You mean the Met is in on it too??????

Have you noticed the new look in Hollywood and on the runway - anorexia! Bone-thin women. The only bulges and curves are the rib cage and bone bulges and pointed chins from gaunt faces. Nothing pretty here.

I was reading my latest issue of Opera News, which is a great way to keep up with who's singing where and what, only to find a recital picture of Jennifer Larmore - a marvelous mezzo, who must have been a "porky" size 10-12 at most. Even the reviewer of this concert commented that she was too thin and that he wanted to "go home and cook her some macaroni and cheese!" Renee Fleming - probably one of the best sopranos in the last 10-15 years, was probably a normal size 12-14. Nope - she's been slimmed down too. The list is longer and longer - all women.

The story has been going around for quite some time, and it's not false. Directors are casting operas based on looks first - if you can sing, well....that's good too. This has prompted once sensible women, who accepted their body types and sizes, to hire image consultants and trainers and go on diets and do who-knows-what to their bodies to squeeze into single-digit sizes. And at what price?

Anyone remember Beverly Sills and Joan Sutherland and Jesse Norman? We're not talking about even a size 12! These are/were big, beautiful women, with curves and meat on their bones. Yes, say it's a myth, but there IS a relation to the size of the body and the quality of the voice - the body IS the instrument.

For myself, I had gotten a decent amount of weight off (down to about a 16-18) or a size "large/extra-large." Everyone said I "looked normal." Hey - I could wear a smaller size, so it must have been good for me. Uh...... if someone sneezed in the next county, I ended up with a cold followed by bronchitis and 3 months of wheezing and coughing. If someone farted in the next block, there went the GI tract. I was constantly sick! To maintain what the Met would call heavy, I was eating diet food, Slim Fast, and going out for dinner meant a salad with a few token pieces of chicken! So, I've re-gained the weight (not intentionally - age, genetics, and gravity do catch up eventually). I'm not as heavy as I once was, but the size 16-18 clothes are out of my closet. I haven't had a cold in over 2 years! The voice? NEVER BETTER!

After writing all this, I feel that I've just lost ten pounds!