Bella Figura - Do Singers Have to Be Fat?

Music Documentary / 58 min / 2006
Is visual credibility a criterion in the world of opera today? Do we really suspend our disbelief in the opera? A documentary that explores prejudices, clichés, facts and fashions.
Directed by Marieke Schroeder
Produced by PARS MEDIA
Co-Produced by SWR, ORF, SF, TSI, SVT, NRK, YLE, VRT, RTV, Artsworld, and Thirteen/WNET
Supported by Media+
WWW.PARSMEDIA.COM

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Classical
• singers
• Deborah
• Voigt
• Sharon
• Sweet
• Nathan
• Gunn
• PARS
• MEDIA
• Marieke
• Schroeder
• obesity
• music
• documentary

[63Attila]

Singers shoul not be judged on girth. If so, no Schumman-Heink, Pavarotti or Caballe etc.

Let the prducer work around the singers.

[Matthewcoakley08]

That's complete bull! Birgit Nilsson Norman, Callas, Sills, Vikers, all of them sang Wagnerian roles and they weren't heavy at all. Nilsson was a broad woman sure but she was also very tiny. There's no connection between weight and how you sing. Some of the greatest lyrics are overweight.

[jbrown91287]

there is nothing wrong in being bigger, but obese is just disgusting. A singer is an athlete and should take care of themselves as such. I say this as an opera singer myself.

Opera is embarking on a new age and that age includes how its artists look. Whats the difference between an actor whose in shape and a singer whose in shape? NOTHING. They are both perfectly capable of doing their art to a remarkable level, if not even more so b/c they are healthy.

[bishopdr]

BTW, Sharon Sweet is NO LONGER obesse!...Good for her!

[mtenor]

yeah but he has no voice

[liamandsarah]

Terfel, Callas, Sharon Sweet, Alessandra Marc, Voight, Pavarotti, even Nilsson and Sills at some point during their careers were larger women/Men. there is perhaps no fat gland that makes them sing better, but there is something about being larger that makes the huge voice a little easier to handel. The "thinner' Wagner singers petered out early - ie: Hildegard Behrens. At some point, the voice & the music has to become the most important aspect again rather than looks. It's just that simple.

[NoteValue667]

nathan gunn is sooos sexy!!

[diddims]

I have to agree that opera is becoming less about sounding the part and more about looking the part... but singers come in all forms and there are thin singers who manage somehow. And a full figure like Deborah's current figure can still be attractive.

Still, audiences should try using their imagination and imagine these forty- or fifty-something singers weighing 200 to 400 pounds as the young heroes that they play.

[assindiastignani]

we must differentiate between obesity,which is never necessary in any repertory,and having a bigger frame,bone- and face structure. Dramatic voices rarely if ever come in the bodies of fashion models. Many lighter voices do.We live in an era in which the visual has become more important than the aural,so we now have an opera scene where soubrettes sing Elsa and Salome, buffo-tenors sing Tristan and Lohengrin, and lyric baritones (many of them really lyric tenors) sing Amfortas and Macbeth.

[ScottAuc]

i think that is a little extreme

[allycrombie33]

And on a totally shallow note, Nathan Gunn is HOT!

[allycrombie33]

As a singer who lost a significant amount of weight a few years ago, I can tell you that the main reason that my voice changed after that was simply because I didn't have the same body structure, and I lost some breath control and vocal support. It's taken me a while but I think I've gotten some of it back. It does change the way your voice sounds, if you've lost a bunch of weight, but with really good training, you can always get it back. :)