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- You don’t eat before a performance so that during the concert nothing interferes with the exchange of energy with the audience?

The body must be clean in order to pass energy through it. And if everything is full of cutlets, you can immediately hear it.

- In other words, you refute the opinion that impressive body mass helps opera performers sing?

The fact is that they themselves came up with an excuse for themselves. The physiology of processes in the body is such that when a person sings, he loses a lot of calories, in addition, the diaphragm, when lowered, puts pressure on the stomach, resulting in a feeling of hunger. So the singers eat and get fat, calming themselves down and at the same time explaining to the audience that they “sing en masse.” Believe me, there is no connection between weight and vocal performance.
Interview with Kazarnovskaya

And this is about Maria Callas
She is majestic and huge, like a colossus - her weight begins to become an obstacle to her stage career. After one of the London journalists made damning comments about her powerful appearance, Maria went on a cruel diet and lost almost three times her weight.
From here

The vocal range is two and a half octaves, a richly nuanced sound and virtuoso coloratura technique in all registers. Due to excessive stress, risky experiments with own health(in 1953 she lost 30 kg in 3 months), and also due to circumstances personal life The singer's career was short-lived.
And this is from here

Diet of Demis Roussos

This Greek singer is famous throughout the world for his enchanting, unique voice. His singing talent won the hearts of millions of fans in our country. Surely you are familiar with his work, but do you know that the name of this artist is associated with something else besides music? If you didn’t know, you’re unlikely to guess - we're talking about about the famous weight loss diet from Demis Roussos, which became widely known in its time.
Few people (especially young people) know that in the early 80s Demis Roussos weighed 150 kg, and within a year he managed to lose almost 50 kg. The secret of the artist’s success lies in a relatively simple diet, which he followed strictly, being very determined to completely change his lifestyle. It was precisely because of the stunning transformation in the appearance of a talented and super-popular singer in those years that the diet instantly gained enormous popularity and from the very beginning began to be called by the name of the Greek performer who had become famous in this area.

What is the Demis Roussos diet?

It is based on the principle of 3 meals a day and, in addition, it includes 2-3 snacks. The last of the main meals should take place no later than 8 pm.

Products that make up the diet.

Breakfast – 1 boiled egg and a glass of grapefruit juice
Snack – sliced ​​vegetables (celery, carrots, cucumbers) or low-fat yogurt

Lunch – salad, or grilled vegetables, or spinach, or green beans and etc.
Snack – 1 fruit

Dinner – grilled fish or chicken with vegetables or salad. Another variant - fresh cottage cheese, low-fat yogurt, or milk or tea.

Throughout the diet it is strictly prohibited
- sugar
- sweet carbonated drinks
- salt
- bread

Despite the fact that this diet cannot be called easy, it gives really tangible results. Like any other, this diet should be combined with physical exercise, and we must not forget about drinking plenty of fluids– 1.5 – 2 liters per day.

Personal diet (depending on your lifestyle)

If, due to some circumstances, you are unable to follow all the requirements of the diet described above, try to follow its basic rules: more vegetables, at least one fruit a day, give up red meat, give preference only to chicken and fish. Eliminate sugar and moderately salt your food - excess salt in the body retains fluid, which leads to a couple of extra pounds.

Small changes - big results

Try to adapt this diet to your tastes and habits: choose those foods that you like. There is no need to torture yourself with hunger, but you need to choose an option that involves healthy, proper meals 3 times a day. Snacks are just as important: rather than starve a worm with a pie or other high-calorie fast food, it is better to eat an apple or nibble on a carrot. Replace the pizza with a piece of chicken and grilled vegetables. Forget about sweet carbonated drinks, take water with lemon with you for a walk, or drink tea in a cafe.

All of these are just a few examples of possible small changes to your lifestyle that are quite easy to implement, but bring quite tangible results. Of course, at first it won’t be easy... But believe in yourself, and then everything will work out for you! Good luck!

Diet of Nikolai Baskov, or Why opera singers thick

The problem of excess weight has been a concern for quite some time now. young singer Nikolai Baskov. Back in 2002, tabloid newspapers reported that Nikolai decided to take a radical approach to her decision and signed up for an operation at one of the elite Swiss clinics, where he was supposed to remove “fat deposits in the abdomen and thighs.” It is unknown whether the Swiss doctors-magicians helped, or whether the Russian opera star coped with overweight in a different way, but in the 3 years since then he has become noticeably slimmer.

However, the singer’s colleagues in the shop argue: in the case of Nikolai, we are more likely dealing with unhealthy and dangerous thinness, which could affect his career.

As Moskovsky Komsomolets writes, Nikolai Baskov now has one a big problem. At his opera session in Madrid with his stage friend Montserrat Caballe, he lost 8 kg. Dietil. This may be suitable for rap in the Kremlin. But Madame Caballe is hysterical. She begs her counterpart to recoup what was wasted, because the big concerts in Cologne are in jeopardy.

The fact is, as doctors explain, that the diaphragm - the main instrument of an opera singer - is very sensitive to the pressure of the stomach muscles on it. The larger the stomach and the stronger the muscles, the greater the pressure on the diaphragm and, as a result, the louder the singer’s voice. Baskov's shrunken stomach creates a problem. Nikolai will be forced to sacrifice the elegance of his figure and go on an active protein diet in order to please the opera aesthetes in Cologne with the velvety quality of his voice.

We are waiting for the return of the buxom blond.

On October 12, 1935, the famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti was born. He is called one of the superstars opera stage twentieth century. We decided to remember other famous lyric tenors from Italy

Enrico Caruso

When Enrico came to study at music school, then his teacher was sure that the boy had neither hearing nor voice. Now it is customary to say that Caruso is a symbol of bel canto, which made Naples famous throughout the world. His debut is considered to be the role of Enzo from the opera La Gioconda. Enrico has toured all over the world and worked at the Metropolitan Opera for 17 years. During performances in America, she came to him world fame and fame. He was the highest paid opera singer of his time. When Caruso participated in the play, the management increased ticket prices at its own discretion. After the death of the opera singer in 1921, a wax candle was made at the expense of fans, which for 500 years should be lit once a year in front of the face of the Madonna in memory of the singer.

Beniamino Gigli

Italian opera singer and film actor, considered the “successor” of Enrico Caruso. As a boy, he learned to sing at cathedral, then performed in church masses, and later played the saxophone as part of the city orchestra. In 1914, his debut performance took place - it was the role of Enzo from the opera La Gioconda. Gigli was invited to work in many theaters in Italy. Like Enrico Caruso, Gigli worked at the Metropolitan Opera. He acted in films a lot. Mostly they were about music: “Ave Maria”, “Giuseppe Verdi”, “Pages from operas”.

Franco Corelli

He made his debut in 1951, and 2 years later he performed at the Florentine Spring festival, where he performed the role of Pierre Bezukhov in the Italian premiere of Prokofiev's War and Peace. On his account best roles in the operas “The Pirate” by Bellini, “The Huguenots” by Meyerbeer. In 1967, at the Metropolitan Opera, he performed the title role in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet. About Franco Corelli you can hear that “... this voice rises above everything: the voice of thunder, lightning, fire and blood...”.

Andrea Bocelli

Andrea began learning to play the piano at the age of 6, then mastered the flute and saxophone. At the age of 12, after an accident, he became completely blind. At first, music was a simple hobby for him. Even when he was studying to become a lawyer, he worked part-time in restaurants, performing songs by Piaf and Aznavour. But one day he plucked up courage and came to audition for Franco Corelli when he was passing through Turin. Corelli took young man to students. At this point Andrea ended his career as a lawyer. In 1994 at music festival Andrea made his debut in San Remo - he performed the song “Il mare calmo della sera”. In the same year, Luciano Pavarotti invited Andrea to participate in the Pavarotti International concert in Modena. They say about Andrea Bocelli that he is the only singer who managed to merge pop music and opera together: “He sings songs like opera, and opera like songs.”

Alessandro Safina

Alessandro began to build his career as a classical opera singer: he studied at the conservatory, performed parts in operas " Barber of Seville", "Mermaid", "Eugene Onegin", "Capulets and Montecs". And then he began performing in a new genre, which he calls “ opera rock" It’s not for nothing that he calls his favorite performers the groups U2, Genesis, Depeche Mode and The Clash. Now Alessandro has several albums under his belt. Safina constantly tours. Almost every year he travels with solo concerts by cities of Russia. In addition, the singer acts in films. He played himself in the Brazilian TV series Clone and played the role of the artist Mario Cavaradossi in the free adaptation of Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca.

In the section on the question Why are opera singers fat? or fat, you can call it whatever you like, but there are definitely no thin ones among them. given by the author Get bored the best answer is This is due to the specific nature of breathing. They breathe with the lower part of the lungs, that is, with the lower part of the chest, or more correctly, with the stomach. Well, this part should be sufficiently developed. If you breathe this way, “resonance” appears in your voice (not always). You must understand that opera singers do not sing to a soundtrack and even without a microphone (i.e., no “processing” of the sound).

Answer from Yodor Deev[guru]
they have a lot of sound

Answer from East[guru]
to extract a voice you need mass

Answer from Confess[guru]
Probably, the thin voice does not fit.

Answer from Eurovision[newbie]
Their life is like that, they need to eat well...

Answer from Josef Schweik[guru]
They will be skinny - there will be no voice. Look, Maria Callas somehow decided to lose weight - and that’s it, since then she no longer had outstanding vocal abilities, and her career went downhill. Luciano Pavarotti also complained that he could not lose weight, because his voice would disappear, and at the same time, because of his figure, he had difficulty flying: he was required to purchase two air tickets.
Opera singers and singers - they don’t sing to a soundtrack, but themselves.

Until recently, we associated the opera prima donna with a big sounding kick drum, which was an eternal reason for irony. There have always been exceptions to this rule, but now the exceptions are rapidly turning into the rule. Opera singers are losing weight before our eyes and are becoming a rarity. Izvestia investigates this mystery of nature.

Alignment with Callas

Gioconda - 92 kg, Aida - 87 kg, Norma - 80 kg, Medea - 78 kg, Lucia - 75 kg, Alceste - 65 kg, Elizabeth - 64 kg. This list of female opera bodies dates back to the 1953/54 season, which marked a turning point in the legend of Maria Callas. From Ponchielli's La Gioconda to Verdi's Elizabeth, she lost 28 kg, turning into a completely new, ethereal creature, the most noticeable part of which was her huge, heavily lined eyes...

To this day, this weight loss remains the most famous in the history of art, although without the signature tragic facial expressions, plastic hands and other magnetism that was extremely exposed after the diet, the lost kilograms would have been worthless. Nevertheless, even those who have never gone to the opera or heard or seen Callas know about them. It was after them, as is commonly believed, that it became clear that a woman with a voice does not necessarily have to be a woman in the body.

It's no secret that Callas's ideal was Audrey Hepburn. They even had a common makeup artist, Alberto de Rossi, who did similar makeup for them. In the 50s, the idea of female beauty The film world and the growing haute couture were shaping the world. And in order to fit into Dior’s corset, I had to think about the numbers that the scales showed.

Turned down the volume

Nowadays there are no reasons to be thin opera singers increased. More precisely, there are almost no excuses left for extra pounds. The main justification has always been the power of the voice.

Of course, the asthenic beauty is clearly not a container for huge lungs, so in the gallery of a two-thousand-seat hall she will not be heard. But if there is any truth in this traditional statement, it is shattered by the fact that now not everyone needs “loud”. In addition to the operas of Verdi, Puccini and Wagner, the rules good manners everyone who respects himself Western theater includes execution early music. And there it is not at all necessary to shout out the four-piece orchestra. It is much more important to be on friendly terms with style, virtuosic technique and other subtleties, as well as to feel the baroque drive.

It is on these skills that the fame of Cecilia Bartolli, who has a very small voice, is built. However, by modern opera standards, this woman of normal build is also considered almost fat.

Directors like slimmer

The main enemies of fat deposits are directors. Step by step they are becoming more and more important and determining figures in the modern operatic process, crowding out conductors in this matter and turning singers into construction material for your conceptual ideas.

The type of prima donna who “knows herself what Tosca should be like” and who “has seen this modern director of yours in her grave” is gradually becoming a thing of the past. Now all directing is becoming more or less modern, and representatives younger generation It no longer occurs to singers to be indignant when they have to sing upside down or while standing in the shower. And stripping naked is far from the most risky thing that today's opera house offers.

It is clear that directors, spectators, and singers themselves would prefer that in such a production the extra pounds would not be noticeable.

Nobody hides the fact that external data and artistry are no less important for casting important points, than the ability to correctly take the upper E-flat. Even the Moscow Conservatory does not undertake to teach girls over size 48 to sing. Why waste time? All the same, they will then be eternal losers. Let them immediately switch to some other profession.

Losing weight correctly

Actually, if you think about it, in an effort to take care of yourself and not stick out too much from the popular clothing sizes in modern world success, glamor and fitness are not difficult to catch not only opera soloists. Running in the morning and giving up hearty dinner- the requirement of the time, which equalized singers with all other people. But unlike others, singers are forced to monitor the correctness of their diet. Because otherwise you can lose the main instrument of production - your voice.

Ligaments require carbohydrates - this is probably the basis of all the old myths that a prima donna must constantly eat cakes. Continuously - no need. But some kind of “Kremlin diet”, which consists precisely in giving up carbohydrates, will not work here. Unless, of course, the soloist is going to sing exclusively into the microphone after her.

New type of prima donnas

It is most convenient in our time to be of the correct physique from birth. The lineup opera divas new type in Lately increasingly wider. Romanian Angela Gheorghiu is considered the undisputed beauty queen.

There is also the Frenchwoman Nathalie Dessey, the Italian Stefania Bonfadelli, the Czech Magdalena Kozena, the Latvian Elina Garanča...

It's unclear where they were before. Most likely, it simply never occurred to such people to sing in opera before. The most obvious example is our Anna Netrebko, who started with the title “Vice Miss Kuban”, then worked as a cleaner at the Mariinsky Theater for two years, until Gergiev heard her sing. In her enchanting career glamor and polished vocal professionalism went hand in hand. Her real rise began with the role of Donna Anna in Salzburg's Don Giovanni, where Netrebko ran as a barefoot girl in a short dress, and continued with the recording of video clips for classical arias, which sold out like hot cakes. And the culmination was a stadium-style super project with the temperamental Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon, together with whom Netrebko demonstrates to the whole world that in our time opera is beautiful, young and sexy.

Five big stories about opera weight

1. It is believed that the last straw for Maria Callas was a review written in 1952 of Verdi’s “Aida” in the Arena di Verona, in which a sarcastic critic wrote that the singer’s legs could be confused with the legs of elephants. All her life, Callas could not forget the tears shed over this: it was then that she decided to lose weight.

2. In the 60s, Herbert von Karajan proposed Montserrat Caballe, already quite famous, to sing Donna Elvira in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” in Salzburg, but with the condition of losing 20 kg. She tore the letter and sent it back in this form by mail. This incident was the beginning of a long quarrel between two world legends.

3. A few years ago it broke out famous scandal between London's Covent Garden and the American Deborah Voight. The singer was supposed to sing the title role in Richard Strauss's opera Ariadne auf Naxos. But this did not happen due to the fact that the prima donna did not fit into the dress prepared for the performance.

The singer, who had been struggling with excess weight for a long time and unsuccessfully, received compensation for the early termination of her contract and tried to get away with ironic comments. But soon she decided to take an extreme measure - to go under the surgeon’s knife and perform a gastric resection, after which the long-awaited weight loss began.

4. There is a legend that the American black diva Jesse Norman filed a lawsuit against a certain publication that described the following picture from her life: the singer could not fit through the door leading to the stage, and when asked by nearby sympathizers to “try sideways,” she replied that “she doesn’t have barrels.”

5. When asked about her slim figure, Anna Netrebko talked about her miraculous “hamburger diet.” One hamburger a day without fries - and eat nothing else. But it should only happen in America - there, according to the star, the hamburgers are of the highest quality, with real meat.

What opera divas themselves say about food in their interviews

Anna Netrebko:"The main thing is fresh breath"

"A singer must have good breathing. When you are bigger, it is easier to hold your breath. Singing is a huge exercise stress. But I have seen singers thinner and smaller than me. They sing great!

And one more thing: in opera music there is eroticism. And it’s not so difficult to solve it, to see it. Classical music can be very erotic."

“Why are you so embarrassed? Do you think we won’t drink a bottle? And pancakes with caviar. In the normal quantity.

So that there is no spitting, but so that there is enough to eat... So. Do you have any pies? No? How come, there are no pies..."

Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: “Fat singers are just gluttons”

“Talk that weight helps opera singers sing is complete nonsense!.. After you sing a concert, a feeling of hunger appears: the diaphragm works very actively and puts pressure on the stomach. To fill this feeling of emptiness, singers begin to eat a lot. Moreover, they usually prefer food that is very high in calories.

This is why they gain weight. In fact, the quality of singing does not depend on body weight. Good vocals are correct technique and the energy that comes from you. Everything else is an excuse for your gluttony.

On the day of the concert I don’t eat anything at all! The maximum I can afford is one banana... Energy does not pass through a well-fed body, it goes towards digesting food. And if the singer ate chicken or meat, it’s boring to listen to such a singer: you feel like he’s overcooking the chicken. And the public needs a singer whose eyes sparkle and who saturates the audience with energy. This is my firm belief. Or should I remind you of the example of Maria Callas?"

Elena Obraztsova "I lost 28 kilograms!"

“The actors were all so slim and young. And I thought - what about me? I wanted to lose weight, and I lost 28 kilograms. I felt sorry for Dima Bozin - he is so fragile, and for the role he had to carry me in his arms, although I I then weighed 96 kilograms... I have so much thirst for life that I want to stay in shape longer. I mock myself - I deny myself luxurious feasts, I have lifts, operations with my favorite plastic surgeon. All this comes with suffering, torment, which no one knows. doesn’t see. I’m still very young at heart - why should I follow the lead of time?”