Bernie To Kathy: "Sing Louder". OC To Bernie: "Listen Harder". Or, It Takes A Cyber Village To Catch A False Note.

Unlike legions of NYC opera fans and a few opera bloggers, OC has got no beef with Bernie The Flying Hollander, a critic we read, to quote immortal Melanie Griffith in the Bonfire of the Vanities, "spasmodically" (or was that "sporadically"?).

And really, we thought he'd pan la Battle worse than he just did in the Times. 

To sum it up:

Shorter Bernie: "Sing louder, Kathy, your voice's not as good as 20 years ago".

Shorter OC: "Listen harder, Bernie, your hearing's not as good as 20 years ago".

 

Easy, no? That's your review.

But since this is no time for snark but it is actually a moment when all lovers of classical music should rejoice, because la Battle is back, we won't pass judgment on the fact that the New York Times had less column inches for the NYC comeback of one of this country's greatest sopranos ever than, you know, they devoted to "It Takes a Cyber Village to Catch an Auto Thief" (you don't want to know, really: we're not even linking it).

We'll just mention, in closing, that it's pretty telling that la Battle is back and there's only one guy in the audience who actually wants to hear the accompanist instead of her, and that guy writes for the Times.

Comments

[Les Mitchell]

Kathleen Battle never possessed an even medium sized voice, but it was silvery, luminous, and it projected well. She did certain roles to perfection, as we all know (Sophie, Adina, Zerbinetta, etc.) and her Schubert was truly beautiful. It's nice that she still has a lot of her voice still intact, and I wish her the best of luck in her new career. However, few voices, if any, can retain all of it's original beauty after the passing of close to a quarter of a century. Miss Battle is probably still a great artist, but she must be accepted as she is now. I doubt very much whether she's an opera singer anymore, which is perfectly OK, because Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Victoria de los Angeles continued to grace the recital platform long after they renounced opera. In Miss Battle's case, it's a considerably more regretable because she threw away her operatic career due to the emotional problems which were obviously dogging her. But one must look to the future. We should be glad that this gifted soprano can still deliver a recital with such auspicious results. Hopefully, she will become stronger and more vocally confident as she continues to reclaim her place as one of the most prolific artists of our time. Her refusal to discuss her past difficulties is perfectly logical. She is obviously looking at the present and future as she internally deals with her problems in the past. She's to be respected and admired as a lady with real guts.

[Miss Johnson From London]

Dear Miss OC--That Berneleh is still sent out by that shipwrecked paper formerly known as the nation's best to review vocal events sounds the depths of the indifference of its management and ownership to worthwhile coverage of the musical arts. These days, if I bother to read the Times at all (I sometimes glance at it before lining the canary's cage) and see BH's by-line, I stop to wonder just what it means that the Times tolerates this man's collaborations with irrelevance. No critic incapable of feeling and expressing gratitude is worth reading. (I am not saying he should have extolled Battle--I wasn't at Carnegie Hall--I am speaking generally here.) Don't we read criticism for its illuminations of
a performance, of music, of ourselves? If so, I would have to say that Holland's, and the Times's, lights are out.

[Marshie]

And not just Holland but also Tommasini. It is increasingly hard to stomach the latter's nonsense and sycophantic reviews on behalf of Renaaay and Debbie, for example. This all exemplifies the way we live today and the collapse of journalism, especially music journalism. Here is another sign of the times, this time in Madrid involving Deutsche Grammophon executives vis-a-vis soprano Cheryl Studer. The article is in Spanish.

http://www.elcultural.es/Hist_print.asp?c=22899

There is simply no excuse for this brand of behavior and ignorance.

[Patrick D. McCoy]

OC to the rescue! Thank you so much for responding to the call. Please check out my account of the concert too. Would you consider adding my blog to your list of links?

http://www.kathybattle.blogspot.com