What is it about overweight people and opera?

Cafe Society
1

For years I have wondered why there is some correlation between obesity and opera singing. Pavarotti, Domingo, Bryn Terfel, for exampe. Or look at these guys, Frank and John Tenaglia here The two most obvious things about them is that they have marvellous voices and that they are MORBIDLY obese.

Now, for a long while I thought there might be some necessary relation between fat and having a great opera voice. And it is just as bad for many female divas.

Sometimes, their shape actually detracts from the opera. For example, the heroine in La Bohème dies of tuberculosis at the end. Now, modern audiences may not notice it, but people in the 19th century knew how thin people get when they die of TB. More than one performance of the opera has sent the audience into gales of laughter when some two-ton tillie was supposed to be dying of “consumption” as TB was then called.

Or take Aida. Radames is supposed to be a dashing, athletic warrior. Sometimes, costumers working with a man-mountain in the male lead try to overcome the physique problem by dressing him up in massive chest armour and cape to give the impression of wide shoulders and muscles. Usually, this just makes Radames look like a refrigerator that is being covered by a quilted blanket on moving day.

And all those fat Aidas! I mean, here is a woman who supposedly has been dragged back to Egypt from her native Ethiopia in chains, as a prisoner of war. What are we supposed to think, that they stopped at every Macdonalds along the way for burgers, fries and shakes?

But guess what? Just when I thought there could not be any such thing as a physically attractive AND vocally talented opera singer, I come across. . . . .Simon Keenlyside. Take a look at him playing Billy Budd in the opera of the same name. Whotta Hunk!

And if you think taking care of your body keeps a singer from having a good voice, listen here

Now I realize not all opera singers are huge. But the expression about the opera not being over until the fat lady sings didn’t come from nowhere, now did it.

Does anyone have an explanation?

2

I’m guessing that voice is everything. If you’ve got the talent, you can be the ugliest fuck on the planet. The talent is probably unique enough that there are not enough qualified people to satisfy both singing ability and looks. If you were super hot, you might want to go into pop music merely because the chance of financial success is way better.

3

Wow, someone has an issue with fat.

4

Overweight is the no. 1 preventable cause of illness and medical problems in North America.

Type 2 diabetes is spiraling out of control and consuming more and more medical resources to treat a disease that could be controlled and even eliminated in individuials with a little bit of proper diet and excercise.

I have a brother-in-law with type 2 diabetes who is actually 180 pounds overweight and refuses to do anything about it, and whom my spouse and I will have to support in our so-called “golden years” as he gets limbs amputated.

We have record numbers of obese children the like of which has never been seen before in any human society.

Yeah, I have an issue with fat.

5

Here is an article about fat opera singers.

6

How else are you supposed to know when the show is over?

7

The opera that was laughed at because a fat opera singer was supposed to be dying of “consumption” (i.e. tuberculosis) was La Traviata, and not La Bohème as stated in my OP. I sit corrected.

8

And you’re worrying that these children are looking to opera singers as their role models?

It’s nice to see such faith about the future of classical music.

9

I thought Valteron got banned?

10

I’d kind of been wondering about opera singers often being obese myself. I’m a fatass; would it have been all right for me to ask the question?

11

The question in itself is fine, it’s the language/attitude used to ask it that bothers me.

12

I thought that was probably it.

13

Maybe you’ll be lucky and he’ll drop dead before you’re forced to support him.

And FTR, not all of us morbidly obese people are opera singers. I can barely carry a tune in a paper bag. Just sayin’.

14

I love Jazz more than opera. Ella Fitzgerald, the best Jazz vocalist ever, would’ve been an easier sell if she’d looked more like Lena Horne (or Diana Krall). Instead, she had to make do with having the most incredible voice in music.

If you love music, the sound is what matters. And hating fat people (I’m one) strikes me as more of a character flaw than being one. Hope Valteron’s not a burden to his relatives in his old age. I have the feeling he’s already one now.

15

Well, Merhouse, if you are able to go from my query as to why so many opera singers are obese to claiming that I said that all obese people are opera singers, I think you may have a problem in the logic and reasoning department. Try working a little with syllogistic logic. You know: “All nuns are women, My Mother is a Woman, Therefore, can I conclude that my mother is a nun?” It sharpens your reasoning powers.

16

I hereby christen the Law of Guku.

“There is no invective worse, no word harsher, no insult more agitating than implying that fat is bad or using fat as an epithet. The more offhand or throwaway the usage, the worse the ire and the closer the likelyhood of it derailing the thread comes to 1.”

17

Whatever makes so many opera singers fat is probably the same thing that makes so many organists gay or so many screenwriters Jewish: lack of barriers to a particular type of person in the field.

18

Placido Domingo is a “fatass”? This guy during his prime years was hardly overweight much less a “fatass,” as you so elegantly call him.

Then again, maybe you’re right. I mean, check out famous opera biggies like Mirella Freni, Teresa Stratas (with fellow fatty Domingo), Denyce Graves (dang, she can barely cram her pudge into that slinky leather dress!), Beverly Sills, Kiri Te Kanawa, Samuel Ramey, Jose Carreras, Maria Callas, Renee Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Thomas Hampson, Frederica von Stade, Kathleen Battle, Roberta Peters, Harolyn Blackwell, Jerry Hadley, Simon Estes, Maria Ewing, Barbara Hendricks, Sylvia McNair, Carol Vaness, Ileana Cortubas, Richard Leech, Catherine Maltifano, Elizabeth Furtal, Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo, and Dawn Upshaw! Total porkers, the lot.

I’m so glad you asked this question! Me, I’ve kinda been wondering why all tap dancers are black, all actors are gay, and all baseball players take steroids?

19

For crying out loud, people. Can ANYONE ever ask a damned question regarding someone who is fat/overweight/what have you without having the Fat Police come out and say how insensitive they are?*

Sometimes (or a lot, yeah) the questions or explanations are insensitive, but here there IS a real question that I (and others, as evidenced in this thread) have wondered about as well. How about giving the outrage a rest?

  • Yeah, I’m fat, too, and this bugs the shit out of me.
20

You’re so right. There was nothing at all ‘insensitive’ about the OP. Nope. Nothing. He was just asking about overweight people in opera. Didn’t use a perjorative or generalization once! I can’t fathom why he’s getting hammered for it!