Met Opera reinvites sacked soprano
OperaThe African-American soprano Kathleen Battle, sacked in 1994 when Joe Volpe was in charge, has been reinvited to the Metropolitan Opera by Peter Gelb.
Battle, now 75, will give a recital on May 12.
She was fired by Volpe for conduct ‘detrimental to the artistic collaboration among all the cast members’. Her return is a rare act of sentiment by Gelb.
She had previously been allowed to give a recital of spirituals in 2016.
Umm this will be her THIRD appearance in recital at the MET since being blacklisted. You can drop the click bait headline…
If he dropped all the click-bait, the site would be one giant 404.
The “click bait” clearly says “REinvites”. Also, the Met Opera Archives lists only one prior performance in 2016, making this her second appearance at the Met since her separation from the Met in 1994.
She was never a member of the company after 1994. She was sacked.
Three appearances in 30 years! 75 years old! She is bait worth clicking for.
Miss Kathleen Battle was “whitelisted” by silly Volpe, a mr. Nobody who was the carpenter or some such, upon rising from his low status the best he could do is get rid of An African American of the calibre of Miss Battle. He will get his due reward.
The Met must be looking for a packed house. People will want to see in grandeur at 75 yrs. She still has that magic.
Her sacking was well earned…
Battle’s diva behavior at the Met was intolerable. She was sacked with the proviso that she could return if she could complete the season elsewhere “without incident.” She couldn’t.
I listen to her every night singing in Latin, German, Italian,and English with Issak Perlman, and Winston Marsalis with the St. Luke Symphony and other Phylarmonies.She is great.I enjoyed her duets with Fredericka Vonsdstatd at Christmas at Carnegie Hall.It made history. I miss those times.Thank you for defending her. I stand by her all the way.
This is news, because if she can pull this of at 75, it is big news.
It may not be vocally impossible. There are youtube clips at an advanced age, in which she does well.
Then again, there are reviews according to which she acted out her issues on stage. This most unfortunate behaviour has shortened and limited her vocal career.
I hope she never sings playback like Pavarotti, Caballe…
No one in their right mind should have the faintest expectation that her light lyric voice (what it was in the 1980s and 90s and one that never developed beyond it) will be easily heard in the vast cavern, esp. at 75. Or that she still remotely commands a pretty voice or can still sing. And when did she last sing in public? Surely she will be mic’d. If the recital happens at all. Gelb can’t possibly expect this to be a big seller.
Sadly, this is not meant to be cruel, but it’s not far off the mark, and then in the Met barn of a place. Perhaps in a recital hall would have been much better for her.
Fyi, her last recital was soldout.
Florence Foster-Jenkins sold out Carnegie Hall.
Callas’s comeback, when she was much younger than KB, wasn’t a huge success.
I wonder what she’ll sing. The programme has to include. ‘Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.’
I NEED to hear your voice!! It must be a gem!!!
“Pray god your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring” (Hamlet).
This is why the world now has to be grateful to the Beyoncés and the P.Diddy, because share your warped and twisted view..if you don’t want to watch her perform THAN DON’T, but sir quietly in your sandbox and play nice
What a mean comment!
Shame on you!!
Apparently, you are not educate about Opera Singers. When you learn how to sing properly and take care of your voice, you can still sing even into your 70’s. Granted not with the same fervor as when you’re re younger, but one can still sing.
Yes, but we, the audience, should not be subjected to it.
I can still walk around naked, but I don’t expect people to enjoy the view.
She’s the Sarah Brightman of opera.
She was fired in 1994. That was 30 years ago. Why are we still talking about it? She has sung at The Met AND several other places SINCE then.
This title is disappointing.
Don’t kick her anymore. She’s been through enough!!!
She has since sung “at” the Met, but not “with” the Met. She gave some recitals there, that’s all. Her firing had everything to do with the fact that she was tormenting the conductor – demanding her own tempi, at the expense of everybody else. Opera is a team sport – and Ms. Battle’s “My way or the highway” diva-stance is what got her kicked out. She asked for it, and she got it!
Peter Gelb the Great Affirmative Action General Director!! Pathetic.
Pity it has been left to her being invited at 75 years old to sing a recital – the hardest form of music-making and there on your own with a pianist … hmmm …
A harpist and a guitarist in this case.
“Worse and worse” (Othello).
The recital is not being produced by the Met and Gleb has nothing to do with it. It is a rental.
Outside producer, yes, but the press office issued a release. So the Met has at least a financial interest. Tickets went on sale yesterday to priority customers. A few have sold, but it appears that prime seats are being held back.
AMP reps/produces an eclectic mix, ranging from Fabio Luisi to musicals in concert.
Some voice types age better than others. Light sopranos usually don’t.
Can the Met sink any lower into absurdity and irrelevance? Yeah, sure! Just wait for next week’s desperate measures.
There’s no earthly reason in this article to identify Kathleen Battle as “African-American” (or even “American” for that matter, everyone knows who she is), have you ever referred to Callas as “the Greco-American soprano”, or more pointedly, *any* *white* American singer as “Euro-American”?
I’ve seen her referred to as “the Greek-American soprano Maria Callas” numerous times.
Rightfully so. Mme. Callas spent many of her adolescent years in Greece and later in life gave up her US citizenship for Greek.
I doubt Ms. Battle has ever stepped foot on the African continent. She is American born and bred.
Callas only lived her first 13 years in America – the rest of her life she lived entirely in Europe – first in Greece, then in Italy, and finally in France. Giving up her US citizenship for Greek was principally because that was the only way to end her Italian marriage, as Italy had no divorce at that time. Under Greek law, the fact that she hadn’t married in the Greek church meant that she was never married. And so that she was finally legally single, Onassis could no longer use the excuse “You’re still married, so I can’t marry you.” But he still didn’t marry her anyway.
A brilliant comment. No one cares about skin color, or ethnicity…just if they can deliver the voice (the goods!). Sadly, most can’t.
At the time, Joe Volpe made the right decision. Ms. Battle had wreaked enough havoc at the Met. His action gave permission to other companies to do what they had feared to do. Beautiful as her voice was, she had plenty of competition.
After more than 30 years, surely the statute of limitations has run out on her punishment. She is a friend of Peter Gelb, she will no doubt sell tickets, and fits neatly into the DEI model.
However, Ms. Battle does not nearly approach the status of a Marian Anderson or Leontyne Price or many other renowned black singers and does not deserve a similar legacy.
I wish her well.
Another Gelb failure…goodbye Met…you were the greatest, but now you are gone and not ever coming back…
The firing of Ms. Battle was cruel, but inviting her back to sing at age 75 is the very height of cruelty.
I studied voice for several years as a graduate music major at a noted school of music in Pennsylvania.
I semi- retired at age 62 and kept my voice in shape as a cantor at Mass.
I retired from cantoring at age 71. And now at age 74, I know my voice, while still acceptable, is nowhere near as agile and as clear as it was.
I would like us to remember Ms. Battle as the beautiful and talented lady she was.
The firing of Ms. Battle was not nearly as cruel as Ms. Battle’s behavior to her colleagues was. That’s why she was fired.
Beautiful and talented and severely disturbed.
Will she sing Sondheim’s “I’m Still Here”?
Such wonderful news! She will always be one of the greats! Good decision, Mr. GELB!
I remember getting to hear her perform a recital at Carnegie Hall…most awkward performance I’ve ever seen. Started the recital late, she forgot the words to a bunch of Schubert lieder and had to keep restarting, and spent much of the recital gesturing to the pianist to play softer. Memorable night, for all the wrong reasons lol
Was that the Carnegie Hall recital in which she replaced a disposed Jessye Norman ca. 1992? I was at that recital and remember Battle pointing out Marion Anderson who was in attendance drawing a long applause from the audience.
The most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard.
Her streamed Met performances through lockdown lifted my spirits beyond measure. The joy and genius she brought gives doubt to the reasons she was ‘sacked’. Wish I could go to the concert.
She wasn’t sacked because of her singing, but because she was well known as a nightmare to work with. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/08/arts/the-met-drops-kathleen-battle-citing-unprofessional-actions.html
Noteworthy that so many other institutions stopped working with her once the MET did.
Kathleen Battles exit from the Met was a dreadful mistake. If you can’t cope with a prima donna of her status then you are in the wrong job.
They did cope with her; they said no singer is bigger than the house and that kind of behavior isn’t acceptable at the MET.
That said, no reason to bring her back, though as someone else said, this is a rental, not a MET production.
No reason NOT to bring her back.
I believe it was her fellow artists–of equal talent and renown–who had difficulty with Ms. Battle. Volpe’s job was to protect the entire company, not one entitled singer with personal problems.
Hopefully Ms. Battle has conquered her demons.
I was not an opera fan but her incredible voice converted me. I have never heard a more beautiful sound.
Obviously, her voice is not what it was decades ago . Unfortunately, some singers like some athletes , refuse to gracefully leave the stage and leave us with the beautiful memory of a time when they were at the height of their powers. So,I have no interest in hearing Ms Battle sing , particularly, in this venue. The Met is having tremendous attendance issues . Perhaps , the powers that be thought this recital would be good for the box office.. for me, its crass exploitation of a
faded star… it is heartbreaking!
I wouldn’t walk next door to hear a 75 year old ‘sing’.
My guess is that her particular voice type (soubrette) should still sound pretty decent even at her advanced age because she never sang anything heavier than Fiakermilli or Johann Strauss Jr.
Most people adore her singing just not her personality. She may have lost the war but let’s hope she wins the Battle on 5/12.
I would never step foot in the MET. Having made the mistake of sacking Callas, it is clear the people that run the place haven’t changed as evidenced by the sacking of Netrebko. Now that Israel is committing genocide, one has to wonder if the MET staff and singers with ties to Israel will have to condemn that State to keep their jobs.
Comparing the overrated Trebs with Callas and with Battle in her prime is being delusional.
I can’t wait to hear her beautiful soprano voice again, your racist, sexist, ageist post notwithstanding.
ew. I saw her with the TSO many years ago and she was affected and underwhelming.
Diva Angela Gheorghiu was also sacked by the Met and has since returned in good form.