Mattia Battistini-en anglais

Even Today An Artist on the Edge
Although one of the outstanding figures of musical history, Mattia
Battistini continues today to unsettle our comfort zones; his
interpretations, which were certainly not bound to the letter of the
printed score (suffice to listen to any of his some 100 recordings),
continue to cast into serious doubt what we today call modern
performance practice. When hearing Battistini for the first time
appropriate with such ardent fire every note of the music he sings,
the initial shock can sometimes be to the extent that we want to hide
our true feelings, as if suddenly stripped of the comfortable cloak of
reverence for music of the past, and timidly affirm that it would be
“impossible to sing that way today.” For, today we feel that we are a
sanitary distance from the ridiculous practices of yesteryear, and are
obviously of course, better singers. By media brainwashing we are
conforted that we somehow possess a recently discovered key that
will unlock forever the door to good taste, and surely safe now from
the danger of somehow ourselves also becoming obsolete. In
interpreting the music of the past, there is comfort in justifying all
avoidance of indulgence in the worst of all sins: tradition!
While we can believe that todays singers, by merely “respecting the
score,” follow more closely the implied or explicite wishes of longgone composers, the simplest attempt to really look into this can
proove such notions to the contrary. How paradoxical indeed to
endlessly perform operas of the past, but only accept that their
restitution conform with our own, modern intentions. For the most
part, Battistini sang works by living composers, whom besides
being contemporaries, he knew
personally Wagner, Verdi, Puccini,
Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Giordano,
Tosti, Thomas, Massenet, SaintSaëns, Nouguès, Rubinstein and
others, were among his greatest
admirers. And one must
remember that he was hailed
unanimously by the press, that
the public applauded him as
“The King of Baritones.” One
could hardly put forward the
argument that “The Glory of
Italy” was somehow a traitor to
music or the music of his time.
Even from his debut in 1878, the
press who in that day retained
the memory of those who
premiered the music that was
known as “bel canto,” recognized
Caricature of Battistini as Werther
in Battistini the highest, crowning example, in whom the
interpretations of Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini acheived their
zenith. His care to restore such works to their specific style
motivated him to closely study Don Giovanni in the theater where
that tradition was preserved. Thus he incarnated the famous seducer
in Prague, with its original decors and where the exact orchestral
elements could be recreated as at the premiere. Later, when Verismo
style achieved its grand nobility, those composers were all too
honored to bring their contributions to a such a prestigious artist,
and so it was with the blessings of Leoncavallo that Battistini added
the well-known A-flat and the G that crowned the Prologue of I
Pagliacci, a feat after which no baritone to this day could approach
this famous piece without adding those risky high notes. As for
Giordano, a page specially conceived for Battistini was promised for
André Chenier. And Massenet himself adapted his Werther to the
unique voice of this baritone.
Battistini in La Favorita in 1878
Battistini , Don Giovanni
Battistini left as his trademark a certain freedom, an artistic liberty
that is the essence of music. This is fundamental and vital to its
existance. Incidentally, Battistini always affirmed to be preoccupied
with respecting the wishes of each composer and the styles of their
music, which in no way contradicts the bringing to life of every sung
phrase. There can be no doubt that he knew every secret in order to
reveal to us the music he gives to us to hear. From the science of
applying a perfectly mastered rubato, to the skill of those
magnificent added notes, all are the signs of a performer fully in
control of his art, not a laundry list of unpardonable faults as some
would pretend.
While at the same time Battistini can set off-balance our habitual
way of listening to a record, it would be wiser to question the
soundness of some of our convictions, instead of underlining only
what sets him apart from the large part of modern performances.
Furthermore, remember that future scolars might find us
unpardonable to have approved some very neutral interpretations.
The modern restraint and objectivity that we find so full of the
highest qualities, revealing very little human commitment, might be
responsible for the lack of interest in “classical music” of so many.
In another subject, it is only our modern vanity again that supposes
that singers have only recently learned to act. Let’s just look! Of
course, singers one hundred years ago didn’t act as they do today, in
the same way that we can be sure that singers won’t act the same
way in the future that we find indispensable today. To appreciate
various and far-afield aesthetic values we have to let go and open our
ears and our eyes. This is clear: all of his contemporaries described
Battistini’s acting as worthy of the finest stage actors. They hardly
spared their compliments for his incarnations of the many diverse
characters he played.
Caricature of Battistini as Werther
Caricature of Battistini as Zampa
One still hears repeatedly that olden-day singers had no concern at
all for their costumes compared to today’s exacting requirements,
when the opposite is true. And no one was more obsessed with the
proper period clothing than Battistini, who paid craftsmen the price
of pure gold to make the costumes for his numerous historical
characters, after lengthy sifting through museums and libraries.
Charles-Quint, Alfonso, Chevreuse, Iago, Onegin, Figaro, Valentin,
Henry VIII, Severo, Petronius, Escamillo, Rigoletto, Gérard, Scarpia,
Werther, and others, received the appropriate, historically exact costumes.
Letter used on stage in the
aria
Bella e di sol vestita
in
Maria di Rohan
Chevreuse in Maria di Rohan
Battistini as Petrone in Quo Vadis
Henry VIII
Don Carlo in Ernani
Valentin in Faust
Rouslan from Rouslan and Ludmilla
True genius of course
tends to find its way free
from the boundaries of
conventional dogma and
certitudes. A unique talent
somehow survives and
reemerges even when the
dominant doctrines of the
day tend to embalm this
same genius in unbearable
praise, or worse, by
perfidiously discouraging
our
curiosity
with
exaggerated tales that
undermine his or her value
as an artist. After his
death, Battistini’s legacy
was forced to endure the
entombment of the
highest praise. One fears
that the Pooh-Bahs of
the followng generation felt danger for their own newly elected
heroes. It was at this time that the tale emerged that Battistini
refused Verdi’s request to create the rôle of Falstaff for the reason
that he could only accept rôles that portrayed nobility (by this
falsehood more is said about his implied narcissism that about his
acting). Another insinuation was that “Battistini didn’t even have a
costume to play Rigoletto on the rare occasion that he deigned to
sing that rôle, and probably simply took the nearest costume from
the rack, perhaps with the golden decoration of Carlo in Ernani or
of Posa in Don Carlo.” ° Well, Battistini posessed many costumes
indeed for Rigoletto, as it was the rôle he performed most often! This
is an example of ignorance, and malicious dissinformation.
Rigoletto
It is known that some great artists are intimidated by the coldness
of the recording studio, where thay are deprived of the public, and
only give the best of themselves on stage. As for Battistini, one can
hardly detect that lack of inspiration, such is the power of
suggestion that overflows from his 78s. They so compel the listener
to attention, one could not possibly listen to these recordings as
background music. His voice, with its sun-bathed timbre, which
feared neither vertiginous high notes nor rapid-fire and volcanic
vocalising, faithfully obeyed Battistini during fifty years of career,
and incidentally resonated publicly more often than any artist today.
These points alone would indicate that his vocal technique should be
worthy of our close attention. And these qualities are exactly what
fill many voice teachers with fear, for it doesn’t take long to discover
that his technique goes to the contrary of what is most frequently
taught today. Battistini said interestingly that “It’s not to sing a
great deal that tires the voice, but to sing poorly.” I hear repeatedly
the credo that for vocal longevity one must discern with judgement
and perform only five rôles. I repeatedly must remind these students
that Battistini, who performed a repertoire of 80 rôles, including
very heavy ones and very light ones, tragic rôles and comic ones,
could even alternate them from one evening to the next! This also
dissolves the belief that one must remain mute between
performances. Carefully considering the recordings of Battistini
pretty much sets things straight regarding proper placement, use of
covering, and breath support. In the direct filiation of the bel canto
tradition, he was totally opposed to the diaphragmatic breathing
that began its disastrous legacy with the begining of the 20th century,
and said so. The increasing scarcity of large voices today is related to
the erronious instruction despensed in learning institutions today.
One example, a scientific travesty, that is now put forward is that in
opera technique, the ascending movement through the registers that
is carefully concealed, will bring the chest voice up to the falsetto
(this presumably is the key to high notes and results in successful use
of passagio singing)! Battistini’s audacious vocality begs to be
listened to and analized, and for the evidence to be put before the jury.
No baritone since Battistini has been his rival, neither in the multiple
dimensions of his vocal capacities nor as an artist. It is in the
analysis of this miracle that one begins to understand what is the art
of singing. Today our ability to analize a voice is somewhat reduced,
a skill atrophied by close microphone placement in the studio, and
the crutch we have come to use that is the headphone. We’re taught
to sing like we speak (!), a device that makes legato dissappear, the
very legato that conveys sound and the word. If a singer is not
exaggerating his articulation of the text, with all the vocal
mannerism which that involves, many are the auditors today who
can’t make out the words; and if a singer’s voice doesn’t carry over
the orchestra, well, there are always sur-titles and sound
enhancement as a back-up! By the consensus of those who heard
Battistini, his pronunciation was beyond reproach, intelligable to the
last row of the house, but this was acheived through the production
of sound, and not against it. Mixed with the enthusiasm generated
by any of his performances is the melancoly sentiment of a terrible
regression of our capacity to understand vocal technique. The
decline was enormous at the turn of the 19th to 20th century and also
with what’s happening at the turn of the 20th to 21st century. How
could we allow such a vast science to simply evaporate? Probably
with an aesthetic sharp curve where we learned to prize a more
down-to-earth conception (more rustic, or human, one might say),
tied to a crisis in the artistic universe, and of course a crisis of
civilization due to two world wars.
One comes to realize the unbelievable luck that we have today to
possess so many recorded arias by Battistini, despite their
precariously primitive technical form, in order to evaluate the extent
of the wealth this Michelangelo of song actually left for us. The
evaluation of this most worthy of treasures is all that I hope for the
coming generations, even if some who have preceded them too often
passed it by.
°(André Tubeuf, Rigoletto, L’Avant-Scène Opéra September-October 1988 n°112/113.
Jacques Chuilon
Battistini with his accompagnist Lindemann for a radio broadcast in Berlin (mid 1920s)
Battistini, at home, in Colle Baccaro, studyng Henry VIII by Saint-Saëns for the Opéra Garnier in 1917
Battistini loved riding horseback
Don Carlo of Ernani... in the photographer’s studio
Caricature of Battistini in Un Ballo in Maschera
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Ernani
Gli Ugonotti
Maria di Rohan
Rigoletto
Tosca
All photos and caricatures from personal collection Chuilon. All rights
reserved for all countries.
Jacques Chuilon
22 rue Rambuteau
75003 Paris
FRANCE
chuilonjacques@aol.com