# Deborah Voigt - interview, Opera News July 2014



## Ho Ho Tai (Aug 23, 2014)

Being a BBW (or SSBBW) when you're young can be all fun and games, but what happens after that? Deborah Voigt (known to most of you - remember the famous 'little black dress' incident?) has some pretty direct statements on the middle aged reality.



Deborah Voigt - interview, Opera News July 2014

"I think also that people can't understand that anyone would have any changes  'How could she have weight-loss surgery when there's a possibility that something might change?' I knew I had to do something. My joints were hurting. I was winded walking across the stage. I was worried about diabetes. I didn't want to end up like poor Luciano, staying heavy until the end. I think people who still worship at the altar of MARIA CALLAS cannot understand that anyone would submit to surgery. Well, that's life, folks. I wanted to have a better life.


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## loopytheone (Aug 24, 2014)

Whilst I can understand her reasoning and it is a free world where everybody is allowed to do whatever they like with their own bodies, I really don't like her tone in parts. It comes off as patronising to people who are bigger and what to stay bigger, as though she is better than them, or as though there is something fundamentally wrong and bad with staying big. That is just my impression at least.


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## agouderia (Aug 24, 2014)

Opera singers and weight - that issues shows you how far the anti-fat craze has gone. The very recent case of Tara Erraught (who by the way is at worst a bit chubby by any normal/medical standard) being fat-shamed makes clear that even this small niche where voice& talent were more important than weight is now seriously threatened by the fat-phobics.

What makes this so tricky though is that there clearly is some connection between voice and weight, not fully explored and explained yet - but it obviosuly exists. Or what else can be the explanation if so many of the stars and singers in field which is about public performance are (even very) overweight?

Deborah Voigt might have made the personally right decision for herself with WLS - professionally it in hindsight wasn't the best one.
Critics universally agree that her extreme rapid weight loss altered her voice, making it loose much of it's lustre. Since her surgery, she no longer is on the international soprano A-list, although she was only in her mid forties at the time, so at a prime opera singer age.

The effects of Maria Callas' also extreme weight loss on her voice are still contested today - some say her 'fat' recordings are much better; others deny this. Fact though is that her constant dieting along with irregular maintenance caused by following Onassis' jet set lifestyle early on ruined her voice - forcing her to retire from singing at only 42, normally an age when many careers only take off.

The discussion in the opera world extends to men also, if you see the case of Johan Botha. Pavarotti today might never have gotten a chance, as he was heavy all his life.

Let's hope that those music critics - of which there fortunately still are many - who think that voice is more important than weight in the opera business prevail.


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