Customer Reviews

Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just love playing this CD. Especially the Zaide track. Kathleen Battle truly has a magnificent voice. It shines on this CD. I would just love to hear this in concert. WOW. Blown away.

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. And who knew that she would make such a believable Constanze? Of course, we all know that she made Blonde her own on the world's opera stages (she sings one of Blonde's arias here too) but she astonishes as Constanze. (What I wouldn't do to hear her try her hand at "Martern Aller Arten.") "Ach ich liebte" is notorious for the difficulties it poses but she surpasses these and comes out on top looking like a champ. Ms. Battle also breathes beautiful life into the arias of Susanna and Zerlina. She communicates the humor of Zerlina's character in "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" and vocalizes Susanna's aria ("Deh vieni, non tardar") beautifully. In fact, everything on this disc is wonderful to hear, but Ms. Battle does one better by inhabiting the characters. This is an experience you will not want to recover from!

I disagree with "A Fine Effort, but..." Listening to Kathleen Battle has taught me to enjoy opera. This was the first opera CD I purchased, and I have used it to introduce several other friends to fine opera music. My friends and I all used to think that female opera singers were these large, Valkyrie-style women whose voices would rattle the floorboards as well as your eardrums. But Ms. Battle can hit those high notes with the grace of a songbird, and just as I pause to listen to the birds outside in the trees, I pause to listen and admire her voice everytime I listen to this CD. It's terrific, and I own several other of her CDs (Handel: Arias is a good one).

This is my favorite CD of Ms. Battle. She is extremely expressive and the arias are beautifully sung.

Kathleen Battle has one of the great Mozart voices of the century, in my opinion. I have her "Figaro" set, conducted by Ricardo Muti, which is marred by ridiculous tempi, but even that can't hide the perfect appropriateness of her voice for Mozart's music. Sweet, warm, not too big or "operatic"... she's just perfect for his music.

We were coming home late one Saturday, me dozing as my husband drove, when I was awakened by one of the most beautiful arias I've ever heard. It enthralled us both, and we sat in the car in the garage until it was over and the announcer announced it: "Ruhe sanft," from "Zaide," one of Mozart's lesser-known operas. I bought the recording the next day, and have just about worn it out. It goes in my car with me every day and accompanies me as I roar down the freeway, trying to match her exquisite tone. Fat chance! But I believe that this recording will bring the same joy to you that it has to me, and I recommend it without reservation.

Kathleen Battle shines! Her voice is flawlessly crystal clear, making her rendition of these Mozart arias is exceptionally good. She reaches the high notes seemingly effortlessly. "Porgi, Amor" and "Ruhe Sanft" (amongst other tracks on this album) will transport, delight and enthrall even those music lovers who are not great opera fans. (I've proved it, playing it full volume after midnight at my 1998/99 New Year's Eve party under the African stars....)

My title says it all regarding this CD. Battle has always been one of my favourite singers and I have enjoyed this CD. She shines in most of the selections and takes a risk with a few, with fine overall results.

My very first encounter with Kathleen Battle.
It came just as I gently pushed the doors that lead me to world of classical music - during my childhood nobody around me cared for classical music and TV chanells were switched if anything classical came along,so it took me forever to find my way there. Just like everybody I was familair only with most famous pieces and if you point a gun at me could probably name few composers or singers but that was it... until my early 30s when I seriously started reasearch. thanks to local public library and internet informations,I got impression that perhaps I might like Mozart and this CD was pure chance discovery.
The piece I loved the most was from almost forgotten opera "Zaide" where Battle swoops into some angelic stratosphere and never comes down to earth at all - its such hypnotic piece of beauty that I instantly feel dreamy even today. I absolutely love Battle's voice no matter how much her reputation might be tarnished - and I refuse to think about her other than as God's gift to humanity,with that talent,grace,taste and ellegance (not to mention beauty) she has definitely left deep impression on me and moved me into trance many times. In fact,I loved this album so much that I got myself no less than ten more of her albums of which two with Christopher Parkening are still my favourites.

Kathleen Battle's heavenly voice is wonderful for Mozart's music. Her interpretation of Zaide's aria is the best I have ever heard.

Kathleen Battle has a lovely, mellifluous voice -- one of the finest soprano leggeros around in both quality of timbre and range of artistry. This is why the lighter works on the album -- the "Ruhe Zanft", "Welche Wonne", and certainly all of the soubrette arias -- are performed with ease and absolute beauty, and are excellent examples of how to handle this area of the repetory.

However, she fares less well in the face of some of the lirico-spinto arias -- for example, the "Porgi amor", while technically well sung, simply doesn't have the substance required to fully get to the heart of the Countess' pathos at a character-defining moment. What results is a far less satisfying performance. (For a superb example of what I mean, compare Renee Fleming's creamy-toned, heart-rending version of the same aria.)

It doesn't make Battle any less of an artist; she's simply out of her depth. Let's just hope she reserves these forays into the heavier repetiore for the occasional recording or two -- it would be such a shame to lose a voice of her special quality.