Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Elizabeth Finkler" <mightymezzo@h...>
"Elizabeth Finkler" <mightymezzo@h...>
Date:  Fri Jan 12, 2001  8:42 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] singing and health


Actually my favorite "urban legends" site, http://www.snopes.com, addresses
this issue. Callas DID have a tapeworm, but it apparently grew from her
liking for beef tartare, unconnected to her dramatic weight loss in the
early fifties. She didn't ingest it *deliberately*.

The less emotional accounts of Callas's vocal problems suggest that her
problems stemmed from a combination of technique issues and a poor choice of
roles. I shouldn't think that a *careful* weight loss achieved through
exercise and a proper healthy diet would affect one's voice adversely.


>From: Sheila Graham <sheila@s...>
>From: Sheila Graham <sheila@s...>
>Fairly persistent rumour has it that Callas grew a tapeworm to lose
>weight - I believe swallowing tapeworm eggs was a not uncommon way of
>losing weight in Europe in the 50s, though obviously it did not meet
>with medical approval. I don't know whether this rumour was ever proved
>one way or the other.
>
>Hope nobody's reading this while they're eating.
>


Elizabeth Finkler
GO RAIDERS!
http://home.earthlink.net/~mightymezzo/
mightymezzo@h...
mightymezzo@h...

"An enemy can partially ruin a man, but it takes a well-meaning and
injudicious friend to really finish the job and make it perfect." --Mark
Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson"

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