Tara Erraught's U.S. Debut

Rossini, La Cenerentola, C. Bartoli, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, R. Chailly (Decca, 1993)

Charles T. Downey, D.C. Cenerentola Weighs In With Splendid Singing
Classical Voice North America, May 13

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A decade after Deborah Voigt lost a role because of how she would look in a revealing black dress, have popular culture’s obsessions with youth and body image become the norm in the world of opera? The reaction of British critics to Tara Erraught’s performance a year ago, as Octavian in the Glyndebourne Festival’s production of Der Rosenkavalier, struck a chord around the world as taking the trend a step too far. The Irish-born mezzo-soprano’s American stage debut, in the second cast of Washington National Opera’s production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola on May 11, offered the chance to hear — and see — her for ourselves.

The fat-shaming critics, all men, were uncomfortably ad hominem — or ad mulierem — in their assessment of Erraught’s body...

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Rossini, La Cenerentola
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

SEE ALSO:
Robert R. Reilly, Second Opinion: 'Cenerentola' at WNO (Ionarts, May 13)