Chicago Symphony Orchestra Ravinia Festival, August 5
Battle isn’t particularly monstrous by Hollywood or rock standards; she’s never been reported to have set fire to a hotel room, for instance. But her behavior was too much for the classical world, even for musicians accustomed to diva fits. The Met finally fired her openly, and many other opera companies and symphony orchestras have quietly not rehired her. Some singers, including soprano Carol Vaness, have declared to the world that they’ll never work with her again, and many others have said the same thing to their managements. To have one’s own personal Kathy Battle story is a badge of honor akin to a musical Purple Heart, and “I Survived the Battle” T-shirts were coveted souvenirs among her colleagues during one particularly nightmarish production in San Francisco. One opera star is reported to have remarked, “I know a lot of people who would mow down a crowd of pedestrians to get to Kathy Battle.” If she ever turns up dead under mysterious circumstances, the police will have innumerable suspects with superb motives.
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Paradoxically, Battle has an army of doting fans. Indeed, one of the best ways to get a flame war going in any on-line music forum is to refer to her in less than glowing terms. There’s a lot of cultish diva worship, but Battle worship isn’t typical. The votaries of Maria Callas and Eva Marton revel in their goddesses’ temperamental ways; Battle’s devotees deny that she’s difficult.
But Battle, who reportedly has always required miking at such venues as the Met–something that’s not supposed to happen in opera– never moved beyond the soubrette roles that first made her famous. Musical mannerisms that once seemed fresh and spontaneous began to seem cloying and calculated by the time she’d reached her 40s. Art that doesn’t grow and develop ceases to be art, and Battle now seems stuck in the musical equivalent of a baby-doll dress.
Anne Trulove is sweet and innocent, but there’s considerable steel in her character. Battle demonstrated no steel and turned Stravinsky smarmy. Sopranos such as Ruth Ann Swenson and Dawn Upshaw understand Anne’s gutsiness, but Battle sounded clueless–in fact, all of her selections seemed to showcase the same sweet nonentity.
Employing singers in symphonies is highly satisfactory to those of us who consider the properly used human voice the most sublime instrument of all. Well-trained voices add a dimension to any style of music, and nothing sounds more ethereal than a chorus that seems to be floating in some temporary portal between heaven and earth. Mere instruments just can’t cut it. All the human emotions–grief, joy, terror, love–are best expressed by the human voice, even when words don’t enter the picture.
Mendelssohn is an underrated composer today, but his symphonies, incidental music, and oratorios all display a thoughtful romanticism and a gift for casting voices and instruments in interesting ways. He was tremendously popular in the 19th century, in large part because his many smaller works could be performed by nonprofessional musicians, singing and playing in their parlors for their own pleasure. If he’s not a first-rank composer, he’s still high in the second. Maybe it’s time to start booming for a Mendelssohn revival.
