Elio Battaglia (3 November 1933 – 23 August 2024) was an Italian

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

, singing teacher, and author and lecturer in music. He was the founder and director of the course entitled, ''Il Lied Tedesco'' ("German Song"), which ran in

Acquasparta Acquasparta is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Terni (Umbria, central Italy). It is located on a hill above the Naia Valley and the river of the same name, facing the Monti Martani mountain range. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ...

, Italy, from 1973 to 2005, and then in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

from 2007 to 2008.

Early life and education

Battaglia was born in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, Italy on 3 November 1933. He was educated at the schools of Adami Corradetti and

Erik Werba Erik Werba (23 May 1918 – 9 April 1992) was an Austrian classical pianist who is especially known as an accompanist of singers. He was also a music critic, conductor, composer, author and academic teacher. Career Werba was born in Baden bei ...

, before earning a diploma in singing from the Benedetto Marcello conservatoire in Venice. He then went on to study for a Doctorate in

Lieder In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

and

Oratorio An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble. Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...

from

University of Music and Performing Arts The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university established in 1817 located in Vienna. With a student body of over three thousand, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, and one of t ...

in Vienna.

Career

Battaglia is most renowned as a singing teacher, of opera, oratorio and

art song An art song is a Western world, Western vocal music Musical composition, composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical music, classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is ...

, and was the first Italian teacher to specialise in German Lieder. In 2004, he gave

master class ''Master Class'' is a 1995 play by American playwright Terrence McNally, presented as a fictional master class by opera singer Maria Callas near the end of her life, in the 1970s. The play features incidental vocal music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giac ...

es at the

Music Academy of the West The Music Academy of the West is a summer classical music training program in Montecito, California, and festival with performances in the County of Santa Barbara. Overview The academy annually enrolls 136 pre-professional musicians in their ...

in Montecito, California, hosted by

Marilyn Horne Marilyn Berneice Horne (born January 16, 1934) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient ...

. Across Europe, his master classes have been hosted by institutions including the Accademia Musicale Pescarese since 1984 and the Mozarteum since 1993. Between 1967 and 1997, he taught singing at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Giuseppe Verdi in Turin. He gave advanced master classes and courses in universities and conservatoires internationally, including in the United States, the former USSR, China, Japan, Korea and Europe. In Italy he organised and held advanced vocal courses and seminars in Turin, ( Teatro Regio, Conservatorio G.Verdi), Sienna (Accademia Chigiana), Parma (Festival Verdi), Rome (Università La Sapienza), Tolentino (Teatro Vaccaj), Napoli (Conservatorio S.Pietro a Majella), Catania (Istituto Bellini), and Milan (Conservatorio G.Verdi). He was often invited to sit on judging panels in international competitions such as the Hugo Wolf International Lied Competition in Vienna, Austria and Stuttgart, Germany, and was, in 2005, the jury chairman for the 2005 Renata Tebaldi Competition in San Marino. As an author, he wrote many essays and articles regarding vocal art and edited the new teachers' edition of ''The Practical Method of Italian Singing'' by

Nicola Vaccai Nicola Vaccai (15 March 1790 – 5 or 6 August 1848) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas, and a singing teacher. Life and career as a composer Born at Tolentino, he grew up in Pesaro, and studied music there until his parents sent him ...

. He also edited an Anthology of the German Lieder. Battaglia was often considered to be a world leader in singing teaching and an expert regarding the works of

Hugo Wolf Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf (; ; 13 March 1860 – 22 February 1903) was an Austrian composer, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, so ...

. Italian

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

and author Massimo Mila (who writes for

La Stampa (English: "The Press") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin with an average circulation of 87,143 copies in May 2023. Distributed in Italy and other European nations, it is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. Until the late 1970 ...

and

l'Unità (; English: "the Unity") is an Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of the Left, a ...

) wrote of Maestro Battaglia: "...thanks to his passionate teaching style and large numbers of resident students, he has almost turned the Turin Conservatory into a branch office of the Vienna University of Music and Dramatic Art." Battaglia's teaching was so influential that for the 1991–1992 opera season's opening night at Teatro Regio in Turin, conductor

Maurizio Benini Maurizio Benini (born 1952) is an Italian conductor and composer. He made his debut in 1998 in ''L'elisir d'amore'' at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. ''Gramophone'' notes his "spirit and finesse" at conducting. He has also conducted opera perform ...

cast Humperdinck's ''

Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; ) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). Hansel and Gretel are siblings who are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch ...

'' entirely from Battaglia's studio of singers. No event like this had ever happened before in Italy. In 1987, he was awarded the Hugo Wolf Medal from the International Hugo Wolf Society of Vienna for his artistic achievements.

Death

Battaglia died on 23 August 2024, at the age of 90.

Sources

*Bach-cantatas.com
Elio Battaglia (Baritone)
*The Lieder Sound Archive

(in Italian)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battaglia, Elio 1933 births 2024 deaths Academic staff of Turin Conservatory Italian operatic baritones Singers from Palermo University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna alumni Italian voice teachers