Battle, Kathleen

▪ 1995

      In February 1994 New York City's Metropolitan Opera issued the terse announcement that it had fired Kathleen Battle, considered by many to be one of the finest sopranos singing today, for what it termed "unprofessional actions." Opera fans around the world were stunned, and a journalistic firestorm fueled by speculation and rumour ensued in which the media dug up accounts concerning the prima donna's alleged maltreatment of all ranks of opera personnel, from wigmasters and stagehands to entire casts.

      Kathleen Deanne Battle was born on Aug. 13, 1948, in Portsmouth, Ohio. As a child and young adult she was both a good student and a good singer, but her ambitions were not grand. She was awarded a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, but she chose to major in music education rather than risk the possibility of failure and disappointment inherent in a performance career. In 1971, with both bachelor's and master's degrees, Battle set out to teach music to Cincinnati's inner-city youth. While teaching, she continued to study voice privately, which resulted in an audition with Thomas Schippers (then conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra). He was so moved by Battle's remarkable voice that he hired the almost totally inexperienced singer to perform at the 1972 Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. Battle's debut at the festival in Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem was very well received. Not long after, Schippers introduced Battle to the conductor James Levine, who was to become influential in her performing career, and by 1978 she was singing supporting roles in major U.S. opera houses. That same year she made her debut at the Met as the Shepherd in Wagner's Tannhäuser. Critics immediately recognized that Battle's lyric soprano was exceptionally pure and that it retained its perfection at both ends of her two and one-half octave range, from low A to high E. She dispatched the virtuosic coloratura of Handel and Purcell; excelled in such Mozart roles as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Despina in Così fan tutte; and was celebrated for her interpretation of African-American spirituals. Her extensive discography also included the music of Donizetti, Richard Strauss, George Gershwin, and others.

      After the Met's dismissal of Battle, doomsayers predicted that her performing career might be over. However, she remained highly popular with the public—all of Battle's recordings continued to sell extremely well—and it seemed likely that concert halls and other opera houses might be happy to have her, despite the allegations of bad behaviour. After all, she has been described as the "best coloratura in the world." (ELIZABETH LASKEY)

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▪ American opera singer

in full  Kathleen Deanne Battle  

born Aug. 13, 1948, Portsmouth, Ohio, U.S.

 

 American opera singer, among the finest coloratura sopranos of her time.

      As a child and young adult Battle was both a good student and a good singer. She was awarded a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music education. While teaching, she continued to study voice privately; when Thomas Schippers (then conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) heard her sing, he hired her to perform at the 1972 Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.

      Battle's debut at the festival in Johannes Brahms (Brahms, Johannes)'s Ein deutsches Requiem was very well received. Not long after, Schippers introduced Battle to the conductor James Levine (Levine, James), who was to become influential in her performing career, and by 1976 she was singing supporting roles in major American opera houses. In 1977 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as the Shepherd in Richard Wagner (Wagner, Richard)'s Tannhäuser. Critics immediately recognized that Battle's lyric soprano was exceptionally pure and consistent throughout her range. She dispatched the virtuosic coloratura of George Frideric Handel (Handel, George Frideric) and Henry Purcell (Purcell, Henry); excelled in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus)'s operas, playing such roles as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Despina in Così fan tutte; and was celebrated for her interpretation of African American spirituals. She recorded a wide variety of music and won five Grammy Awards between 1986 and 1993; in 1992 she won an individual Emmy Award for her performance in the televised 1991 Metropolitan Opera season opening gala.

      In 1994 the Metropolitan Opera dismissed Battle for what it termed “unprofessional actions.” After that she rarely appeared on the opera stage, although she continued to make recordings and sing in concerts (live and televised) and on movie sound tracks, including Fantasia 2000 (1999) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

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