Some of you may have been aware of the recent furore in the press regarding the Critics’ Reviews of Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s production of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. For those who haven’t followed the issue, several of the Press reviews of the new production chose to concentrate upon the physical appearance of one of the lead singers, Tara Erraught, describing her as – among other things – ‘a chubby bundle of puppy-fat’ (Andrew Clark writing in the FT). This sparked a huge amount of debate on blog sites, social media, radio interviews, and magazine articles as to whether the physical appearance of a singer is relevant, or a matter which should be even discussed in reviews. Many well known singers and performers have waded in with their own opinion on this issue (if you want to see more on this, try googling ‘Tara Erraught Rosenkavalier reviews’!)
Obviously for Tara Erraught herself this kind of personal attack on her appearance is likely to be one which affects her own self esteem and for most who are outraged about these comments made in the public sphere, the focus has been on how terrible the whole thing is for her, placing the blame for her appearance with the costume department and the possibly the casting panel.
Until now I did not want to pass comment, other than tweeting links to articles on the subject as I had not seen the production for myself. I wanted to be able to make my own judgements and offer a considered opinion, and fortunately with Glyndebourne offering a live stream of the production to cinemas all over the country (and on the internet) I had just the chance to form my own ideas last night.
Der Rosenkavalier is a comedy with cross dressing, mistaken identity and issues of class and social ambition at its centre. There is also a tragic love triangle between the Marschallin, a lonely older aristocrat, her young lover Octavian, and his new love, the young Sophie, the daughter of a merchant who has recently elevated to the nobility. The role of Octavian is a ‘trouser-role’ and is played by a mezzo soprano (woman) who dresses as a boy (this is a common practice in opera, for those who don’t know!) Octavian is played in this production by Tara Erraught.
The critics’ issues with the casting appear to have focused largely on the fact that Tara is ‘too large’ and ‘too short’ to be believable as a young nubile 17yr old, who can attract the love of two women with any success. There are several problems with these objections, many of which have already been considered by others who have written in response to the reviews and some of which I discuss below.
As a basic starting point there should be no assumption that slightly larger people cannot be deemed attractive by the opposite sex! Originally set in the mid 19th Century, Tara almost perfectly fits the physical images of young boys from this time. Tara is by no means fat – in fact she fits into the ‘average’ size of British women in the 21st Century. In her performance as Octavian, Tara is beguiling, entrancing, adolescently enthusiastic and innocent – in short, perfect for a young boy who cannot believe his luck when he is loved by an older woman from the highest classes, and who is also able to capture the heart of a young modest Sophie, at the same time falling deeply and passionately for her, enough to forget his earlier love for the Marschallin. Some reviewers also claimed that she was ‘too short’ to be a believable lover. Again, why should there be an assumption that all successful male lovers are tall?!
I take issue with this presumption that someone’s weight or height should be a matter for the reviewers, unless they are placing the blame with the Casting Director. It is up to this person to ensure that the whole cast work together to create a performance which allows the audience to enter the suspension of disbelief (I’ll be coming back to this!) and enjoy the music. The casting team’s first consideration should be the vocal talent of those in front of them – and I firmly believe that on this occasion the casting team selected a fabulous group of lead singers to produce a wonderful production of one of the most moving operas ever composed. IF there is an issue of physical mismatching (which I do not believe to be the case here) then the fault is with the casting director alone.
The other party to take blame (if there is any) should lie with the costume department. In discussion with the Director, it is up to the costumiers to create clothing which fits in with the concept of the opera, but also makes the singers feel confident on stage. If Tara Erraught really looked too fat on stage, this is the fault of the costumiers, not the singer! For my own part, I didn’t think that the costumes did anything other than support Tara to perform as one would expect. Her wig and sideburns with slight shadowing on her face allowed her to appear ‘boyish’ and her costumes were appropriate for the role she was playing at any given time. To be fair to the critics, I believe that the costume department have made a few alterations to her outfits in the wake of the criticism offered, and so perhaps these helped with last nights’ performance.
As a member of the audience at any piece of theatre, you are required to enter into the performance space and suspend your disbelief. All sorts of things happen all the time in theatre which are not remotely possible in ‘the real world’. It is a part of the reason that we all love the theatre: it allows us to move in time in ways we cannot really experience, and explore emotions and ideas which cannot happen in real time. Opera, of all the types of theatre has often required the greatest acceptance of this premiss – the plots are usually totally ridiculous, and not many of us live our entire lives in song… (think of Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme, or Violetta in La Traviata, who have to sing HUGE arias, featuring many excessively high notes, whilst dying of consumption – a disease which leaves you unable to breathe, thin as a rake, and coughing up blood!) These roles were often tackled by larger ladies, who were far from ‘consumptive’ in their appearance. Opera audiences have happily accepted for many many years that singers are cast in operas for their ability to sing, rather than their physical suitability for the role. Think of the celebrated Pavarotti, who for many years played the roles of young nubile lovers whilst weighing upwards of 30 stone – no-one complained that he was not believable in the role….!
It is perhaps this final point which riled so many singers and teachers when they read the reviews of Der Rosenkavalier. In a world where physical appearance has become such a focus that everywhere young girls and boys are developing alarming body image issues at ever younger ages, Opera has been the one remaining bastion of the idea that talent counts for more than appearance. Whilst there has been a move in recent years to at least have a sense of credibility when casting singers, and certainly there is now a requirement that singers have some acting skills as well as a fabulous voice, no-one has ever expected singers to look like super models as well.
Back in 2003, the well known singer Deborah Voigt was sacked by the Royal Opera House for being too fat. Again this story received much media attention. People were truly shocked that such a renowned singer had been sacked over her appearance. Ms Voigt went on to have gastric band surgery and has since performed at the ROH a number of times, as part of her glittering international career. She claims that she did not have the surgery as a result of being fired, but admits that as Covent Garden still had to honour her contract, she used the fees from the work she never did to pay for the operation.
In the Opera world at least, this unpleasant new focus also appears to be focused on the women. No doubt, it will be followed in due course by a requirement that all but the most vile of characters (such as the Baron von Ochs in Rosenkavalier) be portrayed by the most handsome of young men. However, the sexism of male critics openly discussing their opinion of the physical appearance of a young woman which smacks of beauty-contest type prejudice is not balanced by equally disparaging views of the male singers who could do with shedding a few pounds.
Of course there are now many glamorous and attractive opera singers of both genders who are carving successful performance careers across the world which is fine, and has certainly helped to convince younger audiences that opera isn’t all about stereotypical ‘fat lady singing with horns on her head’. However, it is deeply saddening to think that as well as spending years of effort and money on singing lessons, acting coaching, language coaching, movement coaching and of course hours and hours of practice, singers must now all miraculously look marvellous at all times too.
Tara Erraught’s performance as Octavian is vocally fabulous. She covers the wide vocal range demanded by Strauss with ease and grace. Her sound blends beautifully in the finale with the other two soprano voices, and yet is unique enough to be identified when the large ensembles are on stage. She is a consummate actress, balancing the adolescent enthusiasm and vigour with indignant rage towards Baron von Ochs, is tender, earnest, flighty and all that this role requires in turn. The entire cast is stellar, and Kate Royal as the Marschallin, Teodora Gheorghiu as Sophie make a perfect trio with Tara Erraught in the finale. My favourite performance was given by the inestimable Lars Woldt as Baron von Ochs – disgusting, lecherous and slimy in the most perfect manner… Don’t take my word for it however! You can watch it online until 15th June here and form your own opinion.
Hopefully the backlash from readers, singers and those involved in the performance arena will make the critics think next time about where they place the blame if they dislike something about the performance. Singers have a hard enough time in their careers, and it is something of which I have always been proud that the Classical music fraternity were always more interested in substance over style. I hope that this reverts back to being the case, and thank the casting director of Glyndebourne for selecting such an exciting group of singers for the production, as well as the singers for creating a memorable and musically satisfying performance which will doubtless be remembered for long after the issues over Tara Erraught’s vital statistics are forgotten.