Fitness for your voice: Opera singers have found that exercise is good for the voice, as well as the body

Thursday, September 29, 2005 2:04 AM CDT

The days of the fat opera singer are waning. Opera has become an increasingly visual medium, because of the influence of television and film, and directors want singers to look the part, not just sing it. They now demand more physical prowess from performers - a swordfight should resemble a swordfight, not a couple of guys vaguely lunging at each other.

But singers who have jumped on the treadmill have discovered something else - being fit makes them better singers. It's why mezzo-soprano Milena Kitic is in the basement gym of her expansive Pasadena, Calif., home gearing up for an intense hourlong workout with her trainer.

Kitic, who has sung with the Los Angeles Opera, Opera Pacific and the Washington National Opera, has learned that being in shape makes her better able to handle the rigors of performing and touring. She embodies the new generation of fitness-minded opera singers who understand that good health and their careers are inexorably intertwined.

A former competitive gymnast as a child in her native Yugoslavia, 38-year-old Kitic always has been active, regularly incorporating some kind of exercise into her routine, even if it was doing aerobics and stretching in a small hotel room.

She stepped up her training almost three years ago, when a friend gave her some sessions with Pasadena-based trainer Ulli Matsuura. Since then, the two have been working out several times a week, taking breaks when Kitic has to tour or travel.

`Not out of breath' Although fitness always has been part of her life, the renewed focus on strength and endurance has made a difference in her performances. "If I'm in good physical shape and my endurance is good, then I don't need to work extra for my voice to stay in proper position," she says. "I can sing, move as much as I like, and still look nonchalant about it, not out of breath and sweating."

She's not the only one who's noticed the difference. While performing "Carmen" in Los Angeles last year, Kitic says, tenor Richard Leech, playing the role of Don Jose, remarked that pulling and tossing her around the stage wasn't that easy. "It was hard for him to do it because I would give resistance," she says, laughing. "He said, `You must be working out!' " Kitic will reprise "Carmen" when she makes her debut at the Metropolitan Opera next month. "If you're playing Carmen," she says, "you have to look the role as much as possible, and that helps you to bring that role out easier and helps the audience to accept you. The industry has changed. It's become a whole different business nowadays."

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