyone.

In this interview she starts out fine until the lady asks her about her troubles. Instead of taking the bait, Kathleen walks out on her. Just a sample of her inability to cope with stress. I have seen her and she was glorious.

Wow, I knew who Kathleen Battle was but had no idea what a shrew she is. This is why I love DL.

a good friend worked for Deutsche Grammophon in the eighties and early nineties. he has HUNDREDS of stories about what a diva bitch she was. she clearly was super insecure and reacted by haughty diva antics.

yes, the story about her calling her agent about her chauffeur's driving while in the backseat is true. Also, showing up hours late for recording sessions (everyone on the clock, itzahk perlman, everyone) to go shopping. . . .

Does anyone know how her attitude is nowadays? Also, how's her financial situation? What does she do for money, now that her opera career is non-existent.

I am fascinated by her. Her presentation was stunning, those silk dresses and wraps, her hair in a chignon, that beautiful face and a voice that defies explanation. What a pleasure she was to behold. Her attitude and antics add to the fascination. Every few weeks I check to see if a new round of concert performances have been announced. I'm dying to see her.

Second to Judy, this is the best version of Over the Rainbow that I've ever heard.

This is so much fun.

This is weird.

I have enjoyed this thread.

Thank you R52

She behaved like an entitled monster. She bullied mercilessly and paid the price. Seems fair. Many in life get away with appalling behaviour.

The pianist had to be replaced at the last moment due illness on the night. There could be no rehearsal but clear instruction to play at the tempo marked,

Not make up your own as he did!

Even fellow colleagues commented on him going rogue on the night.

[quote] " It shouldn’t have come to that. He should’ve picked up the tempo as soon she motioned for it." "This is correct. If the singer wants to change the tempo, you change the tempo. That's how it works. There may be some instances where a young, untrained singer is forced to deal with what the the conductor wants regardless of their own wishes, but the vast majority of time, the soloist (instrument or voice) dictates the tempo and the conductor knows this."

Again, this is what REHEARSALS are for: to work out tempi, phrasing, timing, rubato, dynamics, etc. Of course, the accompanist should comply with the singer's artistic wishes during the rehearsals, but for the any singer or instrumentalist to stray significantly from pre-agreed upon styles during a live performance is insane and just inviting trouble.

[quote]There could be no rehearsal but clear instruction to play at the tempo marked.

You pays your money, you takes your chances. You should NEVER have performed without a rehearsal, even a brief one.

The conductor (or pianist, or whoever is accompanying) needs to keep to the tempo the soloist/performer wants during the performance.

Obviously, if a performer has a history of rehearsing at one tempo and then always changing it that night, they will get a reputation, probably some arguments, but the bottom line is that the orchestra and/or accompaniment follows the soloist.

Carol Vaness has a long history of her own issues, R25.

Whew, gurl, I was a semi-pro musician briefly and there were plenty of times I had to play without rehearsal. Sometimes, I was sight reading!

I'll give you a moment so you can clutch your pearls.

Lol, R42. That never happened.

A lot of people here are obviously not performers.

Having to stop is a kind of nuclear option. It's the very very last thing you want to do and makes you look bad and look foolish even when the fault lies elsewhere.

Normally you just soldier on like most performers do and try and cover for mistakes. That's stock standard show must go on attitude.

When you HAVE to stop then something really bad is happening during the perfofmance to make the moment unsustainable.

[quote]And of the first 4 superstar singers how many performances were they going to do in a Met season?

How many performances was KB going to do in a Met season? I looked at her last four seasons (1989-90 through 1992-93). She sang one opera in each of the first three (Barber, Flute, and Elisir, respectively), two operas in the last (a mix of Flutes and Elisirs). Of the 200-something performances in a typical Met season, an average of ten featured her. Not exactly a "house diva" who was all over the schedule from September through May.

Now, if you had a new production of Elisir d'amore with 14 performances to sell tickets to, I wouldn't dispute that Kathleen Battle as Adina would get tickets moving more briskly than, say, Ruth Ann Swenson as Adina. (Although if Pavarotti were Nemorino, as he often was in those days, it might not matter much.) But my main point was that severing ties with Battle didn't affect the Met's bottom line in any significant way. She was gone in 1994, and they continued throughout that decade with very strong numbers on potential revenue. The decline began in 2001-02.

Battle was a huge household name star, in terms of the general public’s understanding of the opera world. She could sell out the Met, even in soubrette roles. By the time she was fired at the Met, she was still selling out houses easily, but her voice was in decline and the writing was on the wall. A lot of the meltdowns that happened in those final couple of opera seasons for her were because she couldn’t sing what she was engaged for. The role in Fille du Regiment was too heavy and too high for her at that point. She always struggled with the very top of her voice and that role required (at least at the major opera houses) a Joan Sutherland level high voice, easy high e flats and e’s. Something Battle always struggled with. She wasn’t a high coloratura. She was a soubrette with a creamy sound and a bit of an extension at the top.

I imagine that a lot of the crazy stuff like the “don’t look at me in the rehearsal room” was a result of the panic that the voice wasn’t working at it used to. And as a result she lashed out at everyone. I’ve seen it happen multiple times throughout my own career, I went through a period of it myself. The pressure is intense at the top to deliver, and when the voice is no longer working, personality issues can come to the fore. We also cannot discount what she went through as a black woman throughout her career. Black women are expected to be stoic and easy at every turn, otherwise they get labeled as crazy. I would imagine the way Volpe handled her then would not go over well now. It was regarded as a power play at the time by other singers. He did the something similar to Gheorgiu. Volpe was quite notoriously misogynistic and cunty and ran the house like a low level mafia bitch. He had a LONG list of his own problems as well that would easily outstrip anything Battle ever did.

I’m not making excuses for her, just trying to give some perspective. Also, I’ve worked with singers for decades and I can easily say that opera singers are some of the most emotionally unstable people on the planet. It takes a very specific type of personality to do this job. She unfortunately ran into the monster part and it overtook her.

This is how a PROFESSIONAL musicians handles a situation when they go into a live performance "cold" - no prior rehearsal. Please note: it is the SOLOIST who made all the accommodations in this case . . .

There are only two other instances, of which I am aware, of this kind of thing happening.

The first was with Alicia de Larrocha performing with the Norfolk Symphony. At the REHEARSAL, the conductor programmed Nights in the Gardens of Spain but Ms. Alicia can prepared to play the Ravel Piano Concerto. There was a bit of confusion at first when the piano and the orchestra broke into two entirely different pieces on the downbeat, but then de Larrocha just shrugged her shoulders and said: "Oh well, Nights in the Gardens of Spain it is!" and played it through perfectly without a score.

The second was when a reporter friend of mine was interviewing Helene Grimaud prior to a performance in Chicago. She thought the Beethoven #4 was on the program but the #5 (Emperor) was actually scheduled. She threw a hissy-fit and was getting ready to cancel the performance outright. I don't recall how the matter was resolved, but it shows the clear differences when you juxtapose a true and professional musician who knows and understands the great literature with a narcissistic, johnny one-note hack.

Oops. Forgot to link the article and performance:

the same friend mentioned that KB got huffy when in a glowing review of her spirituals album she did with jessye norman when she was cited as "black opera singer". Someone form deutsche grammophon mentioned this to Ms Norman and her reply apparently was, "Well, someone had to tell her. . . "

another friend actually performed a recital with her when she tried for a "come back". we of course asked what she was like and he said that she was very hung up on the "choreography" of the recital, when she'd place her hand on her heart, when she'd turn to the pianist et al.

and very quiet

Battle sounded like a real battle-axe!

You waited 71 posts for that?

Every human being on the planet (except the Orange Skidmark) have assets and liabilities. Very few have a voice like hers. I bought a CD by her 'So Many Stars' way back when and have listened to it numerous times over those years. Her voice is sublime and the songs on that album are magical.

Give the girl a break!

no, not a break. if james levine can be fired and not exonerated for his abuse of power, albeit greater, she should face the same. her voice in her prime was great, but I've worked with many others, renee flemming, Jan deGaetani, Christine Goerke, Stephanie Blythe, NONE treated others as underlings and never has harshly as Battle did. Battle deserves to live out her golden years in solitude without praise

No one’s irreplaceable.

Damn she looked crazy in that clip where she walked out on the interview. I mean shithouse rat crazy. Even before she was offended, the baby voice and flickering facial expressions made her look like an over the top Tennessee Williams’ character.

There was a pre-scandal PBS documentary about Battle that took her home to Portsmouth, where it soon became clear that no one in her family was particularly happy to have her back in town. Gorgeous and unmistakable voice, though.

One of the best recitals I have ever been to was by her at the Kennedy Center in DC. (I’m guessing around 1986). Utterly sublime. The audience held its breath for each song.

She could even fill a space as big as the MET because the sound was so focused.

She’s however couldn’t play the ingenue much longer, but that’s all her voice would allow her to do. It’s not like she was going to graduate to heavy bel canto roles like Lucia and Norma.

Years after the firing, she had a mild comeback of sorts on the recital tour again. I think she even sang for the Pope. This time the voice was less flexible and clear but there were still some gorgeous moments.

She’s still pretty young for an opera singer but her career is over.

Definitely mental issues. She also thought way too highly of herself and that she was irreplaceable.

Truthfully, when she was fired, when companies did try to replace her, it was always with someone with less sparkle (like Harolyn Blackwell).

Sadly Battle’s recordings, though lovely, only hint at how beautiful her voice was live.

I actually think Battle was okay in that interview. It’s tense and awkward for a subject to leave, but they’re attending voluntarily and can conclude the chat at any time. It’s not like they’ve been summoned before Congress.

I’ve never been able to find the old footage of fellow diva Raquel Welch walking out on a Cindy Adams interview. I think it was in the 80s on Entertainment Tonight (?)

Unhooking her microphone, Welch said, “Everyone told me not to meet with you. ‘She’s a BARRACUDA,’ they said!”

Long article detailing Raquel’s transgressions:

R77, at Kent State where she went to school others thought the more “talented” folks would go on to big performance careers and she’d stick around o do education. . . . . .

R80, no, you are obliged to stay for a period of time, that was uncalled for

Ms. Kathleen Battle returned to the MET 22 years after she was banished for a recital concert. It was well received and even the lady's worst critics admitted it was wort hearing her sing again.

I worked in classical musical sales for many years in the NY tri state area when people were still going to buy music in stores. People in the industry did not go around trashing performers openly because hey they made us our salaries. They were why we were being paid.

BUT, and this was a very big but, it was always open season on Battle and Levine. Nobody cared how much money they made for the labels, stores and institutions.

And as for the slur on Vaness she was a great diva who most likely had her foibles as they all do but not one negative comment was ever made about her that I know of. And I talked with most people in the business.

Then you don’t know many people R84. Carol Vaness was a bag of crazy.

What's the big deal??

The sales forces only knew the Battle and the Levine crazy. They clearly brought it to a spectacular level. I wouldn't mind hearing some of the Vaness stories. I personally loved her art. But she was never fired from the Met for lack of professionalism or forced out due to sexual depravity.

I know this is armchair psychology, but this type of behavior often seems to come from a place of deep insecurity, which is odd for such a singularly gifted woman.

Putting the diva behavior aside, one thing I'm struck by with her concert and recording work, is how beautifully and seamlessly she blended the worlds and sounds of classic Western opera with the influence of jazz, spirituals and the American songbook composers' styles of the early/mid 20th century. It's such a beautiful, uniquely American sound that she's captured again and again. That 2016 performance of Over My Head that someone posted way up thread was GORGEOUS.

Anyone else a fan of Honey & Rue? It's a song cycle she commissioned from Toni Morrison and Andre Previn in the early 90s. I've never seen it performed live, but LOVE the recording. It perfectly encapsulates the blending of those influences. On that same album she recorded a beautiful Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and a couple of songs from Porgy & Bess. All gorgeous stuff.

Pie Jesu

Thank you R88.

Would Jimmy really have time to be a dope fiend/dealer between rehearsing ARIADNE AUF NAXOS and cruising young boys in Central Park?

R91, plus, one can get drugs from so many other dealers without having to procure boys.

The story is ridiculous

It’s completely ridiculous, R92. And it was never Battle that was part of those procurer rumors, it was Renata Scotto, who Levine had given several big roles at the Met extending her career when she was well past her sell by date, raising a lot of eyebrows.

[quote] (Vaness) was never fired from the Met for lack of professionalism or forced out due to sexual depravity.

Charles Castronovo might have something to say about that considering the bizarre, uncomfortable, and completely inappropriate thirty year difference “relationship” she had with him when he was barely twenty, following him around like an obsessed weirdo to every gig he did as her career had basically collapsed. I specifically remember watching her at Santa Fe as she followed him around the campus like he was on a leash in the early aughts making sure he never spoke to female apprentices and watching him like a hawk as everyone side eyed and giggled uncomfortably and gawked.

R34, whatever else went down in the notorious Vaness/Battle FIGARO showdown, the Countess is a major role, but Susanna is one of the longest sings for any soprano. No one sings in that opera more than Susanna.

Mozart operas don't really fit the 19th century status structure that surrounds later operas. There are three or four good female parts. in most of them and the 'prima donna' isn't always obvious. Figaro is a good case - Susanna sings more, but the Countess gets the best stuff with her big arias while Susanna has to soubrette around for a couple of hours before she gets Deh vieni. In curtain calls she usually is the last female out these days, as the title character comes out last and she is Figaro's pairing, with the Count and Countess the next rank down. Opera houses have their own ranking anyway when they allot dressing rooms. I once read an interview with the great Lucia Popp taking place in the Royal Opera's top dressing room when she was singing Annchen in Freischutz - not the heroine and top female part normally, that's Agathe (I forget who was playing her - someone like Hannelore Bode, below Popp in the pecking order. .

The clip at r48 is telling. This gurl ain't right. But in her defense re walking out on the interview it had been agreed beforehand that the journalist would not reference any bad or difficult behavior. And the bitch did.

Years ago a friend promoted a show in France in which a lot of famous old timers performed.

I recall at one point during her performance Petula Clark raised her hands over her head and began clapping. Most people thought she was just being exuberant but it was clear to us at least, that she was signaling the orchestra to pick up the tempo. And they did. This is how pros work together successfully.

[quote] There was a quid pro quo with her and James Levine. Apparently he procured her drugs and she got him little boys.

What a crazy rumor. How the hell would she have been supposed to have found little boys to bring to him? Was she supposed to have hung out at playgrounds with a butterfly net?

I saw a conductor screw up royally the pacing on a Norma duet during a caballé and Marilyn horne recital. They dealt with it by vocally trying to deal with it without stopping him. And they were obviously two of the biggest singers in the entire world. Even I was thinking what in hell is he doing. But no way in hell were they going to stop the recital to reproach says the reason or correct him.

I’m sure a progressive revisionist is working on changing the narrative with her to racism.

Faye Dunaway, no work = Crazy white Cunt

Kathleen Battle, no work = Racism against a Black woman

No one is doing that R99. Calm down.

As far as the Vaness/Battle dressing room drama, Vaness was never at the level of Battle. Vaness was at best a house star at the Met and to a lesser extent an American opera star. She had very little influence or bookings outside of America. Battle was a STAR, as in the real thing. Face and name recognition the world around and recording contracts. Top fee everywhere she went and easily selling out every venue she appeared at.

Also, the Met doesn’t really have “star” dressing rooms. The dressing rooms suite for the principals on the stage level are basically all the same. If Battle had a favorite dressing room that Vaness was occupying because the artistic liaison wasn’t paying attention, that might have been a problem.

Baby voice = Incest Survivor

I once read a story about her contacting her assistant or manager by cell phone to relay messages to her limo driver (while Kathleen was in the back seat). But I think I heard that about Cilla Black, too - so maybe it's just an urban myth that gets constantly retold with the hated diva of the day playing the shrew.

R102 Did she put a hamster up her ass too?

I heard they had to pump a bunch of cum up outta her stomach, allegedly…

I heard that too, R104

Who indeed?

I don't think she was being unreasonable in walking out in that interview clip at all. If you listen at the end, the reporter does say that they had agreed there wouldn't be any questions asked about her rumored temperament. But the reporter went and asked them anyway. You break the agreement, the interview is over.

Seems the reporter was the one who was being unprofessional.

She never learned to roll with the punches. And, believe me, in this business they come left, right and below the belt.

In few words: Because she was a cunt. Treated people horribly. Finally treated the wrong people horribly.

So I guess this means that she still has a sparkling career on the Broadway musical stage awaiting her.

I recall reading about the incident with Rosalind Elias but also another incident which was said to have prompted the firing. During a Met rehearsal, Battle got into an argument with conductor Christian Thielemann about the tempo of her singing. She stormed off the stage and went to her dressing room. She had someone take a message to general manager Joe Volpe, demanding that he come to her dressing room immediately to listen to her grievances. Volpe chose not to go, so Battle left the building. When Thielemann was later asked to comment on the situation, he said (not exact quote): "Kathleen Battle is an excellent singer and I'm sorry I won't have the opportunity to work with her."

Battle/MAME!

My goodness. Her behavior was tolerated too long. More importantly, she is WAY TOO OLD to be a professional opera singer NOW.

She has nobody to blame but herself. There are so many people all over the world who have ruined themselves. She is only one of millions over the millennia. Self-destruction.

Plus, nobody should have to work with such an abusive superior, and whole companies of underlings have been abused by this woman already! Why didn't someone sue the company for being forced to work beside her?!

Christiann Thielemann is a gay Nazi. And a cunt. So, there’s that.

Because they’d never have worked again at the time R113. Things have changed now. Underlings are much braver. See: Met chorus getting a famous old director fired for inappropriate behavior recently.

R114 = Daniel Barenboim.

Walking out of a taped interview, no matter the reason, never looks good

LOL@r118!!!

I meant LOL@r108!!!

it's correct, she just didn't ever have it

[quote]As far as the Vaness/Battle dressing room drama, Vaness was never at the level of Battle. Vaness was at best a house star at the Met and to a lesser extent an American opera star. She had very little influence or bookings outside of America. Battle was a STAR, as in the real thing. Face and name recognition the world around and recording contracts. Top fee everywhere she went and easily selling out every venue she appeared at.

Battle had been singing at the Met for about eight years at that point, and Vaness was just starting out. Comparing their drawing power at that point is silly (although in time Vaness had many fans). The bottom line: Battle was bullying and abusing someone less powerful because she felt she could get away with it. She had a pretty good gig going at that, until she stepped up in weight class and started showing her ass to people who could take her down.

[quote]Also, the Met doesn’t really have “star” dressing rooms. The dressing rooms suite for the principals on the stage level are basically all the same. If Battle had a favorite dressing room that Vaness was occupying because the artistic liaison wasn’t paying attention, that might have been a problem.

It wasn't about it being her "favorite dressing room." They were identical. She wanted it because the number on it was "1," and it had nothing to do with who was the bigger name; it's where the Met always put the soprano singing the Countess, not the soprano singing Susanna.

One conclusion to reach is that Battle was irrational, monstrously egocentric even for an opera diva,, and probably psychologically disturbed.

Another is that she was simply "around" for a startling number of situations in which very understandable and justifiable behavior was misunderstood, and there must be some way to fix the blame on the artistic administration, other singers, conductors, pianists, reporters, and anyone else in a Kathleen Battle story who isn't Kathleen Battle.

Did Kathleen Battle ever pose nude for Playboy?

Mine eyes have *not* seen the Battle, Rudy.

R48. Battle's patterns of behavior are more typical of an Axis II Cluster B pathology - she most likely was a mix of histrionic and anti-social.

Unlike Mariah Carey, who became manic on camera and started taking her clothes off while on a MTV live show, I don't recall psychotic behaviors of Battle's that were reported in the press. She was never hospitalized - unheard of for those who suffer mania (which is a medical emergency).

There are many medications that can treat bipolar disorder, and ECT and ketamine as well. Cluster B personality disorders are very hard to treat - there are no FDA approved medications, for example. And so many Cluster Bs have no insight and think that others are the problem.

That said, I loved her recordings with Christopher Parkening.

She was the Meghan Markle of her era, and she paid the price/

[quote]Battle's patterns of behavior are more typical of an Axis II Cluster B pathology - she most likely was a mix of histrionic and anti-social

In other words...a cunt.

r125, she was the Princess Kate of her era, you RACIST BITCH!

R15 very true. Though it's taboo to mention.

[quote]Unlike Mariah Carey, who became manic on camera and started taking her clothes off while on a MTV live show

She took off a T shirt. She was fully clothed underneath. It was part of a skit that she did where she brought out ice cream and gave it to the guests.

She was not getting naked on air.

Judy did drugs and it messed up her voice. Liza did drugs and didn’t seem to mess up her voice. Her voice was still in good shape at the same age her mother was when she died.

Kathleen was never married. Is she a lesbian?

R129 She was manic then and was shortly admitted to a hospital in CT. Then after stopping meds, she ended up at UCLA where she was placed on a hold.

I remember coming into the psych unit at UCLA, completely exhausted from call, and this incredibly famous woman starts massaging my scalp and muttering psychotic things.

Oh, and Mariah has discussed having - you got it - bipolar.

So there's that!

A Diva Goes Too Far and Suffers a Mere Mortal’s Fate : Opera: The tantrums that got Kathleen Battle sacked at the Met may be rooted in a too-rapid rise to stardom. BY MICHELLE KRISEL FEB. 21, 1994 12 AM PT

"Battle’s recent difficulties, on the other hand, signal a new and alarming mutation. Rather than quarrel over artistic or musical matters, she fights over turf and power. For example, she has had tantrums over the size of her dressing room and the size of her limousine (when the limo that was sent to take her to President Clinton’s inauguration struck her as insufficiently stretched, she refused to travel until a larger one was found). Insider cynics suspect that Battle’s obsession with the size of dressing rooms and limos might be connected to the fact that among her peers in the opera pantheon, she possesses the smallest voice."

From rec.music.opera

"Hey, What ever happened to...Kathleen Battle..???"

"Opera houses usually try to stop stories of demanding behaviour getting into the press. But the veil was lifted when Volpe fired the soprano Kathleen Battle from the Met in 1994, publicly citing her "unprofessional actions". Battle stories are legion - such as the one in which she rang the Boston Symphony Orchestra management to complain that the Ritz-Carlton had put peas in her pasta, or the occasion she phoned her management in New York from a limousine in California to instruct them to call the chauffeur to turn down the car's air-conditioning. After one show at the Met, the soprano Carol Vaness told Battle as they took their bows that, on behalf of everyone else in the show, she hoped they would never work with her again. When Volpe announced that he was firing Battle, the cast cheered and applauded. Battle's manager reminded Volpe that his predecessor was always known as the man who had fired Callas from the Met. Do you want to be known as the man who fired Battle, he demanded? Volpe had the perfect reply: "Kathy Battle is no Maria Callas."

Guys, Liza and Judy sang into MICROPHONES.

Opera singers project into huge theatres unamplified. They have to be in much better shape to do this well.

[quote]r124 I loved her recordings with Christopher Parkening

Pretty.

(I get sick of this religious repertoire, though.)

Re: r134 site link:

Some of the replies are funny : ) One poster called out as bitchy writes

[quote]Unfortunately baby Battle and I were the last two infants waiting in line for our talents and virtues on that fateful August night, and those qualities had been pretty well picked over by the time we crawled to the front of the line.

[quote]Ms B quickly snatched up all of the remaining talent and looks (there was an abundance of each), most of the personality, and the last few crumbs of amiability.

[quote]Leaving me with an overflowing basketful of self-righteousness and undersized portions of whimsy, consternation, and spite. So you see, it's not my fault - Pat

By early 1990's Ms. Battle was doing more recitals and concerts, this would have continued regardless of being kept on at the MET. Simply put Kathleen Battle was getting a bit old to play soubrette roles (voice not withstanding), but her instrument wasn't suited to much else, at least not at a house size of the MET.

It is normal as a singer ages for their voice to change. Few soubrette sopranos remain in that fach their entire careers. In some cases the voice deepens and darkens, others it gets lighter and brighter. Kiri Te Kanawa for instance began her singing career as a mezzo-soprano but developed into a soprano.

Listen to this 1992 performance of Der Rosenkavalier, Final Trio . K Battle starts out holding her own, but as things progress it becomes difficult to hear her above Frederica von Stade, Renee Fleming and orchestra.

Ms. Battle could have moved into lyric soprano roles, but don't believe her instrument would have allowed her to tackle many.

I saw Battle at the Met from when she did the shepherd boy Tannhauser until Adina with Luciano in Elixir of Love. She must not have pulled her shit with either Kiri or Luciano. She wouldn't have dared. She also sang with Kiri in Cosi and Arabella. If that were the case she knew exactly what she was doing. Levine was another. She knew exactly where the most power lay.

Also concerning Vaness yes she was nowhere near the star Battle was but as another poster pointed out the Countess always gets the number one dressing room and the story is Vaness had already put her stuff in the dressing room and Battle threw it out. That does seem too far and an embellishment but with Battle who knows?

Ok another story. She was singing Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare in the Met's first production of the opera. Tatiana Troyanos another well known mezzo at the Met was doing the trouser role of Cesare. At a final rehearsal during the love duet which ends the opera Tatiana, a known lesbian, took her hand. Battle yelled at her in front of the company, 'Don't you touch me!'

I met to say the shepherd boy in Tannhauser. Tannhauser is most definitely not a shepherd boy and the role itself would have proved too challenging for Battle.

'meant' Jesus H Christ.

Tatiana Troyanos, now there's a story worth telling.

Hard life when young, caught a break then back to hard life. Through it all however she never was one to burden others with her problems.

[quote]She must not have pulled her shit with either Kiri or Luciano. She wouldn't have dared.

Close to the end, when she and Pavarotti were in the Met's new L'elisir d'amore production, they did squabble in rehearsals. I think he wanted things faster and she wanted them slower. But yes, he was someone around whom she trod carefully.

Anyway, she was going through her usual repertoire at the theater, and he was reported to have said (quote from Volpe's book), "I don't understand Kathy Battle. She's beautiful; she has a lovely voice. Everyone wants to hear her sing. There must be something missing in her life. She needs a good man to..." Then he made that thrusting gesture the macho Italian guys make in movies.

I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. One of the best we've had around here for a while.

R144 And he was probably right.

R143 Wow, what a sort, thank you for posting that.

Did Battle ever have any kind of relationship? I find it hard to picture, with a man or a woman. I guess I could imagine her in a marriage like the one the Ronee Blakley character in Nashville has.

Bipolar my ass. She seems to have been very controlled at times too, only being an asshole to the ones she decided she did not need or could control. It's not a disorder when you can flip out of it when convenient.

That all successful artists are a little cray is a myth. I am friends with an opera singer who is doing extremely well. He isn't a jerk to anyone, and many of his colleagues aren't either. They have functioning families and social lives. When a lover shouts at you and abuses you, it's not an indicator that he is the greatest love of your life - same thing. Being addicted to and making others ride an emotional rollercoaster doesn't have anything to do with integrity or the quality of the outcome.

This thread is making me remember Battle’s encoring a recital with a gorgeous “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” at Orchestra Hall in Chicago some thirty years ago. No snark to add.

She was a raging cunt

[quote] At a final rehearsal during the love duet which ends the opera Tatiana, a known lesbian, took her hand.

I have never been able to find out where this rumor came from. Many people said she wasn't a lesbian, she just had problems.

She was beautiful, though. Very sad she died so young.

There was a horrible period when Lucia Popp, Tatiana Troyanos and Arleen Auger all died within a short time of each other in 1993, at the height of their powers, all of cancer I think.

Big deal

Screaming Shitfits: Join me and Kathleen Battle on a very special Archetypes podcast.

I haven't heard of Arleen Augur.

Is there a recording that you recommend?

Many female opera singers--who are stars--don't get married or find it difficult to maintain relationships.

They travel all the time. Their lives are absorbed by coaching, rehearsal, learning new roles, etc.

Arleen Augér may have more recordings than any other soprano in history, R156. Some recommendations:

complete operas -- Mozart DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL (cond. Karl Böhm), Mozart MITRIDATE, RE DI PONTO (cond. Leopold Hager), Handel ALCINA (cond. Richard Hickox), Ravel L'ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES (cond. André Previn)

concert pieces -- Mozart GREAT MASS IN C MINOR (cond. Leonard Bernstein [soprano 1] or cond. Claudio Abbado [soprano 2]), Mahler 2 (cond. Simon Rattle), any of literally dozens of Bach cantatas

recital discs -- LOVE SONGS first among equals (a sample linked below)

There’s a detail about Battle that no one talks about, that I find very interesting. She came of age at a time when operas were being broadcast on television, often with closeups on the stars doing their arias, like a pop singer on Ed Sullivan. KB was young, thin, and beautiful, right? Seemed perfect for the time. And yet… in order to produce her sound, she had to twist her face so extremely (particularly her mouth) that it resembled The Scream, or some other horror mask. I’m sure she was told about this from an early age, hence, the insistence that no one look at her. That insecurity, coupled with an aging voice only suited to girlish roles, compounded her already difficult nature, and makes the final firing predictable, if not precisely warranted. She had worn out her welcome.

^^All opera singers do this.

A friend of mine , Ariel Bybee, sang at the Met for 18 seasons. Every time someone would mention the problems with Battle, they would say she screwed up her face to sing properly.

I mean, they all do it to one degree or another. I've never seen anyone as bad as Cecilia Bartoli, though.

From r143...

[quote]Troyanos last sang on the last day of her life, in Lenox Hill Hospital for other patients, one of whom "told her that this was the first time in three years that she had completely forgotten her pain.

Bartoli has gotten worse. As the voice ages there must be compensations made to attempt the sounds made when one is younger and therefore more effort in controlling the instrument.

R156, there is a 2-disc collection Arleen Auger - American Soprano, that might be a good starting point, so you can then follow up what you like.

Yes a lot of recordings with Auger and she is wonderful.

Poor Maria João Pires in R68. That Ricardo Chailly is an asshole.

R165 and R158,

thank you for the recommendations.

R159

Nearly all opera singers must, need or just do move their bodies, faces or mouths in such a way to produce sound desired from instrument.

Fiorenza Cossotto is but a case in point; she made these odd arm movements resembling windmill while performing, but that was only way she could produce certain sounds.

For tenors, baritones and basses you often see them singing out of side of mouth. See Franco Corelli also in clip linked below.

La Callas often remarked she opened her mouth and sound came out. If it were only that easy...

The extreme mouth movements in Battle's case almost exclusively happened, IIRC, when she went for notes above the staff, especially C and up.

Tenors have resonance where other people have brains.

If you check out the end of this video, you will see Dame Joan planting her feet and unlock her jaw to get that high E.

One reason Joan's life turned out so well is her husband was her teacher and conductor. With their son it was a loving family creative business.

never liked her voice

Sutherland's husband, conductor Richard Bonynge, was gay as that proverbial goose.

she was as fag haggy as a singer could get

What are the deets on Thielemann's love life - long term boyfriend? or does he cruise for young trade like Jimmy?

An old man who heard Joan at the beginning of her career, Said 'God she's as dull as Melba!' Well she's one of my favorite.

She's hardly dull as Elettra in her finale aria in Mozart's Idomeneo when she realizes she's lost everything and vents her anger. Mozart wrote well for women in a state of fury. This is a sure fire aria which should bring down the house. This was done live in Sydney. Who knew? I heard Behrens and Studer at the Met. Enormously entertaining especially the way Ponnelle staged the ending.

Here is the link.

They say a lot of the big girls with big voices don't really "mature" into their voice until around 30.

I can't remember who wrote this, but I read somewhere that Joan and Richard, when they met, spent a few years "building" her voice, note by note.

^^I used to be a big opera fan before Albert died and Opera-l imploded.

Thank you, r178! I can only imagine how spectacular that must have sounded live.

Arleen Auger as Alcina

I read that she didn’t want people to look at her mouth when she sang. What’s that about? Did she make faces when she sang?

I worked with her twice. She was nice to me. However, she was also more than a handful, needed to be babysat, doted on, ignored, then not ignored. She complained, was demanding, a bottomless pit who could never be pleased, talented, idiosyncratic and disruptive when it came to media interviews. But after the show was over, she was pleasant, funny, down-to-earth, a regular ol' gal.

If you can put up with all of the above...but she's a handful. As I said, she liked me, but she didn't care to make friends with just anyone.

Joan had a huge voice and was singing Wagner when she met Bonynge in the early 50s and let him retrain her voice.

R172, that's a high D-flat, not an E. (Dame Joan stopped singing high Es in public earlier than most people think; even in the safer confines of a recording studio, I don't think that she released an E-natural after the 1970 LUCIA.)

J’ADORE her kicky bob in OP’s picture. Always loved that cut on pretty fraus in the 80s.

A lot of the facial contortions that singers make to produce their 'sound' are for the most part completely unnecessary.

Look at someone like Te Kanawa. She sings her whole range with barely a muscle movement in her face.

The screwing up of the face by a lot of singers ends up being just a psychological security blanket more than anything else.

I once watched a broadcast of a master-class by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (evil Nazi, I know, but knew a lot about singing) and she was all 'Why are making faces like that? Sing it without doing that!' and of course there was no difference at all in the sound. It is mostly psychological and possibly also bad teaching.

Kathleen Battle had a gorgeous voice. It’s a pity she was so difficult.

Her version of ‘’Over the Rainbow’ made me weep. It was heartbreakingly beautiful

A friend of mine is a preacher’s kid and told me every church choir has a Kathleen Battle, an insufferable twat who always gets the “O, Holy Night” solo at Christmas.

Schwarzkopf wasn’t in a position to be giving technical advice to anyone. The vocal contortions she had to go through to get her tight pressed sound and fake pianissimi out of her throat were legendary. The only reason anyone even mentions her in passing anymore is because she was smart enough to bed and wed Walter Legge who put in every vocal project he produced. Her overly precious recordings of lieder ruined song for generations of sopranos who all tired to copy her. If Legge hadn’t been in the picture, no one would have a damn clue who she was. She had, what, a decade at most at her “peak” and sang maybe three roles successfully?

She could have died in a POW camp

I read somewhere that Battle had dated a man, some recording executive, I think--but that could have been made up by her publicist.

While, for that one Idomeneo moment Sutherland was about to bring some vocal fire, the rest of her career, she just stood and sang loud.

Battle seems more like a standard lyric soprano than a true coloratura. She seems to have willed her voice into coloratura roles

[quote]While, for that one Idomeneo moment Sutherland was about to bring some vocal fire, the rest of her career, she just stood and sang loud.

We all have at least one legendary opera diva we don't get, and she's mine. I get it intellectually, at least. Big voice, fabulous technique, sounded good for a long time. I just rarely enjoy her...and what I do like best is the work she did with conductors other than her husband. I guess I could have just written "conductors." (Donna Anna on Giulini's '50s Don Giovanni recording, for example. There's temperament. There are even consonants!)

Sh had a noticeably small voice, which has been talked about several times in the thread.

Battle never realised how replaceable she was till it was too late. Nice light lyric sopranos with a bit of extra top to the voice are not remotely rare - not unless they can manage Zerbinetta or the Queen of the Night. Opera houses will never run out of Susannas or Adinas. It's more surprising she lasted so long.

Sutherland was an unusual coloratura in that she had a huge voice where most coloraturas have usually lighter and smaller sounding voices.

No one could compete with her when is came to spinning out the top notes too.

In her Turandot recording she spins out all that top tessitura with ease while most like Nilsson shriek it out.

[quote] We all have at least one legendary opera diva we don't get, and she's mine.

I think I don't get her either but because I never saw her live. She's like Ethel Merman and Callas to me.

Their legendary status would have made so much more sense to me had I seen them in a theatre.

[quote] In her Turandot recording she spins out all that top tessitura with ease while most like Nilsson shriek it out.

Yes, Sutherland is just gorgeous in that. I assume she didn't have to shriek them out because she was in a recording studio, not a monster-sized theatre. I also like that her words aren't a mushy mess, as they usually are. She has such freshness in her early recordings too but then it's just one loud, mushy-dictioned, everything-sounding-mournful performance after another.

[quote] Sh had a noticeably small voice, which has been talked about several times in the thread.

Yes, Battle had a tiny voice but the pinpoint accuracy of it made it heard very well throughout the huge MET.

Some claimed that both she and Pavarotti were actually miked during certain performances, but I can't believe the MET could do that in secret--too many techs would be involved.

Battle sang a great Zerbinetta at the Met.

I enjoyed her as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare--not as amazing as Sills but still wonderful

Kathleen Battle sang concerts at my university's principal concert hall years ago. My closest friend was on staff at the hall and was assigned to orient Battle to the campus arts complex and assist her for the three days that she was in town.

Battle told her she had to walk no fewer than 10 paces behind her at all times, never look her in the face, and never talk to her unless Battle were to talk to her first.

The woman may have been gifted in voice, but she is and will always be an insufferable, raving asshole. Not worth it.

Exscuse my ignorance, but wasn’t Montserrat Caballe supposed to have been one of the greatest opera singers?

I love Caballé, R207. But with literally anyone in recorded history, if you ask if they're supposed to have been one of the greatest opera singers, there will be people who can't stand them and say they're overrated. Opera queens (including the straight ones) are super-opinionated.

Caballé strengths: As beautiful and radiant and floaty a sound as there ever was; very solid basic technique. Caballé weaknesses: Not much of an actress on stage, limited in mobility (she would "die" standing straight up if the director let her get away with it), and sometimes lazy in preparation. If she didn't remember the words, she would just "Ahhhhhh" her way through what she didn't remember. Her fans still went home happy.

[quote] Yes, Battle had a tiny voice but the pinpoint accuracy of it made it heard very well throughout the huge MET.

The Met is extraordinarily friendly to all soprano voices, even the smallest. Sopranos that never had a career anywhere else sang at the Met roles they never should have touched because sopranos project much better than any other voice in the auditorium. It’s a quirk of the acoustic of the house that was never, but should have been, corrected over the years.

They called her MonsterFat.

R208 Thank you for that.

I listened to her for the very first time yesterday after reading this thread. Her voice was gorgeous. I don't care how big or small it was because her tone and nuance was like a beautiful birds. I actually bought some of her songs on Itunes of which there is a plethora of.

Her Live version of "Over My Head I Hear Music In The Air" sung acapella is a perfect example of why people once marveled over her voice. She hits painfully beautiful high notes. So exquisite. Thanks DL for the thread. I'm a fan. Crazy Bitch or not.

Monsefat threw in pianissimos at every opportunity even when they weren't written.

She could float out a high pianissimo like no other but that was no excuse to throw it in every 4th bar.

She sang with Karajan. I bet she acted like an angel.

I was at that Carnegie Hall concert of spirituals with Jessye. Unfortunately, I was sitting near one of those brava queens who couldn’t wait to be the first and loudest. Every fucking number.

What was her relationship with Jessye? Were they frenemies?

I think they were somewhat close in the '80's. But by the time they did the Vangelis opera in 2001, things had cooled a bit. Who's heard about these two divas?

Though Norman was quite the diva she was a decent human being. I'm sure Battle behaved around her as well.

And besides, Jessie Norman was by far the better, more accomplished singer. She was the Sieglinde of her generation. A fabulous Cassandra (Les Troyens). An Ariadne for the ages. Those are heavy, meaty roles that require deep psychological insight into their characters, not fucking soubrette roles for a debutante. Jessie Norman was chosen by the French government to sing the French national anthem during the official celebrations of the bicentenary of the French Revolution. This is how respected she was globally. I’m sure Battle would have been sweet and lovely to her.

Pretty cool video of both Kathleen and Jessye in rehearsals (not for the spirituals concert, though).

If so, R196, she had quite a will as she demonstrated in Semele.

"And besides, Jessie Norman was by far the better, more accomplished singer".

By what criteria do you base that remark?

Ms. Norman shouted from house tops that her voice defied categorization. But if pushed most would agree she was comfortably a spinto soprano. As with every other opera singer Norman and Battle played the cards their instruments were dealt. Kathleen Battle would never attempt spinto roles because her instrument just couldn't manage. Maybe in a recording studio, but otherwise it was never going to happen.

As wont to be the case Ms. Norman was a big woman, and thus could produce large sounds with vocal heft to sustain and cause same to reach "family circle" as it were.

I worked for one of the labels she recorded for and we happened to have a signing with Battle as it turned out two nights after her firing from the Met at the upper west side HMV. Of course we were wondering how all this was going to work out. She showed up on time and was extremely pleasant and kind to all her fans.

Loved and still miss that UWS HMV near Lincoln Center.

Classical music section was largely staffed by queens who knew their shit. You could ask them anything when trying to find this or that recording and more often than not they gave spot on responses.

Still have tons of CDs including boxed sets bought from that location. Guess because it was near LC the classical music section was rather large and was great for browsing on a Sunday afternoon.

[quote]She sang with Karajan. I bet she acted like an angel.

Karajan's biographer, Richard Osborne, quotes Karajan as laughing and saying, "She's a complete bitch, but, my God, what a voice!" Some people have questioned that quotation; they find it hard to imagine even Battle showing "bitchiness" to him. But maybe he witnessed it or heard reports of it without himself being the target of it.

[quote]What was her relationship with Jessye? Were they frenemies? I think they were somewhat close in the '80's. But by the time they did the Vangelis opera in 2001, things had cooled a bit. Who's heard about these two divas?

What I've read is that thy didn't see each other socially or have a personal relationship to speak of, but they worked together and there was an understanding. They were two who had made it; they should concertize and record together. The author who summed up their relationship that way contrasted them with Maria Ewing, who held herself aloof from any sisterhood of opera singers of color.

She was the Viola Davis of opera. Loud, obnoxious, and truly evil. She gives colored people a bad name.

There could only be one bitch in a room or on stage, and Kathleen Battle alone was more than a handful. Shudder to think what would happen if Maria Ewing was thrown into the mix.

More...

Finally do not believe Ms. Ewing herself would think to kindly of being grouped into "colored opera singers" as it were; the lady herself never defined herself as such IIRC. Indeed Ms. Ewing was always rather elusive (or evasive) about her own racial background, and having married a white man which produced a child who was certainly not "black", probably again wouldn't feel comfortable.

This even though both Ms. Battle and Ms. Ewing were proteges of James Levine, so the two women must have run into each other if no where else at the Met opera.

There has long been a subset of African American/European women who once arrive with money, fame and so forth become siddity.

Part of this IMHO is having few role models these women being insecure and not knowing who they are, act in ways they believe are appropriate to their new station in life. Miss Ann knows who she is, and often has generations of women before her to set examples on ways to behave.

Kathleen Battle came from quite humble background, but rose to great fame in opera world due to legitimate talent. Sadly there was simply no one to tell the lady she shouldn't do such things, even if examples of white/European opera singers were legion of diva behavior.

For the record male side of opera singers is also legion with male versions of divas, and this included Pavarotti. Like others Pavarotti got away with things because he could put butts in seats, which kept opera houses butter stuck to their bread.

Pavarotti's manager's tell-all book, written with Anne Midgette, is a good quick "trash read." It made a lot of people angry when it was published, but it has entertainment value. (More than is offered by that gloppy Pavarotti documentary Ron Howard made.) A lot of people discussed in this thread are featured in it: Sutherland, Battle, Vaness, Levine, Karajan. Breslin even takes a petty shot at DL favorite Kate Jackson, the originally planned female lead for Yes, Giorgio, which was supposed to establish Pavarotti as a movie star.

Wish could recall what it was called, but watched a program on PBS where ushers and others who work at opera houses were interviewed. Many of them had stories to tell about various divas (male and female), and were a riot.

Not sure but think it was Covent Garden, but again it's been years....

I saw Battle on stage together with Ewing at the Met. In Cosi Fan Tutte Battle played Despina the maid of the two sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella played respectively by Kiri and Maria. Unforgettable. Ewing was surprisingly funny.

[quote]R230 Breslin even takes a petty shot at DL favorite Kate Jackson, the originally planned female lead for Yes, Giorgio

Was she busy filming Kramer vs. Kramer at the time?

Who is Kathleen Battle?

[quote]Was she busy filming Kramer vs. Kramer at the time?

This was a few years later. Given the time period, it's more likely Kate decided to do Making Love. Let that settle for a moment: Yes, Giorgio's script was sufficient to make someone think Making Love was a better choice.

The role in the Pavarotti film ended up being filled by Kathryn Harrold, who is called a "comedy assassin."

This ain’t Jeopardy, r234.

Regarding Norman’s “unique” voice, I think it was more like unique repertoire—while other singers sang the roles she did, no one had the same constellation of them. And virtually no Italian, once she could avoid it.

Norman was gifted with languages. Is italian one she tried to avoid outside the recording studio as she felt it was difficult for her or did she simply not like the repertoire?

R237 Possibly. At 10:41 of this interview, she says "I don't sing in a language that I do not speak," then she explains why afterwards.

In her memoir, Jessye Norman speaks briefly about her concert of spirituals with Kathleen. She keeps it short and sweet, what a pleasure and privilege it was, etc. Later, she mentions an unnamed colleague and inserts herself into the story mentioned above that someone needed to tell a certain singer that she was black, and would Jessye be the one to do the job. Jessye was insulted and on the side of the unnamed star, i.e. Kathleen.

[quote] Finally do not believe Ms. Ewing herself would think to kindly of being grouped into "colored opera singers" as it were; the lady herself never defined herself as such IIRC. Indeed Ms. Ewing was always rather elusive (or evasive) about her own racial background, and having married a white man which produced a child who was certainly not "black", probably again wouldn't feel comfortable.

Rebecca Hall (Maria Ewing and Peter Hall’s actress daughter) did a quite moving episode of Finding Your Roots. I highly suggest it, it’s on PBS. Of course, there is quite a bit of discussion about Maria’s background and how she herself perceived it and discussed it. Maria’s background (and by extension Rebecca’s) was messy and interesting. She did have quite a bit of African American blood, I can’t remember all the details though.

R237

Ms. Norman prided herself on being able to sing in languages she was fluent. This she felt gave her the ability to infuse roles with more nuance and understanding than say someone just singing words.

Ms. Norman doing "D'amour l'ardente flamme" from Faust.

First and foremost her French diction and accent are spot on. But also she is able to convey the feeling of young Marguerite who is burning with unrequired love (and desire for sex again) with Faust

Before Battle and Norman there was another great African American opera diva, Grace Bumbry

R220, and now compare the same aria sung by a real coloratura.

Bartoli sings it faster and each note, better articulated.

[quote] Ms. Norman shouted from house tops that her voice defied categorization. But if pushed most would agree she was comfortably a spinto soprano.

Early in her career, she would sing traditional Verdi spinto roles like Aida. She didn't sound particularly distinctive in them. She would hit the notes okay (except the high C in O Patria Mia, which was never good) but she sounded so generic. It's not until she made the roles that fit in low soprano/high mezzo range her regular roles that she became a major star.

[quote] Norman was gifted with languages

So many recordings, whoever, suffer from her over enunciating ever single syllable Her Carmen and Salome are such examples.

I had no idea Maria Ewing was partially black until I read her obituary

[quote]r242 Before Battle and Norman there was another great African American opera diva, Grace Bumbry

Isn’t she the one who lectured Angel Blue that she had to submit to and make peace with blackface and yellowface makeup if she was going to sustain a career?

R247 Who is that incredible woman? It's my first time hearing her, and I'm captivated!

Not so much lectured, but told things as they were....

"Grace Bumbry, now 85, said, “My dear Angel, during my 50-year career I have used a white face, if necessary, or my own, black. I have always preferred to go on stage without make-up so as not to change my skin colour, but it is possible that my preference went against the credibility of the character. As an artist you can choose your roles, but don’t limit yourself to Aida, Selika and Bess.”"

Grace Bumbry has forgotten more about racism in opera/classical music world than these young performers coming up ever will know.

What Grace Bumbry said in full

Angel Blue recently performed at the Met in "Porgy and Bess"

[quote]r249 Grace Bumbry has forgotten more about racism in opera/classical music world than these young performers coming up ever will know.

IMHO, the last thing an enlightened younger singer needs today is Uncle Tom style advice from a Stepin Fetchit of yesteryear.

Wasn't she the lead in The Maid?

All she has to do, is do a cover of RESPECT and she's back in the game.

Perhaps she could reinvigorate gangsta rap.

Just pointing out, Norman and Battle were born with their voices, each right in quite different repertoire. The didn't get to choose the sound they made, and ultimately had to get accustomed to singing the music for their voice type. This doesn't make one of them more professional than the other.

If Angel Blue changed her name to Blue Angel, she could play Cyndi Lauper in Cyndi's first band (Blue Angel).

A soprano friend and I went to see Pavarotti and Battle in "Elisir d'Amore" at the Met. He was actually wonderful not only singing, but his acting of Nemorino, was very funny indeed. Ms. Battle sounded pretty, but she was so busy making faces, that her performance just didn't really score. My friend and I figured it was because her teacher taught her a method where she didn't know what the hell was going to come out of her mouth. I know because my friend studied with her teacher, and my teacher at the time also had studied with that teacher. The contrast between Pavarotti's natural, wonderful performance and Battle's vocal and facial shenanigans and non-acting performance, was enough to get me to drop my teacher and fine a better one, which I did. who made me into a professional singer. My friend also dropped her teacher as well and found a better one.

[quote] The didn't get to choose the sound they made, and ultimately had to get accustomed to singing the music for their voice type. This doesn't make one of them more professional than the other.

I mean, sure, but usually they show their professionalism in how much they challenge themselves: do they try to learn new operas or sing the old repertoire; do they try to learn new languages.

Norman sang a lot of Wagner--that's a badge of courage in and of itself.

"Norman sang a lot of Wagner--that's a badge of courage in and of itself."

Yes she did, but Ms. Norman had this way of opening her mouth as if it were entrance to Holland Tunnel.

Prelude & Liebestod | Jessye Norman, Herbert von Karajan

Just for comparison, Brigit Nilsson

Decades ago, I received a CD player (new technology at the time) as a Christmas bonus from work and the first CD I ever purchased was Kathleen Battle's Christmas recording. It was spectacular then and it's spectacular now. The general public never had to deal with her behind the scenes so all we knew was that she was physically beautiful and beautifully dressed with the most amazingly beautiful, super-human voice. Ultimately, hers is a very sad story.

R252, you must be young and dumb - do you not know of the legendary Grace Bumbry? She's as much of a pioneer as Leontyne Price, breaking barriers for blacks in opera. Please. She's one of the OG's who knows of what she speaks.

Here is Jessye singing some Haydn in Italian.

There was also the extraordinary Shirley Verrett, who sang both mezzo and soprano roles. I remember being entranced by her Tosca that on saw on PBS years ago. She also subbed for Grace Bumbry in "Don Carlo" at the Met --- or had been announced shortly before the performance -- one star subbing for another, and she was wonderful.

I love love love Verrett--such commitment, such nuance, such drama.

While I enjoyed Bumbry too, it's Verrett who always set off fireworks.

Of their series of concerts together, the one from the Royal Opera House was videoed. Verrett is such a revelation, keeping the listener engaged with every phrase. Bumbry, oddly, seems monotonous. There's a 2 CD set of Verrett's live performances (Verdi and Bellini, I think). She was so versatile and always riveting.

Leontyne, of course, is a goddess. Among the top 5 sopranos of the modern, recorded era. Her performances are the ones I tend to go to for shear aural pleasure. Her voice is just luxurious.

[quote] Yes she did, but Ms. Norman had this way of opening her mouth as if it were entrance to Holland Tunnel.

Ugh!! Now every time I watch a video of her, I'm going to remember this and laugh

R263 -- Yes! Her Christmas album is my absolute favorite Christmas album, especially her renditions of "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Ave Maria."

[quote] There was also the extraordinary Shirley Verrett, who sang both mezzo and soprano roles. I remember being entranced by her Tosca that on saw on PBS years ago. She also subbed for Grace Bumbry in "Don Carlo" at the Met --- or had been announced shortly before the performance -- one star subbing for another, and she was wonderful.

She also sang both Cassandra and Didon in the same performance of the MET's Les Troyens when Christa Ludwig called in sick.

It's a shame there's so little of Leontyne to watch in complete operas, relative to some of the other important sopranos of her time (Caballé, Scotto, Freni, Sutherland, Stratas, etc.). I know her legend rests more on her sound than her stage acting, but she did have charisma and presence. That's apparent even in Karajan's video recording of the Verdi Requiem Mass with her, Cossotto, Pavarotti, and Ghiaurov, in which she's just standing and singing (looking very late-'60s glamorous).

But her only Met telecasts in opera were a Forza (late) and an Aida (even later, her stage farewell), and I don't think there's anything from other theaters either.

[quote]Leontyne, of course, is a goddess

Not to mention...a legend.

I LOVE Battle's CDs with Chris Parkening (The Pleasures of their Company) and with Wynton Marsalis (Baroque Duets)

R272, very true. Her MET video work is limited to only those two--at the end of her stage career.

At least we have those

Bachiania Brasileira Number 5 is spectacular with Parkening. The vocalise/humming part is amazing. Well worth a listen if you haven't heard it.

Had the Met examined her records more closely they would have found that she had dropped the 'Axe' from her last name shortly before applying for the opera job.

The Opera House is a good documentary.

The old Met was the most magnificent theater in NY that I've seen. It should have been kept and used as a replacement for the uglier than ugly City Center. Also so much that has been done at BAM could have been at the old Met. The Times Square Paramount as well. Both great NY Buildings that were torn down along with Penn Station and the Astor Hotel all torn down at the same time leading to the decline of Times Square and that whole midtown area which became a haven for drug trafficking and prostitution. And now it has about as much New York atmosphere as Tokyo.

So, this is Shirley Verrett. Well, I like her already. This evolution of this thread is giving me a great introduction to the many Black opera divas in our history. I can't get enough of it!

Thanks, DLers.

Does anyone know where one can stream the documentary THE AUDITION (2007)

I'm not an opera aficionado but I found it very interesting, and touching.

Teatro La Scala Season on 7th December 1975, Shirley Verrett brought the house to a standstill and down as Lady Macbeth.

Unfortunately I heard these divas at the end of their careers when they were in bad shape vocally. However I admit I was still happy to see them in performance. The whole Greek ruins of a once magnificent edifice thing. For their vocal glory at least I have their recordings.

Verrett could sing anything--Puccini and Verdi, of course, but great Bel Canto singer with all the trills and such.

Verrett '94

R278, so glad that documentary exists and features Leontyne Price! It's unbelievable that there's no published biography that covers her career.

She had promised an autobiography for decades but nothing ever came of it. This documentary is a nice substitute.

From 1987 film Macbeth of Claude D'Anna

Simon & Clamma

Shirley Verrett & Grace Bumbry

pure elegance!

Shirley, giving a charming interview on The Mike Douglas Show. James Brown is also there. Don't know who the other woman is.

Battle basically took over from the lovely Reri Grist,, also black with anear identical repertoire, but not a crazy bitch.

Don't know if there's video of Shirley Verrett, doing this aria, but here's an audio of her singing the ultra-exciting "O don Fatale" from "Don Carlo", live from the Vienna Statsoper. The kind of performance that fans would be screaming in delight at the end!

R292 Reri Grist really was a high coloratura; Battle was a light lyric soubrette who had the high notes, but didn't "live up there". Her Zerbinetta was quite effortful, full of grimaces and weird mouth placement. Grist in some productions was so secure in her singing and acting that she did cartwheels across the stage.

A certain Miss Mary Betten, r291.

[Quote]Grist in some productions was so secure in her singing and acting that she did cartwheels across the stage.

R294 I believe you. She's running around like a fool in this one, knocking stuff down, without missing a beat. Amazing.

R295 Thank you.

Reri singing Somewhere from West Side Story. She actually sung it on the OBC album, in which she played the role of "Consuelo."

Yes Grist introduced the song being a member of the original cast. Bernstein probably had heard her and wanted her. I assume coming from Broadway and doing 8 performances a week she learned discipline and professionalism early on.

Still alive in her 90s and living in Europe.

Grist has been completely forgotten--I assume because she didnt do many recordings

As far as her opera work goes, I always think of Grist as Oscar in Ballo in Maschera, because she sang it so often and recorded it twice (first with Leontyne and Bergonzi under Leinsdorf; then with Arroyo and Domingo under Muti). She's on the Abbado video version too (Domingo and Ricciarelli). That was a great part for her.

Elsewhere on record (Mozart and Strauss), she's Susanna, Zerlina, and Zerbinetta for Karl Boehm, and Susanna for Klemperer.

Always a charming singer. She told a funny story once about a director or conductor trying to interest her in Salome, which would have been ridiculous for her voice type, because of what she looked like and how well she moved on stage.

[quote]Susanna, Zerlina, and Zerbinetta for Karl Boehm

My error. Blondchen, Zerlina, and Zerbinetta.

Grist also recorded Queen of the Night at least once (she was on the first Magic Flute I heard on a recording, indeed my first proper opera - I thought all sopranos sounded like that!). Most of her star parts are recorded.

I wonder where the Black diva, so fashionable in the 70's and 80's, has gone?

Sure there's Angel Blue and Pretty Yende, but neither is really a renown star, able to pull in ticketbuyers

There was also Barbara Hendricks, also very pretty and with a small voice similar to Battle's. I think she was more popular in Europe than she was in the U.S., also perhaps being a model, or doing the Diana Ross shtick by marrying a rich Scandinavian, or something like that.

Yes, Hendricks is originally from Arkansas yet made her career almost entirely in Europe. She has a Battle-like voice, just not as ringy.

While she did perform at the MET, she wasn't as loved in the US as in Europe.

Barbara Hendricks has lived in Europe since 1970's. It was there where she made her operatic debut and largely has been base of operations.

R304, opera as a whole is now much more niche and most singers are no longer as big as the names in the 20th century. Also possibly the route that channeled young black girls with good voices into classical music (choirs and so on) may no longer be as effective in finding them r as attractive in retaining and directing them.

Opera isn't churning out many white stars much any more either. Many Met operas aren't sellouts.

Even though none of these people have name recognition with those who don't follow opera, I'd say there are more black singers in the front ranks of the profession now than there have been in prior eras. Angel Blue, Latonia Moore, Pretty Yende, Golda Schultz, J'Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Russell Thomas, Eric Owens, Soloman Howard, Ryan Speedo Green...all of them sing at the best houses all over the world.

It's notable that black men are better represented in the 21st century than before. Even when there were operatic "household names," everyone knew Leontyne Price and Kathleen Battle but not, perhaps, George Shirley and Willard White.

The state of tenors in the world today is very poor.

Most seem to be these eastern European screachers.

What happened to a good old fashioned Italian tenor? Do they play football instead these days?

Whenever I see an Italian Opera, unless the tenor is Italian, Spanish or South American, I will skip the opera.

I see a lot of Asian tenors, but most have a darker tone than i would like.

Where are the Joe Feeneys???

R310

Reason for that, at least in USA was pure discrimination.

Recall watching some PBS program about opera and African American singers where several men were interviewed. They all said pretty much same thing; back in day there was zero chance for them to get roles in major opera houses, especially tenor or baritone. Simply put white audiences would never stand for seeing an AA man pawing or even getting close to a white woman on stage.

This was well into 1970's and 1980's... The men were advised to go abroad to Europe, and or concentrate on lieder..

Being as this may some American opera companies bucked discrimination trend.

Early as 1945 New York City Opera cast Todd Duncan as Tonio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Escamillo, the bullfighter, in Bizet's Carmen. Met Opera soon followed with George Shirley being first AA male singer they cast in lead roles.

I used to laugh and laugh with my grandma at Joe’s falsetto high notes

Mr. Price

Vinson Cole used to do some lyric tenor roles at the Met and City opera, though I think he was fairly lighter-skinned. Very good tenor.

Vinson Cole was quite high toned as they used to say...

Kathleen Battle may have scuttled her opera career, but she still did concerts. She could just come into a venue with people who would work with her, do the concert fairly quickly and leave.

Does it even really matter, Liz? It’s just two black faggots having a queer episode over who sucked Robert Mitchum’s dick first.

There are no opera singers who cause any kind of excitement today who could fill a house like the Met. There was a time when if you could get into the house you felt like a very lucky person and the curtain calls would be endless. They used to be called 'demented' because opera fans would be crazy. Like crazier than sports fans. Very good will never be 'demented.'

I think I saw Hendricks once at the Met as Sophie in Rosenkavalier with Soderstrom and Fassbinder. That was quite a cast. I wish I could remember the Ochs and Italian singer. In other performances I saw the luxury casting of Pavarotti twice. I wonder how much he got for those few minutes.

R320, you’re going to trigger the DL racists.

R320, I can fill in some of the gaps. Those ladies (Söderström, Hendricks, and Fassbaender) headlined Rosenkavalier at the Met on three dates in February 1987. The names of the men are not as well known. Artur Korn was Ochs; Dénes Gulyás was the Italian Singer. Levine conducted.

One of the performances (the last of them, on the 21st) had a radio broadcast.

[quote]There are no opera singers who cause any kind of excitement today who could fill a house like the Met. There was a time when if you could get into the house you felt like a very lucky person and the curtain calls would be endless. They used to be called 'demented' because opera fans would be crazy. Like crazier than sports fans. Very good will never be 'demented.'

But I think the public's connection with this art form got fainter through the 20th century, and that continues as the generations pass. Even the time to which we are looking back was a far cry from the days when there was no bigger celebrity in the world than Caruso. I do believe the true opera fanatic is an endangered species. I'm pessimistic about any formula of presentation or extraordinary performers that can bring him (and her) back.

I only saw Pavarotti once live at the MET—totally got why he was so adored. Domingo also had a great presence.

Don’t see that kind of superstardom nowadays

My late opera fanatic friend adored Joan Sutherland and Joan Crawford almost equally. I forgot to ask him about Joan Davis, but he loved his opera and movie divas.

[quote]R311 The state of tenors in the world today is very poor. Most seem to be these eastern European screechers. What happened to a good old fashioned Italian tenor?

[italic]Won’t someone think of THE TENORS ? ?

[quote]r311 I see a lot of Asian tenors, but most have a darker tone than i would like.

#Racist

Where did he stand on Joan Caulfield, r324?

What about Leona Mitchell? Retired?

I loved Leona Mitchell but she was so overshadowed by Price that she couldn’t become a superstr

Mitchell was still singing at the Met for quite a while (eight years) after Price was no longer there to overshadow her. They even gave her the new production of Aida, although Millo got the telecast.

I think she never became a superstar because she was in the very-good-but-not-great category. I enjoyed her performances, but there wasn't much distinctive about her.

Who has the scoop on the famous clash between Kiri Te Kanewa and Battle at the 1983 Met Arabella. Supposedly Kiri said she would never work with her again.

Kiri would have been the lead, what the hell did Kathleen have to say about it?

Ms. Te Kanawa is a great lady, always gracious and kind.

Opera queens dishing dirt...

Shirley's bustin' out...

I heard Shirley Verrett as Azucena, after she’d been singing soprano roles for a while. The top was strong and clarion, the bottom was sung in chest voice. The middle was patchy and worn…. truly in bad shape. Perhaps it was a mistake for her to take on soprano roles. Or perhaps she shouldn’t have switched back and forth.

[quote]They even gave her the new production of Aida, although Millo got the telecast.

I was in the audience on the opening night of that production. I took the train down from college with a friend.

Fantastic production, and Mitchell was amazing. The entire audience sighed in unison as she finished Ritorna Vincitor.

When she left the MET, apparently she centered most of her career in Sydney, Australia. Apparently her voice got massive as she sang Turandot with them a few times.

Youtube has an interesting 30 minute interview and career retrospective ("The Second Coming")--linked below. She definitely wasn't at Price's level but a good substitute after Price retired. Mitchell has some odd, conspiratorial theories about why she didn't get many recordings.

R336, Verrett likely got bored on just singing one fach and wanted to try out the roles that sopranos got such glory for.

She did an amazing job with Tosca and Norma. I never heard her Aida but reports were good.

While she was among the greatest of mezzos, she sounded more generic as a soprano. She was still full of fire and emotion, which made for a great theatre.

I always confuse this guy with the mezzo.

From NYT Shirley Verrett obituary:

"To Ms. Verrett the problem was not the nature of her voice but health issues. During the peak years she suffered from allergies to mold spores that could clog her bronchial tubes. She could not predict when her allergies would erupt. In 1976, just six weeks after singing Adalgisa in Bellini’s “Norma” at the Metropolitan Opera (a role traditionally performed by mezzo-sopranos), she sang the daunting soprano title role on tour with the Met, including a performance in Boston that earned a frenzied ovation. In his Boston Globe review, the critic Richard Dyer wrote that “what Verrett did added her Norma to that select company of contemporary performances that have enlarged the dimensions of operatic legend.”

In 1986 I bought Kathleen Battle Lincoln Center recital tickets for my choir-singing, opera loving Mother. It was one of the most exquisite performances I ever experienced. The Upper West Side had a lot more European-born immigrants living there then. The n packed the theater. When she performed the Vilja aria from The Merry Widow as an encore, I saw an elderly Austrian woman nearly burst into happy tears.

We went on to see her over 25 times. We attended virtually every one of the PBS broadcasts as well as all of her Carnegie Hall performances.

Here are some trivia not mentioned so far:

- Rouben Ter-Arutunian who designed the New York City Ballet's Nutcracker scenery - still used today - designed all of her exquisite gowns.

- The Reagans adored her; she sang at several of those Christmas In Washington specials broadcast on network TV to great acclaim. I still watch the dvd of her Carnegie Hall Christmas concert with Frederica Von Stade and Wynton Marsalis. It is hugely entertaining and nothing like it is produced anymore. Get the dvd!

- The Carnegie Hall Spirituals Concert was even better live. There was one moment where Jessye had to re-enter the stage after Kathleen performed....but she did not appear. All of a sudden, after an uncomfortable wait, Kathleen picks up a fan in the most imperious manner. The already nervous audience burst into a collective gasp. Kathleen suddenly realizes what's going on and brings it to her face with a charming, laughing smile. Immediately Jessye glided onto the stage. The released broadcast, as I recall, only features Battle smiling with the fan.

Later Carnegie performances were always incident-filled. Once the stage lights just dimmed as she sang - total darkness for 30 seconds. Another time she stopped singing as yelling broke out in one of the Upper balconies. When the great pianist Cyrus Chestnut performed with her, he in turn was made to wait. All of a sudden the door opens and a hand gestures for him to leave the stage. He's a large dude, and he looked annoyed as he had to getup and exit. A minute later they both return and perform.

- Kathleen did a live broadcast with the NY Philharmonic. My Mom said look at her, she's seems to have vocal problems. She consults with an even more unhappy-looking Kurt Masur and disappears from the stage. All live on PBS....sadly, the delay caused the final song, her exquisitely performed version of the gorgeous but deleted DREAM WITH ME (from Peter Pan) to miss the broadcast.

- Kathleen's firing made the front page of The New York Times. It was a sad ending.....had things been different, she absolutely would have received the Kennedy Center Honor.

Ooooh, does anyone know exactly what happened between Kiri Te Kanawa and Kathy Battle? Apparently some major fallout during a production of Arabella at the Met. Kiri was always the consummate professional, as well as extremely gracious with everyone, regardless of status or position, in the opera world’s pecking order. I can imagine she would not have been impressed with Kathy Battle’s tantrums. In R333’s linked article, she implies that Battle was “monstrous “.

R341, THANK YOU for reminding us what a miracle her voice was during those peaks years. I count myself lucky for seeing the same 1986 concert--and yes, one of the best experiences ever.

The Te Kanawa/Battle story is one I don't know, but they did their sister act in Arabella in both 1983 and 1984. If Te Kanawa said she would never work with Battle again, it would have to have been following the latter series.

They were, in fact, never together again in the remaining nearly ten years of Battle's Met career.

Te Kanawa continued at the Met until 1998, and she returned in 2010-12 as Fille du Regiment's Duchesse of Krakentorp, a comedic spoken role that usually is filled with some beloved old timer and does not require singing (although if the performer CAN sing, some singing might be worked in). Kathleen Turner played it in the Met's 2019 series.

“Are you insinuating that my daughter is a snake?” “No—is a coloratura soprano, is much worse. A little snake, love mamma, do what papa tells, maybe, but a coloratura soprano, love nobody but own goddam self. Is son-bitch-bast’, worse than all a snake in a world. Madame, you leave dees girl alone.”

[quote]She could even fill a space as big as the MET because the sound was so focused. She’s however couldn’t play the ingenue much longer, but that’s all her voice would allow her to do. It’s not like she was going to graduate to heavy bel canto roles like Lucia and Norma.

I don't understand this comment. How old do you think Lucia is supposed to be? Also, Sutherland and Sills kept singing Marie in LA FILLE DU REGIMENT well into their later years.

Leona Mitchell's voice was absolutely gorgeous in her prime, but I believe the general feeling about her is that her career was so short because she never had a solid technique. I remember one performance of TURANDOT that I heard live at the Met in which she did not sing well at all in Act I but sounded glorious in Act III, so much so that several people in the audience commented on that after the performance.

[quote]I heard Shirley Verrett as Azucena, after she’d been singing soprano roles for a while. The top was strong and clarion, the bottom was sung in chest voice. The middle was patchy and worn…. truly in bad shape. Perhaps it was a mistake for her to take on soprano roles. Or perhaps she shouldn’t have switched back and forth.

I had similar thoughts when I heard her sing in SAMSON ET DALILA very late in her career.

R346, r347, r348

I don't think of Leona Mitchell as having had a short career, but it's all relative, I suppose. Domingo (for good or ill) is still singing major roles in his eighties, having begun in the late 1950s, but he is an unusual case. Mitchell made her debut in the early 1970s in San Francisco, was at the Met from 1975-93, and was still singing Aida at other theaters in the early 2000s. I'd say her operatic career was of the high-average length.

For comparison purposes, Leontyne Price made her professional debut in 1952, debuted at the Met in 1961, and said farewell to opera in 1985, although she continued as a recitalist for some years after.

Martina Arroyo?

^^^I think that is her name. Too lazy to look up.

R350, I guess you're right, but it seems to me that Mitchell stopped being considered a major star long before she actually stopped singing, because of the vocal issues I mentioned. I remember that she was badly reviewed when she sang an aria from AIDA in a concert in New York in the late 1980s, and I felt like her career was quickly winding down around that time.

Tatiana Troyanos.... that voice!

Tatiana was Greek, not African-American.

On the other hand, Maria Ewing was partly African-American. She passed away this year, with not too much notice sadly. She was a lovely mezzo who then took on big soprano roles, (in)famously her nude Salome.

[quote] I don't understand this comment. How old do you think Lucia is supposed to be? Also, Sutherland and Sills kept singing Marie in LA FILLE DU REGIMENT well into their later years.

Battle would never have been accepted as Lucia. MET audiences were used to the power of Sutherland and the dramatic commitment/other-worldly coloratura from Sills. They weren't going to accept a Battle Lucia.

Battle did put out a CD of Bel Canto aria but it's a bore.

Was Joan Sutherland really as racist as they say?

[quote] Leona Mitchell's voice was absolutely gorgeous in her prime, but I believe the general feeling about her is that her career was so short because she never had a solid technique. I remember one performance of TURANDOT that I heard live at the Met in which she did not sing well at all in Act I but sounded glorious in Act III, so much so that several people in the audience commented on that after the performance.

Mitchell as Liu? Yes her technique led to performances of varying quality. Her Liu that was recorded for broadcast, however, was wonderful and stole the show out from under Domingo and Marton (and the gay porn actor extra--but that's another story).

Ever since she and Millo left the stage, however, there's hasn't been an even remotely acceptable Verdiana who can sing a full range of his lead soprano role acceptably. What I would give for a Leona Mitchell-like performer now.

[quote] Was Joan Sutherland really as racist as they say?

Apparently.

There was an essay put out by one of Bonynge's protege's that had a few examples. All the Sutherland fans tried desperately to claim he was a liar and had an ax to grind, and blah blah blah. Recently re-reading that essay, he only really mentions the racist comments and seems more concerned about how protective she was of her and Bonynge's careers and reputations (rather understandably).

And then there was that comment she made in Australia about the post office staff...

^he only really mentions the racist comments in passing

Leona Mitchell got a lot of performances during Levine's time at the Met; it seems almost as many as Renata Scotto. A friend told me his other friend cancelled his series at the Met one year because Scotto was in more than half that series. He said "I subscribed to the Metropolitan Opera, not the Renato Scotto Opera, thank you very much!"

A lot of these opera divas never marry and raise children. Beverly Sills did. Anyone else?

I loved Scotto because of her dramatic commitment.

No matter what squally sound came out of her mouth, she was always engrossing

R364 beat me to it. I loved Scotto. Yeah, even late Scotto, when the always-wiry top notes could be downright harsh, and she had also developed a wobble from driving her voice hard in big repertoire. Although, to be fair, she'd been singing leading roles for a damn long time by then. She made her stage debut in Traviata back home at age 18.

But I loved her style, the conviction with which she invested everything. Besides Levine liking her so much, another reason she was heavily featured at the Met in the late '70s and early '80s is that some of the other big sopranos in her lane had reasons to be away. There was Freni's tax situation; she was gone for about 15 years. Leontyne was choosing to limit her appearances herself. Caballé was around once in a while, but she was always cancellation-prone.

To answer the question at R363, Scotto is one who had kids. Her daughter Laura got a makeover on What Not To Wear in one of its earliest episodes, and Renata was one of the family members commenting.

When I heard Mitchell at the Met she was not very exciting. She was a serviceable house singer. Never caused any excitement. In those video excerpts she sounds far better than what I heard live. Now I wish I had gone to hear her in Ernani.

Very true of Scotto's dramatic commitment. Still the Met subscription audiences had had enough of her screeching and began objecting vehemently to her frequent appearances.

Like the lyrics in "I Want to be a Prima Donna, Donna,Donna", Scotto turned into a "screechy canta-tree-chee" !

Is that Schwarzkopf introducing Mitchell in that video?! It can't be. Maybe it is.

A wonderful black soprano of the period was Felicia Weathers. I don't recall her being mentioned on this thread. She seems to have had only one recital album on Decca which can be gotten used at a good price on Amazon. She seems not to have sung much when I started going to opera and I and a lot of other people came to be aware of her when Decca released her album on cd. Perhaps another one whose career was made in Europe. One edition seems to have been filled out with spirituals. Definitely worth seeking out. She's probably on youtube as well.

[quote] A lot of these opera divas never marry and raise children. Beverly Sills did. Anyone else?

What a terrible fate in life for a top opera singer to have one deaf child and another severely physically and mentally challenged

[quote] When I heard Mitchell at the Met she was not very exciting. She was a serviceable house singer. Never caused any excitement. In those video excerpts she sounds far better than what I heard live. Now I wish I had gone to hear her in Ernani.

There's a pretty great Ernani with Mitchell, Pavarotti, and Raimondi available on DVD.

See link for excerpt

For me, a great dramatist can make up for most vocal failings on stage.

I went to a Fedora at the LA Opera with Domingo and Maria Ewing. Ewing wasn't generally bad but every now and then, she opened her mouth for high notes and absolutely nothing came out. That performance was a highlight for my opera-going life, however, because she was so dramatically involved, I didn't care about those missed notes.

Another singer who is a fully- committed actor is Lauren Flanigan. We don't hear much from her nowadays, but about 15 years ago, she had a thriving NY career, particularly as reigning diva of New York City Opera (after she was unceremoniously let go from the MET when she said some not-so-positive comments about the MET Manager). She was a brilliant Lady Macbeth, but she was best known for modern works. I was sitting near the front for her searing Mourning Becomes Electra. Wow, not even for a moment did she break character in this intense piece. Even when she was in the background, she oozed drama. She then moved into Bel Canto with mixed results. Finally, she seems to have disappeared

True, r370…I know that Sills’ daughter Muffy passed away a few years ago. Is someone looking after her son?

An amusing Martina Arroyo story, presented for your amusement. Many years ago, I was an emcee at an event featuring Miss Arroyo. Backstage, before the festivities started, I introduced Miss Arroyo to the various VIPs and speakers. Miss Arroyo complimented me on remembering everyone's name and so I turned to her and said, jokingly...."and you would be?" Without missing a beat, she turned to me and said....."Leontyne".

[quote] True, [R370]…I know that Sills’ daughter Muffy passed away a few years ago. Is someone looking after her son?

I believe the son was put in as institution when he was young

[quote] An amusing Martina Arroyo story, presented for your amusement.

So amusing!

Poor Beverly Sills. Life threw her some hardballs, didn’t it?

Yep, r377.

Earlier in the thread someone mentioned Kathleen sniping at Tatiana Troyanos but wasn't she James Levine's former roommate and rumored lover? I doubt Kathleen would tear into her, at least in public.

The only longtime roommate of Levine's I know about was a female oboist. I think he's been conclusively established as having zero sexual interest in women.

Nearly everyone in opera world, at least at MET knew Tatiana Troyanos was a lesbian. She joins a not too small list that includes Tatiana Troyanos, Brigitte Fassbaender, Beth Clayton and Patricia Racette among others.

Thus any rumors about TT being James Levine's "lover" would likely have been met with raised eyebrows, or mild amusement at whoever uttered such a thing.

Was Jessye a lesbian?

There were also Sapphic rumors about Tebaldi and Price

Jessye didn't name names but in her memoir she mentioned a few male lovers whose company she enjoyed. She was close friends with Anna Deavere Smith from the 90s to her death, who is also rumored to be a lesbian.

Someone on DL I believe, mentioned Jessye's female assistant that awoke her with the news Marion Anderson had died, so there were some whispers.

Marian was lesbianne?

It's not a guarantee but it allows you to focus better on a career. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these women were lesbians. Men are too much of a pain in the ass and a distraction. Better to not have any desire for them whatsoever.

Women can be a distraction for lesbians r387.

I don't know but I would think lesbians are less a pain in the ass than straight men who win the Grand Prix for being jerks. I may be wrong.