Kathleen Deanna Battle (born August 13, 1948) is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone.Donal Henahan, "Concert: Battle Sings with the Philharmonic" , The New York Times, January 24, 1987. Accessed August 31, 2008. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. She later focused on recording and the concert stage. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016, and again in May 2024.
Her vocal coach was the late Sylvia Olden Lee.
Life and career
Early years and musical education Battle was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, the youngest of seven children. Her father was a steelworker, and her mother was an active participant in the gospel music of the family's African Methodist Episcopal church. Battle attended Portsmouth High School, where her music teacher and mentor was Charles P. (Phil) Varney. In a 1985 Time Magazine interview, Varney recalled the first time he heard the eight-year-old Battle sing, describing her as "this tiny little thing singing so beautifully." "I went to her later", Varney recalled, "and told her God had blessed her, and she must always sing."Michael Walsh, , Time Magazine, November 11, 1985. Accessed July 22, 2008. In that same interview, music critic Michael Walsh described Battle as "the best lyric coloratura in the world."
Battle was awarded a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied voice with Franklin Bens and also worked with Italo Tajo. She majored in music education, and proceeded to a master's degree in Music Education. In 1971 she began a teaching career at an inner-city public school in Cincinnati, continuing to study voice privately while teaching 5th and 6th grade music. Later, she studied singing with Daniel Ferro in New York.Von Rhein, John (April 21, 1985). "Soprano Kathleen Battle: From Unknown To Operatic Star Of Two Continents" . Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
1970s In 1972, her second year as a teacher, a friend and fellow church choir member phoned her and informed her that the conductor Thomas Schippers was holding auditions in Cincinnati. At her audition Schippers engaged her to sing as the soprano soloist in Brahms' German Requiem at the 1972 Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Her performance there on July 9, 1972 marked the beginning of her professional career.Nancy Malitz, "The Winning Battle", Ovation Magazine, May 1986, p. 17.Eduardo Fradkin, Interview , O Globo, May 16, 2008. Accessed July 31, 2008. During the next several years, Battle would go on to sing in several more orchestral concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. In 1973 she was awarded a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music to support her career. William Mullen, managing director of the Santa Fe Concert Association, was on the panel of judges who made the award. In 2004 he recalled:We would meet monthly, listen to up-and-coming concert artists and give money to deserving artists for further study. A very young Kathleen Battle sang for us. The other judges thought her voice was too small, but I thought she had an incredible ability to communicate through music. I talked the other judges into giving her a grant.
Thomas Schippers introduced Kathleen Battle to his fellow conductor James Levine who selected Battle to sing in Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's May Festival in 1974. This was the beginning of a friendship and close professional association between Battle and LevinePhoebe Hoban, "Battle Mania", New York, July 12, 1993, p. 44, vol. 26, no. 27. , published by New York Media, LLC that would last for 20 years and resulted in several recordings and performances in recital and concert performances, including engagements in Salzburg, Ravinia, and Carnegie Hall. Battle made her professional operatic debut in 1975 as Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with the Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit. She made her New York City Opera debut the following year as Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and in 1977 made both her San Francisco Opera debut as Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera and her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Shepherd in Wagner's Tannhäuser. The latter performance was conducted by James Levine. Battle made her Glyndebourne Festival debut (and UK debut) singing Nerina in Haydn's La fedeltà premiata in 1979.Erik Smith, The Musical Times, vol. 120, no. 1637 (July 1979), pp. 567–570.
1980s Throughout the 1980s, Battle performed in recitals, choral works and opera. Her work continued to take her to performance venues around the world. In 1980 she made her Zürich Opera debut as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. In 1982, she made her Salzburg Festival debut in Così fan tutte, followed three days later by an appearance in one of the Festival's Mozart Matinee concerts.List of Kathleen Battle performances at the Salzburg Festival , Salzburg Festival Archives. Accessed 2 September 2008. In 1985, she was the soprano soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. That same year she made her Royal Opera debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. In 1987 Karajan invited Battle to sing Johann Strauss' Voices of Spring for the Vienna New Year's Day concert. In opera she sang a variety of roles including Oscar at Lyric Opera of Chicago and a highly acclaimed Semele at Carnegie Hall.Donal Henahan, A Rare Semele by Handel , The New York Times, February 25, 1985. Accessed September 1, 2008. She returned to Salzburg various times to sing Susanna, Zerlina, and Despina, Mozart roles which she also sang at several other opera houses during that period. Battle became an established artist at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1980s, singing more than 150 performances with the company in 13 different operas,Kathleen Battle Performance Record, MetOpera Database. Accessed July 23, 2008. including the Met's first production of Handel's Giulio Cesare.Donal Henahan, Kathleen Battle Sings Cleopatra In Handel's Giulio Cesare at Met , The New York Times, September 29, 1988. Accessed September 1, 2008. Other opera houses where she performed include San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Vienna State Opera, and Deutsche Oper Berlin.
During this period, she received three Grammy Awards for her recordings: Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart (1986), Salzburg Recital (1987), and Ariadne auf Naxos (1987). Battle's 1986 collaboration with guitarist Christopher Parkening entitled Pleasures of Their Company was nominated for the Classical Album of the Year Grammy Award. She also received the Laurence Olivier Award (1985) for her stage performance as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Royal Opera House, London. Critical response to Battle's performances had rarely varied throughout the years following her debut. In 1985, Time Magazine pronounced her "the best lyric coloratura soprano in the world".
1990s The 1990s saw projects ranging from a concert program and a CD devoted to spirituals to a recording of baroque music, from performances of complete operas to recitals and recordings with jazz musicians.
In 1990, Battle and Jessye Norman performed a program of spirituals at Carnegie Hall with James Levine conducting.PBS, Great Performances 30th Anniversary . Accessed July 23, 2008. In the same year, she returned to Covent Garden to sing Norina in Don Pasquale and performed in a series of solo recitals in California, as well as appearing at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.Los Angeles Daily News, "Talent Aside, Piquing Singer's Interest is an Uphill Battle" , August 6, 1990. Accessed July 23, 2008. Battle's Carnegie Hall solo recital debut came on April 27, 1991 as part of the hall's Centennial Festival. Accompanied by pianist Margo Garrett, she sang arias and songs by Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Richard Strauss, as well as several traditional spirituals. The contralto Marian Anderson, who had ended her farewell tour with a recital at Carnegie Hall in April 1965, was in the audience that night and Battle dedicated Rachmaninoff's "In the Silence of the Secret Night" to her. The recording of the recital earned Battle her fourth Grammy award. Another first came in January 1992 when Battle premiered André Previn's song cycle Honey and Rue with lyrics by Toni Morrison. The work was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and composed specifically for Battle.Bernard Holland, Classical Music in Review: Honey and Rue Orchestra of St. Luke's Carnegie Hall , The New York Times, January 7, 1992. Accessed July 23, 2008.
In December 1993 she was joined by Martin Katz and Kenny Barron on piano and Grady Tate (drums), Grover Washington Jr. (saxophone) and David Williams (bass) at Carnegie Hall for a concert featuring the music of Handel, Haydn, and Duke Ellington as well as Christmas spirituals.Tim Page, "Kathleen Battle Turns on the Lite", Newsday. December 15, 1993 During this time she also collaborated with other musicians including trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in a recording of baroque arias entitled, Baroque Duet; violinist Itzhak Perlman on an album of Bach arias; and flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal for a recital at Alice Tully Hall (also released on CD). In May 1993 Battle added pop music to her repertoire with the release of Janet Jackson's album Janet, lending her vocals to the song "This Time". An album of Japanese melodies, First Love, followed in November 1993.
On the opera stage, she performed in a variety of Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti operas.San Francisco Opera Performance Archives . Accessed July 23, 2008. Between 1990 and 1993, she performed in several productions at the Metropolitan Opera: Rosina in The Barber of Seville (1990), Pamina in The Magic Flute (1991 and 1993), and Adina (with Luciano Pavarotti as Nemorino) in L'elisir d'amore (1991, 1992, and the Met's 1993 Japan Tour). She also won her fifth Grammy Award in 1993, singing the title role of Semele on the Deutsche Grammophon recording conducted by John Nelson.
Although Battle gave several critically praised performances at the Metropolitan Opera during the early 1990s, her relationship with the company's management showed increasing signs of strain during those years.Bernard Holland, "Kathleen Battle Pulls Out Of 'Rosenkavalier' at Met" , The New York Times. January 30, 1993. Accessed July 22, 2008. As Battle's status grew, so did her reputation for being difficult and demanding. In October 1992 when she opened the Boston Symphony Orchestra season, she reportedly banned an assistant conductor and other musicians from her rehearsals, changed hotels several times, and left behind what a report in The Boston Globe called "a froth of ill will".