At Salzburg, not a BBW to be found

The Telegraph is running an article today talking about the absence of larger singers at this year's Salzburg Festival. This isn't really news - it's been a creeping trend for years and has only been cemented with the tenure of Peter Gelb at the Met. Under the guise of "This is not about dumbing down the Met, it’s just making it accessible," he has led the retreat away from singers with the greatest voices in the world should they be larger than one would want them to be.The interesting point covered in this article is: If we can't cast by race, how is it that we can cast by size? The author uses the line "We've also learned, for perfectly good reasons, not to be put out when operatic Russian generals come with Afro-Caribbean faces or if Mary Stuart looks a touch Chinese. We listen for dramatic truths beyond the colour of the singer's skin. And in the modern world that must be right."

I would ask "why?" My personal feelings on the issue notwithstanding, (I would tend to lean towards a "realism is good" idea,) that part that bothers me the most is the double standard. If you don't want fat people, fine. But I don't want to see Domingo in blackface as Otello either then.