Kathleen Battle

For this wonderful recital finally making is digital debut, Kathleen Battle made a beautiful selection of Handel arias excerpted from its most famous operas (Alcina, Giulio Cesare in Egitto), oratorios (Solomon, Messiah) and masques (Acis and Galatea). It is witfully accompanied by Neville Marriner’s Academy, who provides an ideal backdrop in which Battle’s voice can express all its charm and virtuosity. This album is definitely a highlight of our Neville Marriner centenary retrospective!

Kathleen Battle, a woman with the voice today being known as that of an angel's. This CD includes some of the most famous lieder, melodies, italian art songs, arias, broadway, and spiritual pieces of all time. Some highlights would be Handel's "Ombra mai fu", one of his most beautiful and famous arias. Kathleen's recitative in "Ombra mai fu" is not boring at all, it is actually quite enjoyable to listen to, unlike most singers where you just hate their recitatives with a living passion…

Kathleen Battle In Concert has been a part of my classical listening experience for many, many years, and many, many repeated playings. Every time I play it, I feel real joy at hearing Kathleen Battle in the opening bars of Purcell's "Come All Ye Songsters."
Miss Battle brings a high level of musicality, an impeccable use of phrasing and some truly beatiful high notes to a wonderful mix of lighter art/love songs, and more serious, but very joyous gospel classics, as in her rendition of "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands."
It's been too many years since Kathleen Battle has recorded such a delightful recital album. If you're reading this Miss Battle, please please record another! We miss your voice greatly!!!

Kathleen Battle and Placido Domingo delight the listener from start to finish in this complilation. Most notable are the duets from La Traviata and The Merry Widow. In my experience of soprano/tenor performances, one voice usually is stronger or more powerful than the other, thus disappointing to that listener who is seeking a perfect blending of voices. Ms. Battle and Mr. Domingo achieve that perfect blend on each duet on this CD. Their solo performances are equally outstanding. It is no wonder they are in such demand with audiences in Japan where this CD was recorded live, as well as throughout the world.

Kathleen Battle initially made her considerable reputation on the operatic stage, but quickly went on to become a premier recitalist and a vibrant interpreter of a wide variety of musical styles. CLASSIC KATHLEEN BATTLE - A PORTRAIT is an overview of the dynamic soprano's career that emphasizes her remarkable versatility. Her extraordinary technical control is shown to great effect in works by Handel and Bach, and her crystal clear readings of Mozart's "Laudate Dominum" and "Alleluja" leave no doubt as to why she's considered one of the leading exponents of his work…

Kathleen Battle (born August 13, 1948, Portsmouth, Ohio, USA) is an American soprano known for her agile and light voice and her silvery, pure tone. 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 light lyric soprano and lyric coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s. Although she no longer appears in operas, Battle remains active in concert and recital performances.

Kathleen Battle's voice is the finest I have heard and this CD of Italian opera, Bel Canto, is perfect to show off her incredible talent and natural gift of an amazing voice. Her voice is clear and yet emotive. Her colaratura is so beautiful and warm. It is my understanding that Bel Canto was the insertion of 'show stopper' musical numbers in a opera that is characterized by beautiful tone, total command of vocal techniques, and coloratura. Kathleen Battle demonstrates this wonderfully. The London Philharmonic Orchestra does an excellent job. The french horns in Bellini's I Capuleti ed i Montecchi are hauntingly beautiful…

By C. B Collins Jr

This disc of Mozart's opera arias manages to capture the perfection of Kathleen Battle's first disc of Mozart concert arias conducted under Previn. We are accorded the opportunity and privilege to hear Ms. Battle essay characters that she never did in the opera house, Constanze, Cherubino, and the Countess among them. In "Porgi amor," the CD's opening track, she negotiates the long passages of the Countess' aria with seeming ease. Hers is a smaller voice than we are used to hearing in the role but this is unimportant as her vocal acting is superb, bringing the heartache housed in the libretto fully to life…

By M. Bish

Jazz buffs are very familiar with Wynton Marsalis and his trumpet. Opera lovers know the quality voice of lyrical soprano Kathleen Battle. A perfect blending of these two performers, in the Baroque music, has been acheived in this CD. The match of human voice and trumpet seems to us, at the end of the Twenth Century, a mismatch. But to quote Ellen T. Harris, who wrote the liner notes, "The real and sympolic power of the trumpet makes its combination with the quieter instruments and voice seems, at first, imbrobable, but a softer sweeter style of playing in the high ("clarino") register was typical in art music for the trumpet…". Sounds simple enough, but Wynton is one of the few players who can do it well. So well in fact, that at several points Kathleen's voice and Wynton's trumpet blend into one voice, a balanced singularity, even duplicating each others vibrato exactly. A truely amazing accomplishment, which can only be fully appreciated by listening; but once you hear this glorious sound, you'll want to upgrade your stero system to capture its fullness…

By A Customer

The songs that Kathleen Battle chooses for her recital mostly eschew deep drama for sheer lyricism. If you want an album that explores the lyric impulse in Schubert songs, then, this is certainly for you. Battle sings these pieces with unfailingly beautiful vocal production, plus a winning charm and insouciance that border on the–well, girlish, one wants to say, if that isn't entirely politically incorrect. Her voice is a beautiful instrument, no doubt about it…

By M. C. Passarella