parterre box

45 comments

• Matt Circle says:

  I saw her in Rodelinda and in Duchess of Gerolstein. She was wonderful in both but for some reason I found her a bit dull in Orfeo. It seemed that she sand the role very “straight” and not with much emotion. I also do not understand her refusal to loose weight. She is not overweight, she is obese and she needs to loose it for her health first and foremost.

  on January 31, 2009 at 8:48 PM
• jatm2063 says:

  wotan: it’s true, when Norman got it together it was quite grand. I sort of (sort of) lost sight of the hugeness. But Blythe tends to look a bit ridiculous no matter what. She hasn’t quite figured it out yet totally.

  And I am saying this as someone who greatly respects her singing.

  on January 31, 2009 at 11:31 PM
• LuxieP says:

  Funny to read all these comments after having read months of “No good singers ever get cast because [Gelb/Insert Director Here] only wants skinny, beautiful people” and so on and so forth.

  Looks like “Gelb” isn’t the only one.

  on February 1, 2009 at 12:14 AM
• Fat girlz says:

  The whole tone of the article is offensive from the get-go. I mean, how far can one go with the premise of “fat, handsome ladies can sing beautifully”? How insulting to Stephanie Blythe, and to the non-literalist opera-going public.

  Such a flimsy, horrid little piece. Grow up, Tony.

  on February 1, 2009 at 1:52 AM
• albatrossity says:

  The brouhaha was inevitable when a token person of size got a plum on a moviecast. It creates a bandwagon for several agendas.

  on February 1, 2009 at 6:29 AM
• Thackeray Gnomey says:

  Tommasini clearly considers it a radical, attention-grabbing journalistic angle, Fat girlz. A case of the ‘little black suit’. Yaaaaaawnnnnn.

  on February 1, 2009 at 6:40 AM
• armerjacquino says:

  albatrossity @ 35- I agree, and as I suggested in another thread I think one of the most pervasive agendas is this odd reverse sizeism based in the suggestion that slim singers are only hired because they’re slim, or that the only reason not to hire overweight singers is sizeism.

  ‘The only reason Blythe isn’t singing Amneris at the met is that she’s overweight/ the only reason de Niese is singing Eurydice at the met is that she’s slim’

  Both are equally untrue and equally unhelpful.

  on February 1, 2009 at 7:16 AM
• albatrossity says:

  My problem is when attractive people who can’t sing are cast and then are touted as stars and compared with the greats, or worse yet, a fat singer who cant sing is cast and then the whole event becomes either laughable or unbearable, and lets face it, the Met collected a lot of deadwood in that regard. I’m all for attractive singers and understand the attempt to correct the situation, but I think a balance is needed here. The secret to great marketing is to market the truth, and to focus on what honestly makes a singer stand out.
  I think Blythe desrved a HD DVD, but would not it had been to her and the Met’s advantage to pick another opera?

  on February 1, 2009 at 9:52 AM
• ciocionono says:

  WHO CARES WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE?! She tore the place down last night. Because of the article, the curtain was held so people who had lined up for tkts at the last minute could get in. The house manager said he had never seen anything like it. I hope Mr Gelb was paying close attention to that.

  on February 1, 2009 at 11:06 AM
• Cosmo di Montevergine says:

  The biggest problem is with the music critics who prioritize singers’ physicality. That arrogant nerd John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune opens his Tristan review with “It’s not over till the slim lady sings.” He then goes on to describe Deborah Voigt’s “shining Isolde” as a “triumph” and goes on to recount her “dramatically incisive” performance. Taking into consideration that Voigt is from Chicage and granting that she may have been in better voice than at the Met -dramatically incisive is a stretch. With that kind of journalism no wonder the Tribune is in Chapter 11.

  on February 1, 2009 at 2:17 PM