The Radio 3 Boards Forum from myforum365.com
09:47:46, 02-12-2008 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Whilst we happily welcome all genuine applications to our forum, there may be times when we need to suspend registration temporarily, for example when suffering attacks of spam.
 If you want to join us but find that the temporary suspension has been activated, please try again later.
 
   Home   Help Search Login Register  

The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > The Opera House > Sex & Drugs in Valhalla
Pages: [1]
« previous next »
  Print  
Author Topic: Sex & Drugs in Valhalla  (Read 230 times)
Reiner Torheit
*****
Gender: Male
Posts: 3391



WWW
« on: 19:44:39, 23-08-2007 »
A short piece lifting the lid on narcotics abuse in the opera world, as performers are chased harder and harder to produce "studio-perfect" performances under "live" conditions...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_re_eu/overdosed_opera;_ylt=AqiT02OfPy7YgGcipL5uLr50bBAF
Logged
"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
-  Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
ernani
***
Gender: Male
Posts: 165
« Reply #1 on: 10:58:03, 24-08-2007 »
Given the critical mauling that the British based press regularly dish out to Mr Wottrich, perhaps his narcotic of choice might be vallium rather than cortisone...  Wink
Logged
Soundwave
*****
Gender: Male
Posts: 572
« Reply #2 on: 14:41:30, 24-08-2007 »
Ho!  Any sensible, intelligent singer who wants a career of any reasonable length will, quite rightly, accept a level of engagements that does not put unnecessary pressure on him/her.  Managements are interested in the here and now and the next few years only, and undue pressure from them and agents should be ignored.  A world class singer has no need to be involved in over-performing with the attendant rushing hither and thither by air.  The advantages in the old days of going by train and boat helped singers of those days to retain their voices over fairly lengthy careers.  The need to take drugs, steroids etc. is not only unacceptable but stupid and career threatening.    The answer to this silliness?  Planning, a proper appreciation of ones worth, the willingness to say "no" at times and unwillingness to be "put-upon".
Cheers.
Logged
Ho! I may be old yet I am still lusty
increpatio
*****
Gender: Male
Posts: 2544


‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮
« Reply #3 on: 14:43:18, 24-08-2007 »
Quote from: Soundwave on 14:41:30, 24-08-2007
The need to take drugs, steroids etc. is not only unacceptable but ... career threatening.

Of course, so is going without them, it seems to some Sad
Logged
‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮
time_is_now
*****
Gender: Male
Posts: 4653
« Reply #4 on: 14:48:55, 24-08-2007 »
Also of course, more widespread drug use/abuse - like all sorts of other things to do with an increased pace of life - is simply a more frequent (and less frequently swept-under-the-carpet) aspect of life today than it was say 50 years ago. It's not only opera singers who can no longer afford the time to travel by boat or train, and similarly it's not only opera singers who accept work-related pressures on their time and health which would previously have seemed excessive and unreasonable.
Logged
The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
ernani
***
Gender: Male
Posts: 165
« Reply #5 on: 15:40:38, 24-08-2007 »
I recall reading a story about Franco Corelli who was regularly given injections before performances that were placebos but that he thought would help him overcome his stage fright. And of course although drug use may not have been so widespread 50 or years ago, alcohol abuse was a part of many famous singers' lives.
Logged
Pages: [1]
  Print  
« previous next »
 
Jump to: