Mattia Battistini (Mattia Battistini) |
Mattia Battistini
Singer and music critic S.Yu. Levik had the good fortune to see and hear the Italian singer:
“Battistini was above all rich in overtones, which continued to sound long after he stopped singing. You saw that the singer closed his mouth, and some sounds still kept you in his power. This unusually endearing, attractive timbre of voice endlessly caressed the listener, as if enveloping him with warmth.
Battistini’s voice was one of a kind, unique among baritones. It had everything that marks an outstanding vocal phenomenon: two full, with a good reserve of octaves of an even, equally soft sound throughout the entire range, flexible, mobile, saturated with noble strength and inner warmth. If you think that his last teacher Cotogni made a mistake by “making” Battistini a baritone and not a tenor, then this mistake was a happy one. The baritone, as they joked then, turned out to be “one hundred percent and much more.” Saint-Saëns once said that music should have charm in itself. Battistini’s voice carried in itself an abyss of charm: it was musical in itself.
Mattia Battistini was born in Rome on February 27, 1856. The son of noble parents, Battistini received an excellent education. At first, he followed in the footsteps of his father and graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Rome. However, coming in the spring from Rome to Rieti, Mattia did not rack his brains over textbooks on jurisprudence, but was engaged in singing.
“Soon, despite the objections of his parents,” writes Francesco Palmeggiani, “he completely left his studies at the university and devoted himself entirely to art. Maestro Veneslao Persichini and Eugenio Terziani, experienced and enthusiastic teachers, fully appreciated the outstanding abilities of Battistini, fell in love with him and tried to do everything possible so that he would achieve his desired goal as soon as possible. It was Persichini who gave him a voice in the baritone register. Prior to this, Battistini sang in tenor.
And so it happened that Battistini, having first become a member of the Roman Royal Academic Philharmonic, in 1877 was among the leading singers who performed Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Paul” under the direction of Ettore Pinelli, and later the oratorio “The Four Seasons” – one of the most great works of Haydn.
In August 1878, Battistini finally experienced great pleasure: he performed for the first time as a soloist in the cathedral during the great religious festival in honor of the Madonna del Assunta, which has been celebrated in Rieti since time immemorial.
Battistini sang several motets admirably. One of them, by the composer Stame, called “O Salutaris Ostia!” Battistini fell in love with it so much that he later sang it even abroad, during his triumphant career.
On December 11, 1878, the young singer is baptized on the stage of the theater. Again the word of Palmejani:
Donizetti’s opera The Favorite was staged at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. A certain Boccacci, a fashionable shoemaker in the past, who decided to change his craft for the more noble profession of a theatrical impresario, was in charge of everything. He almost always did well, because he had a good enough ear to make the right choice among famous singers and conductors.
This time, however, despite the participation of the famous soprano Isabella Galletti, one of the best performers of the role of Leonora in The Favorite, and the popular tenor Rosseti, the season began unfavorably. And only because the public has already categorically rejected the two baritones.
Boccacci was familiar with Battistini – he once introduced himself to him – and then a brilliant and, most importantly, bold idea occurred to him. The evening performance had already been announced when he ordered the public to be informed that the baritone, whom she had spent the previous day with an expressive silence, was ill. He himself brought the young Battistini to the conductor Maestro Luigi Mancinelli.
The maestro listened to Battistini at the piano, suggesting that he sing the aria from Act III “A tanto amor”, and was very pleasantly surprised. But before finally agreeing to such a replacement, he decided, just in case, to consult with Galletti – after all, they were to sing together. In the presence of the famous singer, Battistini was completely at a loss and did not dare to sing. But Maestro Mancinelli persuaded him so that in the end he dared to open his mouth and tried to perform a duet with Galletti.
After the very first bars, Galletti opened her eyes wide and looked in amazement at Maestro Mancinelli. Battistini, who was watching her out of the corner of his eye, cheered up and, hiding all fears, confidently brought the duet to the end.
“I felt like I had wings growing!” – he later told, describing this exciting episode. Galletti listened to him with the greatest interest and attention, noticing all the details, and in the end could not help but hug Battistini. “I thought that in front of me was a timid debutant,” she exclaimed, “and suddenly I see an artist who knows his job perfectly!”
When the audition ended, Galletti enthusiastically declared to Battistini: “I will sing with you with the greatest pleasure!”
So Battistini made his debut as King Alfonso XI of Castile. After the performance, Mattia was taken aback by the unexpected success. Galletti pushed him from behind the curtains and shouted after him: “Come out! Get on stage! They applaud you!” The young singer was so excited and so confused that, wanting to thank the frenzied audience, as Fracassini recalls, he took off his royal headdress with both hands!
With such a voice and such skill as Battistini possessed, he could not stay long in Italy, and the singer leaves his homeland soon after the start of his career. Battistini sang in Russia for twenty-six consecutive seasons, continuously from 1888 to 1914. He also toured Spain, Austria, Germany, Scandinavia, England, Belgium, Holland. And everywhere he was accompanied by admiration and praises from prominent European critics, who rewarded him with flattering epithets, such as: “Maestro of all the maestros of Italian bel canto”, “Living perfection”, “Vocal miracle”, “King of baritones” and many other no less sonorous titles!
Once Battistini even visited South America. In July-August 1889, he made a long tour of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Subsequently, the singer refused to go to America: moving across the ocean brought him too much trouble. Moreover, he became seriously ill in South America with yellow fever. “I could climb the highest mountain,” said Battistini, “I could descend into the very belly of the earth, but I will never repeat a long journey by sea!”
Russia has always been one of Battistini’s favorite countries. He met there the most ardent, excited, one might say frantic reception. The singer even used to say jokingly that “Russia has never been a cold country for him.” Battistini’s almost constant partner in Russia is Sigrid Arnoldson, who was called the “Swedish nightingale.” For many years he also sang with the famous Adelina Patti, Isabella Galletti, Marcella Sembrich, Olimpia Boronat, Luisa Tetrazzini, Giannina Russ, Juanita Capella, Gemma Bellinchoni and Lina Cavalieri. Of the singers, his closest friend Antonio Cotogni, as well as Francesco Marconi, Giuliano Gaillard, Francesco Tamagno, Angelo Masini, Roberto Stagno, Enrico Caruso most often performed with him.
More than once the Polish singer J. Wajda-Korolevich sang with Battistini; Here is what she remembers:
“He was a really great singer. I have never heard such a velvety softness of voice in my life. He sang with extraordinary ease, preserving in all registers the magical charm of his timbre, he always sang evenly and always well – he simply could not sing badly. You have to be born with such sound emission, such coloring of the voice and evenness of the sound of the entire range cannot be achieved by any training!
As Figaro in The Barber of Seville, he was incomparable. The first aria, very difficult in terms of vocals and speed of pronunciation, he performed with a smile and with such ease that he seemed to sing in jest. He knew all the parts of the opera, and if one of the artists was late with the recitative, he sang for him. He served his barber with sly humor – it seemed that he was having fun himself and for his own pleasure he was making these thousand wondrous sounds.
He was very handsome – tall, wonderfully built, with a charming smile and huge black eyes of a southerner. This, of course, also contributed to his success.
He was also magnificent in Don Giovanni (I sang Zerlina with him). Battistini was always in a great mood, laughing and joking. He loved to sing with me, admiring my voice. I still keep his photograph with the inscription: “Alia piu bella voce sul mondo”.
During one of the triumphal seasons in Moscow, in August 1912, at the performance of the opera “Rigoletto”, the large audience was so electrified, so furious and called for an encore, that Battistini had to repeat – and this is not an exaggeration – the entire opera from beginning to end. The performance, which began at eight o’clock in the evening, ended only at three in the morning!
Nobility was the norm for Battistini. Gino Monaldi, a well-known art historian, says: “I signed a contract with Battistini in connection with a grandiose production of Verdi’s opera Simon Boccanegra at the Costanzi Theater in Rome. Old theater-goers remember her very well. Things did not turn out too well for me, and so much so that on the morning of the performance I did not have the necessary amount to pay the orchestra and Battistini himself for the evening. I came to the singer in terrible confusion and began to apologize for my failure. But then Battistini came up to me and said: “If this is the only thing, then I hope that I will immediately reassure you. How much do you need?” “I have to pay the orchestra, and I owe you fifteen hundred lire. Only five thousand five hundred lire.” “Well,” he said, shaking my hand, “here’s four thousand lire for the orchestra. As for my money, you will give it back when you can.” That’s what Battistini was like!
Until 1925, Battistini sang on the stages of the largest opera houses in the world. Since 1926, that is, when he was seventy years old, he mainly began to sing in concerts. He still had the same freshness of voice, the same confidence, tenderness and generous soul, as well as liveliness and lightness. Listeners in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, London, Bucharest, Paris and Prague could be convinced of this.
In the mid-20s, the singer had the first clear signs of an incipient illness, but Battistini, with amazing courage, answered dryly to the doctors who advised them to cancel the concert: “My lords, I have only two options – to sing or die! I want to sing!”
And he continued to sing amazingly, and soprano Arnoldson and a doctor were sitting in the chairs by the stage, ready immediately, if necessary, to give an injection of morphine.
On October 17, 1927, Battistini gave his last concert in Graz. Ludwig Prien, director of the opera house in Graz, recalled: “Returning backstage, he staggered, barely able to stand on his feet. But when the hall called him, he again went out to answer greetings, straightened up, gathered all his strength and went out again and again … “
Less than a year later, on November 7, 1928, Battistini died.
