"Heavyweight Diva Is Passé": Hollywood's Influence on Opera's Prima Donna

On 7 January 1934, one Chicago Daily Tribune headline announced: “Opera prima donnas take weight cue from the films. Heavyweight diva is passé; today’s songbird must have optical appeal.” Citing such famous singers as Grace Moore who appeared on the silver screen as well as on the opera stage, the article focused on a recent phenomenon: the cinema’s effect on the waistlines of opera divas. Working against the public’s perception that opera singers maintained Brünnhildan proportions, Hollywood began to market operatic repertory wrapped in a packaging of the studio glamour of screen actresses, recasting the definition of what it meant to be a “good” singer by focusing on physical fitness and optical appeal in addition to the beauty of the voice. In doing so, the film industry created a site of conflict where audiences would reevaluate the way they perceived women’s bodies, both on and off the stage.

This paper argues that cinematic representations of women in opera, first constructed in the 1930s, continue to foment tension in the twenty-first century. Current British criticism reflects this tension, where female bodies are often subjected to gendered rhetoric. Most recently, five male critics made controversial statements regarding Tara Erraught’s “chubby” physique in Der Rosenkavalier at the 2014 Glyndebourne Summer Music Festival, claiming that she was the main problem with the performance. In light of the United Nations’ recent appeal for gender equality, incidents like these show how women continue to be subjected to male systems of power in present-day Europe.