Is Opera Shedding Its Fat Ladies?
So is it true? Is opera shrugging off its old association between big voices and enormous bodies? Has the curtain finally come down on the fat lady singing? The current, very prestigious Salzburg Festival is casting young, slim, sexy singers in its shows, so is a culture shift in evidence? Michael White, the journalist to whom singer Deborah Voigt (pictured) said five years ago that she was fired from a London production of “Ariadne auf Naxos” because of her girth, weighs in (sorry) on the perennial topic of singers and size. Money quote: “The heavy, spears-and-helmet world of Wagner singing – the supposedly traditional home of the fat lady – hasn’t always been a fruitful hunting ground for Weight Watchers.”
