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What Opera Singers Gained, and Lost, Performing While Pregnant

In 2018, six weeks after giving birth to her first child by C-section, Lueck performed “Queen of the Night” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Morley sang the part of the Queen’s daughter Pamina, who had just given birth to her third child, and the two singers spent a break breastfeeding in the same dressing room.) A week before rehearsals began, her “whole support system Due to the “cut in half” surgery, Loebeck could still sing only an octave higher G than Mozart’s music demanded.

With the help of a physical therapist, she devised a workaround. “I found a way to use my diaphragm instead of the staccati supporting muscles in Queen of the Night,” she said. But it helped me get through the gig and learned new skills. ‘ Her tone of voice, too, she said, after each child was born, she found ‘the timbre of her voice blossomed and suited a larger repertoire.’

“Was it the pregnancy that really changed my voice, or was it the recovery?” she wondered.

Luek said she was lucky to star in The Magic Flute until she was eight and a half months pregnant with her first child. However, during the same pregnancy, she was abruptly removed from another role shortly after showing up at rehearsal with her visible baby bump. Even though she was happy with the demands of her production, she said her company urged her to decline, citing safety concerns involved with her set. . When the company added financial incentives and promised her a future role, she relented.

“It wasn’t my decision,” Luke said. “But my agent said I should grab the offer and run.”

Morley said he lost key roles due to fears of not being able to get through trapdoors on set. And she lost her role when she was in her third trimester because she would have had to stand on her chair and sing an aria during her second trimester. “I was seriously considering making a statement, but these companies wanted to work with me again, and I was very worried about the impact,” she said. Told. Plus, she knew that while her contract had a payment, she didn’t always have to in those circumstances. “It felt like dirty money,” she says. “They were paying me, so I didn’t talk.”

One of the announced singers is Julie Fuchs. Two years ago, she stepped down from a performance of The Magic Flute at the Hamburg State Opera and was due to sing Pamina four months into her first pregnancy. When Fuchs announced on social media that she was stepping down from the production, her feed erupted with anger. Director Jet Steckel was a woman, but many commentators suggested that misogyny was the reason for the company’s decision. After arbitration, she settled with the company on the condition that Mr. Fuchs would not be allowed to speak on the matter.

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