Sopranos
The much-parodied large Wagnerian soprano, resplendent in a horned helmet, may soon be a fond operatic memory. Pundits are hailing the birth of a new breed of female opera singers – all of them sylphs. At the world-renowned Salzburg festival, the heaving bosom of a traditional, generously proportioned opera diva has been replaced by slim waists and scanty outfits. The streets and shop windows of the Austrian city are papered with posters celebrating svelte figures of international stars that have flown in to sing. And three of them together would fit inside the voluminous costumes once worn on stage by great singers such as Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballé.