Citing weight, Royal Opera drops singer

The weight issue that led to Bolshoi ballerina Anastasia Volochkova getting sacked last year because she was too heavy to lift has shifted to the opera world. The Royal Opera House in London has dropped soprano Deborah Voigt from the title role of Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” because of her weight, spokesman Christopher Millard said.

He said that Voigt will be replaced in the summer production by the thinner Anne Schwanewilms.

“I have big hips and Covent Garden has a problem with them,” Voigt, 43, told London’s Sunday Telegraph. “Or at least their casting director, Peter Katona, has the problem and he’s made it clear that I won’t be singing in his house as long as he’s around. Which is sad.”

Katona told the Sunday Telegraph that Ariadne needed to be “theatrically convincing” in a production that casts the singer in elegant evening wear instead of the typical toga-like dress. Voigt, whose weight is estimated to be more than 200 pounds, could not fit into the little black dress designed for the role.