Maria Callas

[Tsaraslondon]

Reviving this thread with a reminder that today marks the 45th anniversary of Callas's death.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Reviving this thread with a reminder that today marks the 45th anniversary of Callas's death.

Thank you for the reminder.  A good day today to revisit and appreciate her amazing voice and wonderful recordings. 

If I might continue our discussion from elsewhere regarding changes in voice and your thoughts that it had to due with weight loss (amongst other things), I happened to stumble across this interesting article/reply (from a vocal coach) regarding weight loss, changes and challenges to ones new body, and Callas:  http://vocaltechnician.com/weightloss.html

His background (from the same site):  http://vocaltechnician.com/biography.html

Curious as to your thoughts.

Best wishes,

PD

[Tsaraslondon]

Thank you for the reminder.  A good day today to revisit and appreciate her amazing voice and wonderful recordings. 

If I might continue our discussion from elsewhere regarding changes in voice and your thoughts that it had to due with weight loss (amongst other things), I happened to stumble across this interesting article/reply (from a vocal coach) regarding weight loss, changes and challenges to ones new body, and Callas:  http://vocaltechnician.com/weightloss.html

His background (from the same site):  http://vocaltechnician.com/biography.html

Curious as to your thoughts.

Best wishes,

PD

It's one theory, and no doubt has a certain amount of validity. The weight surely did affect Callas's voice, but, as the voice changed, there were other psychological problems as well. The spectre of her own fame was beginning to take its toll and the way the press treated her was pretty awful. She often sang against doctor's orders, terrified of what the press would say if she cancelled. I also read that she suffered early onset of menopause, which always has a big effect on female voices.

People aways assume she was always very heavy before she dieted, but photos don't really bear that out. In her eariest years in Italy, though she wasn't the pencil slim Audrey Hepburn figure she became in 1954, she was a perfectly normal weight for an opera singer, but you can see that she gradually gained weight until, by 1953, she is really heavy. This too was causing her health problems and these contributed to her desire to lose weight.

[knight66]

Thank you for the reminder.  A good day today to revisit and appreciate her amazing voice and wonderful recordings. 

If I might continue our discussion from elsewhere regarding changes in voice and your thoughts that it had to due with weight loss (amongst other things), I happened to stumble across this interesting article/reply (from a vocal coach) regarding weight loss, changes and challenges to ones new body, and Callas:  http://vocaltechnician.com/weightloss.html

His background (from the same site):  http://vocaltechnician.com/biography.html

Curious as to your thoughts.

Best wishes,

PD

Very interesting points made. I am puzzled when the writer claims that weight loss does not affect muscle mass. It does and depending on what kind of diet someone adopts depends on the proportion of muscle to fat they lose.

I have heard singers who lose weight saying that their stance does not feel so secure, their sense of balance changes. How a singer stands and supports the vocal equipment is important. They can feel there is literally less supporting them and that takes adjustment. Many of the other points make sense. And it is unusual to see a trained singer expanding when they fill their lungs. However, one tenor who sang a lot with Flagstad noted when in performance he was holding her, that she could expand the ribs in her back. He said this enable extra long phrases of loud singing. Some experiences seem to contradict science. On occasion I was in choir and watched Jessye Norman's technique from behind. Often her back certainly expanded noticeably as she breathed in. We used to joke that she breathed in at the start of a piece and made that breath last to the conclusion.

Mike