#80 in praise of: kathleen battle

Kathy used to be so hot, as in, legitimately hot.

Oy. People always have "but" when describing Kathleen Battle. "She had a beautiful voice, but..." "Sure she had great coloratura, but..." "She's really great with fans, but..." Fact is many, many, many people hate Kathleen Battle. But that was not her downfall: in fact, it was her decision to sing Zerbinetta.


The voice itself is one of the most beautiful timbres ever produced in USA. It is small, but in its early years it had a piercing quality, and in the notes above the staff sounded as if it could extend itself upwards forever. She excelled especially in oratorio music and Mozart. In fact, I suspect that if she were to remain an exclusively concert-recital artist in the vein of Marian Anderson she would still have a wonderful, fulfilling career as of 2010's. In fact she's still doing jazz performances and the rare recitals.


Of course when talking of Battle we also have to talk about her face - or faces. Another issue was the cloying quality of her middle and upper-middle voice which crept in during the early 80's. She probably felt these contortions helped her intonation, and undoubtedly the cloying sweetness in her voice was a tremndous advantage in crossover rep - it made her voice sounds like a cross between a clarinet and a theremin - but it began to drag her voice down. Her first Zerbinetta's in Covent Garden still had the child-like purity and pearl-like sparkle in the upper voice - a wonderful chest-middle which sounds exactly like her speaking voice was a bonus - but all that disappeared by the time she brought her Zerbinetta to the Met.


Then of course there was the high notes. She could produce them at will, but high D's and Eb's seems to be the limit. By the time of the Met Zerbinetta's the high E has became harsh, scream-like. The quality also changed, earlier they had a laser-like brightness which became velvety and marshmallow-y: no doubt very beautiful sounds all but did not count much projection-wise.


Fortunately she had one of those voices which do as well in crossover music as they do in classical-opera. She became a great proponent of spirituals, and her jazz work is not to be sneezed at, especially her beloved "Creole Love Song", with her in a slinky red dress undulating sinously among her combo members.


It's a loss, a great loss. Who'd predict where Kathy could have gone? When she was fired by the Met she was singing Marie's and Adina's, perhaps she could have went on to Amina. There were talks of Lulu. She was one of the great Handelians of her day, as proved when her Carnegie Hall Semele, with colleagues like Marilyn Horne and ... became a great turning point for Handelian singing in the US. She would have been great in early music like Vivaldi and the Neapolitan school. I shudder to think how her "In furore iustissimae irae" would've sound like. Her French arias album was a gem, as well as her belcanto album. She certainly had the personality for the great operetta parts, like Hanna Glawari, Rosalinde et al. She was also not afraid to venture out, singing Spanish and Catalan lullabies and made-up nonsense Greek. Finally, she would have been great in Broadway, where the size of her voice won't be a factor.


Perhaps I have a bias towards her, because she was my first diva, and like the first fuck you never forget your first diva. I am ashamed to admit I first fell in love with Battle not in opera, not in lieder, but first after hearing her singing the theme from "House of Flying Daggers". Sue me for tackiness, but I have to say that song - or rather, her singing of that song - inspired my great love affair with classical singing. So thank you, Kathy, for making me who I am today.