Showing posts with label fat-shaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fat-shaming. Show all posts

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Voice and Weight

 

Pavarotti had a unique voice. I've listened to  many of the other famous opera male singers, and I have no doubt about that. His face was also rather special: expressive and  full of charm. He was a ...huge person with a corresponding huge personality.

 

Pavarotti in Nessum Dorma (Turandot)

In an interview with Mike Wallace  for the '60 minutes' program, he was asked about his...obesity. Why was he fat?

People were furious, and rightly so. It was rude, very rude of the journalist to focus on Luciano's physical appearance, rather than on his talent and career.  What is it with people that they get so low!

Anyway, there's this belief about opera singers, that the fatter you are, the better the voice. According to experts, there's no medical, physical, or musical reason for singers to be fat.

The thing is, these  singers know they are loved and popular mainly for their voices , so, they allow themselves to worry less about their bodies.  Most of them, both males and females are overweight. After all, opera singing is a tough,  high-stress , lonely  profession, and so, eating becomes a form of compensation.

Diets might ruin the voice. Doctors don't quite agree to this. If done carefully , diet might help with both, losing weight and preserving the voice. And yet, Maria Callas, the famous greek opera singer, lost weight , lost her voice, and died prematurely (at 53). Such a  tragic loss to opera lovers!

                          spanish opera singer Monserrat Caballe

Nowadays, the world worships 'thin' even on the opera stage. Opera singers are politely requested to deal with their weight if they want a job and good roles. I remember reading about the soprano Deborah Voigt of the London Opera. She was sacked because she couldn't fit in the dress. She then underwent bypass surgery, and things changed for her. 

Opera singers, especially the women among them, get quite a lot of 'fat shaming' from critics. Expressions such as " chubby bundle of puppy fat", "unsightful, unappealing" are an example of such shaming.