theatre by bill biss
Lovers of opera or classical music can rejoice this month with a one-night-only performance from the esteemed singer, Kathleen
Battle on May 16. She will sing at Copley Symphony Hall with Jahja Ling conducting the San Diego Symphony for this special event
from the Jacobs’ Masterworks Series. Her amazingly beautiful soprano voice has captivated audiences all over the globe. Battle has
won three Grammys for best Classical Vocal Performance and two additional Grammys for Best Opera Recording. She truly is one of
the finest interpreters of this art form. Her skills of emotional intensity matched with the voice that flies on angels’ wings are legend-
ary. For this interview with The Rage Monthly, she shares some of her beginnings as a performer, just what it takes to create this magic
and some of what the audience can expect for this special performance.
Rage: Please tell me about the importance of your voice teacher, Charles P. Varney, in your keep my ear open to other avenues of music. To let them come into me and inform
path to becoming a singer? my performances of classical music. I listen to all kinds of music. I think it enriches
Kathleen Battle: He was my high school choir director. He was also my very first how I approach and helps me to be individual and unique in how I sing classical
voice teacher. I started at the age of 16. He was a wonderful baritone. He was very music. When you think about it, it’s not a given that I would come from southern
serious but he made music fun for all of us. He was a very accomplished musician. Ohio and turn out to be a classical singer. There is not a whole lot of classical in
Charles Varney is the reason I majored in music at all. That was certainly not my southern Ohio…bluegrass (laughter) but not a lot of classical.
intention. I was going to major in math or something more in the general studies I think it was natural for me to let those influences that were so around me, to be
to have a more wide-ranging and comprehensive education. He had me audition touched by them and not to shut them out to the exclusion of classical music.
at Cincinnati Conservatory and I was accepted. I still had second thoughts about
majoring in music. So, I told him, I would minor in music and major in something Rage: You also sang on a Janet Jackson track called “This Time” on the album Janet. How did
like math. that come about?
As it turned out in Cincinnati in that particular curriculum, you could only KB: I got this call and it was Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. They
major in music… there was no minor. It was all or nothing at the conservatory. were in the middle of making her album. There was this song, “This Time” that
So, he changed my application over to music. I was a little shocked and I was go- they wanted to have an operatic obbligato in it. So, they called me and I didn’t
ing to change it back as soon as I got there my freshman year at the first day of have much notice. I went up to Minneapolis, where their studio was. I went out
registration. I took a look at the long lines in the college of arts and sciences. That to the studio and met them and then we laid my track. It was really fun and it was
line—and this was before computer registration—snaked out the door, down different.
the hall and out the door, down the street and around the corner (laughter). Oh
my goodness. I took a look back over at the music school and that short line and I Rage: Can you share a few details on your performance with our San Diego Symphony on
decided to let my application stay there. May 16?
KB: One is a very, very famous opera aria from The Barber of Seville. It’s Rossina’s
Rage: What would you consider one of the more challenging roles in your performance career? aria and it’s called “Una Voce Poco Fa.” It’s her entrance aria. It’s fun and it’s kind of
KB: I guess the one that you are working on now. I just finished a concert recital humorous. She’s flirtatious and she’s whimsical. What they would say… it has a
at Carnegie Hall. That was very demanding in terms of producing it, considering lot of runs in it. Pyrotechnical. Then, I’m going to do an aria of Juliette from Belini’s
the amount of time you have. All these factors come into play… the availability of opera called I Capuleti e i Montecchi. It’s a very heartfelt, sustained bel canto aria.
the musicians, the rehearsal time at the actual venue at Carnegie Hall and creat- Also, I am doing two beautiful orchestrations of spirituals. One is “This Little Light
ing other rehearsal times at other venues, because you can’t always rehearse at of Mine” and the other is “Witness.” “Witness” is one of those storytelling spirituals.
Carnegie (laughter). Not to mention planning the program itself. Trying to find It’s from the Old Testament and it talks about Samson and Joshua and some of the
music that is going to showcase your fellow musicians as well as yourself. Old Testament figures.
My voice… it’s a light voice. So, in the whole scheme of let’s say opera or classical
music, voices like Leontyne Price or Jessye Norman who are both sopranos, they Rage: Do you have a new recording in the works?
have larger voices and I have a lighter voice. You want to pick music that is suited KB: I’m planning on a spirituals album. When we did Carnegie Hall that was one
to your voice that is satisfying to yourself as well as your audience. Those are some of the steps in a continuation toward doing a recording and a DVD. It’s going to be
of the challenges that come into play. There was nothing easy about putting that a wide-angle look at the spirituals and their richness and how varied they are. A
program together. But, it was so satisfying. We did all spirituals. We did oral spiritu- working title right now for it is “The Underground Railroad.” Spirituals were coded
als that are passed down orally through history and we also incorporated hymns messages often giving the slaves hope. It seems to me there is a spiritual for every
that were written down. occasion. There are humorous spirituals. There are somber spirituals, ones that
are testimonies of faith and of sadness and despondency. Others are very uplift-
Rage: Over the past several years, you have branched out by recording Gershwin, doing ing and inspirational. At Carnegie Hall, I had a hard time of what to cut out of the
spirituals and recording with jazz musicians. program. I wanted to sing everything!
KB: When I was beginning and started singing recitals with a symphony orches-
tra and opera, my primary vocal coach who also conducted me at my first opera Rage: Thank you so much Ms. Battle.
at the conservatory, Robert Sadin encouraged me from those very early years to KB: Thank you. I appreciate it.
10 RAGE monthly | MAY 2009
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