Voices Raised in Operatic Fog

For veteran soprano Pamela Dale, the opera has always been an ethereal realm where the human voice is prized as a divine musical instrument. It is not, she insists, a place she ever thought she’d have to wear a respirator.

But each time she comes to sing, until the moment she walks on stage, Dale wears a black and purple mask that makes her appear otherworldly and feel foolish. The reason, she says, is that the opera is making her sick.

The reason, say Dale and fellow choristers: the chemical fog widely used in theatrical productions to create dramatic atmosphere. Containing either mineral oil or a mix of glycol alcohols similar to those in automobile antifreeze, the chemical mist has damaged their breathing, they contend, and threatens the range of their voices.

“San Francisco has the sickest opera house in the world,” Dale said. “With their use of these chemicals, the management are ruining, not only people’s careers, but their health as well. Many people are sick but are afraid to speak out for fear it will cost them their jobs.”

Call them divas in distress, but Dale and a growing number of chorus singers have complained to opera officials or filed workers’ compensation lawsuits. Last month, a chorus singer and sometime soloist sued in Superior Court, accusing the opera and several chemical fog manufacturers of negligence, fraud and unfair business practices.

Veteran female singers who complain of illness say that they are ridiculed as drama queens and that their complaints are dismissed as “menopausal.”

Dale and others say they have no alternative but to return to work in an atmosphere that they consider dangerous. With only a handful of full-time operas nationwide, there are 2,000 applicants for each chorus opening.

“There aren’t enough houses, not enough jobs,” said Alexandra Nehra, a San Francisco opera singer for 17 years, who has filed a claim contending that the use of faux fog is being taken to dangerous extremes. “We don’t want to lose our professions. We’re singers. It’s all we know how to do.”

The outcry led earlier this month to a daylong hearing in which city supervisors were asked to consider a ban on fake fog. But production unions associated with the opera warned that such a move would discourage Hollywood filmmakers from coming to town.

Supervisor Chris Daley listened as two dozen opera singers described symptoms such as vomiting, dizziness and labored breathing. Some artists said they have at times been so sick that they have had to be dragged offstage.

“The science about the chemicals isn’t conclusive,” he said. “But here come all these people describing all these terrible symptoms and, at some point, the anecdotal evidence becomes pretty compelling.”

San Francisco Opera spokesman Robert Cable dismisses the claims. “We’d never do anything to endanger our artists,” he said. “We contend that the use of this fog is consistent with the best practices and reflects our ongoing commitment to health and safety.”

In a letter to Daley, San Francisco Opera’s production director, Patrick Markle, guaranteed that the fake fog is safe and criticized “widespread misinformation and misstatements about the facts.”

“We have conducted extensive research and independent studies verifying the science that supports using theatrical smoke and fog in the [War Memorial] Opera House as safe and not posing health risks,” Markle wrote. In addressing supervisors, Markle cited “ventilation experts” who support the use of chemical fog.

The mix of glycol smoke and mineral oil has been an issue in other performance venues, including Hollywood. On Broadway, a 2001 study by New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center concluded, “actors are at risk when exposed to elevated or peak levels.”

But the New York probe also noted that, if exposure levels were reduced to limits recommended in the study, “actors should not suffer adverse impact to their health or their vocal abilities.”

Ken Greenwood, senior business representative for Actors’ Equity Assn., a union representing 45,000 actors on Broadway and in regional theaters, said union officials will enter into a collective bargaining agreement with theater owners this month to establish a protocol to identify how levels of fog and smoke will be monitored and enforced.

Former camerawoman Carol Wetovic filed a workers’ compensation claim against DreamWorks SKG after she became sick from theatrical stage effects, including faux fog, used on the set of the TV show “Spin City.”

“Every time, every place they use it, people complain,” Wetovic said.

Tim Wade, a safety official with the International Cinematographers Guild, said Hollywood has taken steps to set standards on the use of such theatrical effects. “There may be actors that don’t like to work in it,” he said. “It makes them uncomfortable.”

Nationwide, few other opera singers have reported fog-related illness similar to those in San Francisco. The reason, union officials say, is that San Francisco, the nation’s second-largest opera after New York City, operates in an ornate 70-year-old building with poor ventilation.

Also, other cities that use chemical fog do not have a full-time staff or schedule.

While officials at the Los Angeles Opera say they are aware of the controversy, they contend that the company does not use glycol machines and is continually updating all fog-making equipment for safety.

Michael Papuc, Nehra’s lawyer, says his client has already settled a workers’ compensation claim but is suing “on behalf of the general public to get the San Francisco Opera to stop using these harmful chemicals.”

Nehra says that, along with her health, her art has suffered. If a performer can’t breathe deeply, singing is impossible. “To hit the high notes you need a column of air to support the notes,” she said. “Without air, you strain your vocal chords.”

Dale traces her illness to a 1998 production of the opera “Norma,” when the opera house’s chemical fog cloud didn’t stop even after the show ended. “The entire chorus was trapped behind this curtain with our lungs burning from this smoke and fog,” she recalled. “Everybody was choking.”

But singers say opera management would not discuss the fog use.

After Dale and others filed workers’ compensation claims, the California Department of Health Services in 2000 conducted a survey that found 39% of opera employees had become sick from exposure to the fog.

“Even though 28 of the 44 chorus members were sick, the opera refused to address the matter because it impinged on the artistic discussion of management, which is convinced these products are essential to creating a look,” said Mark Mitchell, a spokesman for the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents 6,000 opera, ballet and choral performers.

Based on the 2000 study, the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the San Francisco opera for a “serious” violation of workplace safety and set a $2,340 fine. But after the opera promised to take measures, including special training, the citing was reduced to a general violation and the fine dropped to $750.

“This is war,” Dale said. “The opera has isolated us as traitors and scapegoats. But we won’t quit until they clean up their act.”