Royal Opera Singer Fired Because of Weight

Deborah Voigt, a star soprano singer, has been fired from the Royal Opera House in London because she was too heavy. Estimates are that the singer weighs around 200 pounds.

Ms Voight was supposed to sing the lead in Ariadne on Naxos, but Peter Katona wanted to have the lead sing in a black evening dress - and decided that Ms Voight would look unattractive in that outfit. So instead he replaced her with a more slender singer.

Other opera houses relish Ms Voight's performances and have no issue with her weight. The Metropolitan Opera House in New York will be featuring Ms Voight in a few months in a production of "Die Walkuere", where she co-stars with Placido Domingo.

Wht is ironic is that after I wrote this up, I was in a creative writing class where this case was explicitly brought up as a situation where the news reporters "left out" key information in their story - i.e. the woman's actual weight! Our teacher implied that the public had a "right to know" her weight so they could understand the story. I was horrified!

It was bad enough that people were judging her based on her weight alone. To say that the whole world now should know her exact weight - and I'm not sure exactly how this teacher thought the reporters should get their hands on this private information - was quite abhorrent to me. A weight is a personal's private medical information, and if someone wishes to keep it private, they should be respected.