can heavenly breasts such stormy passions feel?

The answer is YES. If you're a man, ordering the fried chicken plate at a nouveau-southern restaurant, and they only serve you a leg and a thigh. As my male companion said so succinctly, "All the trappings are there, but the substance is lacking"

Wow- truer words were never spoken, and I'm not just thinking fried chicken. Funnily enough, he also said that his leg was 'divine', but he still couldn't get over the fact that it was an affront, not being served a breast. Ok, everyone stop and laugh here. I did.

In the opera world, how many times have I heard- "She's so musical, but needs to work on...x, y, or z" or, conversely, I hear young singers and think "wow, she looks great, and has an outstanding voice, but no clue about technique to support it all". Moreover, I'd love to pinpoint the moment in opera, when it became equally important that you LOOK as good as you sound? In this brave new world of HD broadcasting, reality shows and the like, if you don't look the part, you've got to work that much harder to convince those powers that be. Being a great actress and/or singer only wins you half the battle. We need to be all the trappings AND have the substance, all the time.

Another hard fact to consider: maintaining 'substance' is a challenging task, as you age. Yes, I have way more insight into the rep I sing, now that I'm older. And yes, it's much easier for me now, dealing with the stress of auditions, sickness, and nerves. But the thing they don't tell you, is that when your body goes through changes, it's up to you to diagnose any problems, and address them. Some voices change: young baritones turn tenor mid-career, some spinto sopranos voices shift, and they become mezzos (think Regina Resnik!) and some singers become straight theater actresses, and directors (again, think Regina Resnik). For me, I herniated a disc at L5 two years ago, and continued to sing the same way, ignoring my pains and subconsciously protecting the now-numb, lower back. It's only now, it the last month, that I've begun to work with a body specialist on working out the bad physical habits, habits that crept in so subtly that they took me unawares.

So, dear readers, notice when you're 'phoning it in' and when you trust that you've done your emotional homework to produce a performance complete with trappings substance. Everyone likes a nice breast, right? :)