What is it about overweight people and opera?

Cafe Society
41

Opera does give much more importance to vocal talent than physical appearance. Especially when compared with pop music.

I think that there’s also an opera culture that certainly accepts talent regardless of physical size and almost expects a good singer to have some size.

When I was studying opera in college (25 years ago) there was a young woman in my Opera Workshop class. She had recently (in the past year) lost 40 lbs. and my teacher remarked on how the weight loss had affected the timbre of her voice and the quality of her vibrato which are both very important in operatic singing. The change was not for the better. We could all hear the difference. Her tone was “thinner” and her vibrato was wobbly.

The idea at the time was that if you had some meat on your bones, your voice would have a richer, “fatter” sound.

42

And, having lost weight, Deborah Voigt is back.

And, judging by those pics, looking stunning. In fact, while people often express concern over a large singer losing a lot of weight, I don’t actually know of any examples where someone has damaged their voice by doing so (as long as the weight loss was managed weight loss - illness/drug/alcohol abuse triggered weight loss is a different story)

And I have just finished (re-)reading Terry Pratchetts Maskerade - a satirical look at theatre/opera (most particularly, Phantom of the Opera). However, he pokes fun at the conventions, with the fat girl with the voice covering (from the chorus) for the pretty girl who fits the costume but who hasn’t got a note. And the vocal coach who complains about the old days when it was all about the voice, and who cared if the soprano suffocated the tenor while sitting on his lap.

Si

43

Opera singer checking in.

Aside from the fact that most are very vocally gifted, any generalization you can make about opera singers is worthless.

Indeed, some are overweight. Indeed, many are not. In my personal experience (having gone through multiple training programs and participated in numeous professional productions), the percentage of obese individuals among opera singers is lower than that of the general adult population, at least in America.

There is no aspect of being an opera singer that presents an absolute barrier to physical fitness or general health. Excercise, when intelligently done, does not harm the voice, and the travel, rehearsal, and social obbligations of singing are similar to other professions that require frequent travel and odd hours.

There are just as many hotties as horses in opera, and the percentage of hotties is larger than in the general population, especially among women. So-called “unattractive” (not tall, not handsome, not in shape) men have a better chance of succeeding than supposedly unattractive women because there are fewer men in the field and therefore they are in greater demand.

Opera’s reputation for having fat stars comes, quite mundanely, from the fact that being fat or plain does not disqualify one from succeeding in the field, which distinguishes it from film and contemporary pop music. It is an obstacle, though. A person has to have extreme talents to avoid body type descrimination. I am currently encouraging one of my more talented students to go on a disciplined weightloss program for just that reason. He has the talent to succeed, but it will be easier if he gets in shape.

Finally, I’m 6’3’’, 190lbs. I had moderate success as a singer before moving into more teaching and other professions to pay my bills. Never once was I cast, or not cast, for my looks.

44

I still think you have trouble understanding distinctions between my anger and disgust over the obesity epidemic and my (non-existant) hatred of fat people.

This attitude of “you attack my fat so you attack me” displayed by you and others on this thread is very revealing from a psychological point of view. :dubious:

I LOVE my brother-in-law. I do not consider HIM horrible. I hate what he is doing to himself, because it is entirely unnecessary. Because my spouse and I love him, we would never dream of leaving him alone and unsupported when the time comes. If he has to get amputations as the disease progresses, if he goes blind, or whatever, we will be there for him because we love him.

But when he comes to visit us he arrives with five large bags of chips as well as pastries. One time, reading the labels and working with my calculator, I calculated that he had brought over 15,000 empty calories to consume on a 3-day visit, above and beyond the three heathy meals that we supplied him.

There is NO REASON he needs to do this to his body. His diabetes could probably be controlled and reversed with diet and execrcise.

My spouse and I have saved, contributed to pension plans, and kept ourselves in good shape so we can enjoy financially secure “golden years”. And now we face the prospect of having to support and care for him because of a disability that is SELF-INFLICTED.

Imagine how you would feel if you were all readY to retire, travel and enjoy life, and on the first day of your retirement, you spouse put himself into a coma with a botched suicide attempt and you were forced to spend your golden years at home cleaning his bum and looking after him. Do you suppose you would be a wee bit angry, hmmmm? :dubious:

45

Perhaps he is aware of what he’s doing, and has determined that the benefits for HIM outweigh the risks. And perhaps, he would rather die in a homeless shelter than take away the joy of the golden years for which you’ve planned.

There are a lot of ways my life would be a whole bunch better if I lost a whole bunch of weight. I don’t have a problem losing weight. I have a problem keeping it off. I went to a hypnotist and lost about 60 pounds. Years later I went to Diet Center and lost about 130 pounds. Years after that I was on a liquid diet for 8 months and lost 180 pounds. See a pattern here?

I’m not making excuses. I live with my choices every single moment of my life. However, I don’t complain about my circumstances, though I do accept them. Maybe that’s my biggest failing. I make the best of what I have for as long as I have it. The only thing I know is that eventually we’re all going to die. What we generally do not know is WHEN.

When my mother was 38 years old she was struck by a car crossing the street and spent just about 3 weeks shy of the last 40 years of her life in a wheelchair. Life isn’t fair, life just IS.

And finally, yes, perhaps I am not understanding the distinctions between your anger over the obesity crisis and your non-existent hatred of fat people. That could be because of your explanations or my lack of understanding of them. We’ll never know, and honestly, it doesn’t matter.

46

Thank you for your take.

I’ve not seen the following touched on yet: rib-cage capacity. Might that have anything at all to do with Valteron’s impressions expressed in the OP? Might large-torsoed body types have any kind of physical advantage in singing certain ranges? Or in sustaining notes?

47

Since Valteron can’t keep from hijacking his own thread into a diatribe about his views on people who are overweight, I see no reason to keep this thread going. It’c certainly not a Cafe Society thread.