In spirituals, the talk of heaven and deliverance was code for a better life. 'Crossing the River Jordan' … - Kathleen Battle

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Whenever I wore it there were some questions whether the outfit was just too over the top. I'm like, "Do you know who you're dealing with here, and her eccentricities, her style, her flair?" These little things were sometimes those - I love it. I love having a real-life model. But I also do flush it out with my own personal experiences and my own essence, and hopefully they mesh together.

Kathleen Battle

In spirituals, the talk of heaven and deliverance was code for a better life. 'Crossing the River Jordan' was code, of course, for escaping to freedom.

Code, Escaping, Heaven, Life, Rivers, Talk

Same Author Quotes

I hear music that comes out of need, out of grief, sorrow, suffering and out of overcoming these things, as well. That journey to freedom still goes on today. It's an incremental change, the culmination of many events in your own life and the lives of your children and grandchildren.

Children, Grief, Incremental, Journey, Suffering

I think for more than half of my career I have refrained from talking to the media.

Career, Media, Talking, Think, Thinking

How many of the original songs survive intact from the slave cabins? Probably not many in their original form. Time has transformed them like light in a prism. What we hope to present is a version of those spirituals, and they speak not just to black Americans, but to people worldwide.

Light, Like, People, Song, Transformed

I bring my classical training - some of it, but not all of it - and also my background and culture, to spirituals. And I try to leave room for that unpredictable factor, where the feeling of the song is allowed to come through. The same ethos can be applied to singing Mozart, or Schubert, or Bach. It's not just about what's on the page.

Ethos, Feelings, Page, Singing, Song, Spirituals

I can't imagine life without singing.

I Can, Imagine, Life, Singing