At Last: Debbie Does Covent Garden
This is definitely the feel-good cultural news of the day. In 2004, dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt (pictured) was fired from a production of Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos” at the Royal Opera House in London. The director, one Christof Loy, said she was too heavy to wear the black outfit that he thought was crucial to his production concept. Her firing prompted a wave of witty tee-shirts from opera fans outraged at the trend to value a singer’s appearance over her artistry. The shirt said: “It ain’t over till the little black dress sings.” Just in time for Voigt’s return to Covent Garden on Monday to sing in the very production from which she was fired, Voigt and her publicists have produced a video spoofing the whole controversy, which you can access by clicking on the New York Times report here. Go Debbie! Go Debbie!
