Abstract
Many commentaries on the voice of singer Maria Callas note that her voice changed markedly over the course of her career, with changes often attributed to “ferocious dieting.” Such claims are particularly troubling in the absence of evidence that weight loss affects voice acoustics, and in the relative absence of acoustic data testing specific hypotheses regarding expected changes in voice with dieting. This paper examines recordings from early and late in Callas’s career, and attempts to determine whether observed changes are more consistent with the acoustic effects of physiological changes associated with extreme and rapid weight loss (changes in hormone levels, respiratory changes, differences in tongue size/vocal tract dimensions, reflux, etc.), with aging (e.g., increasing vocal instability, changes in resonance frequencies, changes in F0), or with artistic choices.
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