World-renowned operatic soprano Deborah Voigt shared stories from her new memoir, including her struggles with weight and alcohol addiction, with hundreds of Boston University students, faculty and community members Tuesday night at Metcalf Ballroom.
The College of Fine Arts and Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center co-hosted the opera singer’s talk and encouraged attendees to enjoy themselves with wine and food platters as they laughed and resonated with Voigt’s insightful stories about her career.
Voigt said she always knew she wanted to be a singer and perform to audiences around the globe. She came to BU to tell her life story through her memoir, “Call Me Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Diva.”
“I want my audience to know who I am. So I decided to write [this book] and to get it all out,” she said. “[The book] is very honest. It was very difficult for me to write. It was cathartic in many ways, I didn’t know how to do it without being as genuine as I could be. ‘Call Me Debbie’ is my emotional map of my life.”
Voigt spoke about how she came into stardom and her struggles along the way. When she got fired from a job for being overweight, her story garnered national attention and resonated with people. It took a large toll on her to be an opera singer, she said.
“There was something stirring up inside me during that time,” she said. “I had an enormous emotional problem. I tried to fill it with food. I tried to fill it with relationships. There were always relationships were I was going to fix the other person because then I wouldn’t have to fix myself. My self esteem couldn’t handle it. I chose a career that required everything in me.”
Deborah said she underwent surgery to lose weight and was offered many roles afterwards. Her surgery, however, made her prone to alcoholism and she struggled with alcohol addiction, she said. Two and half years ago when she went to rehab, she said, she decided to write her book because she needed to tell her story.
“I have somehow come up with the new norm of resilience and determination throughout the course of my career and you have to,” Voigt said. “No one can get through life without that.”
Kate Stringer, the administrator of research and public information at HGARC, said she was excited for Voigt to be at the university to share her fun, enlightening stories with the BU community, and said she would love to share Voigt’s story with a wider audience.
“I think we would love to be able to share Voigt’s work with the greater BU community and musical community and, if possible, turn on a larger younger audience to classical music and to help people get to know the great lady herself and all that she’s achieved and been through,” she said.
Paula Hayes, 76, of Hyde Park, attended the event and said Voigt is inspiring for younger people and that everyone should persevere like she has.
“It was wonderful to meet an opera singer and see her as a regular person,” she said. “Her honesty is very helpful to young people. We all have to go through something so I think when you’re young, you really have to realize that you need to persevere and go on with your life and have self esteem and meet your goals. I think she was a wonderful voice for that.”
Mitch Fitzdaniel, a first-year student in the Metropolitan College, said hearing Voigt’s life story was moving.
“Just hearing what she had to go through as far as dealing with her weight and alcoholism later on and being open and honest about the struggle is inspirational,” he said.
Geri Wirth, 55, of Beacon Hill, said he was impressed after seeing Voigt for the first time and would like to attend one of her performances some day.
“I was glad to see her because I’ve never seen her before,” he said. “I thought she was a very good speaker and I will definitely buy her book. I liked her comments about self esteem and working hard for what you really want, which is what everyone should do.”
