Covent Garden soprano ‘sang through miscarriage’
NewsThe soprano Danielle de Niese has told the Guardian that her opening ROH performance in La Bohème two weeks ago was sung through the aftermath of an agonising miscarriage.
De Niese, 41, did not know she was pregnant. She is still breastfeeding her seven-month-old daughter, Sheherazade Christie, younger sister to her and her husband, Gus Christie’s son, Bacchus. But last Friday, she experienced cramping and went to see her doctor who confirmed she was pregnant.
“Even though I thought I was having a miscarriage, when Gus and I heard that I was pregnant there was no time to come to grips with it,” she said. The couple travelled home to Glyndebourne in East Sussex. “I was thinking: ‘I’ve had a miscarriage; this will probably come out in a few hours and I’ll then rest for the performance….’
Read her full ordeal here.
Why share this kind of intimate and private details publically? Why?
Because it is of great comfort to have read this by other singers who no doubt will have gone or will go through similar. Also she was very lucky that the Garden was so loving and helpful. A woman may not have got such sympathy from other opera companies in other countries as a big international star singer or .even as a chorus member. Nothing in life like this, which is serious, should ever be swept under the carpet. But there’s a choice. If you don’t want to read it, then don’t! It’s not compulsory.
Why not? Human beings have different needs and limitations when it comes to sharing and privacy: what is way too much information for you, and frankly for me as well, may actually be cleansing and healing for other people. No one forces us to read it or to be just as open about our own private matters as someone else is.
She might have felt that it affected her performance. But that is her choice. Why question it? Why?
People are different from each other. She has her reasons for wanting to share it; you have your reasons for not wanting to hear about it.
I love that wonderful singer, but in this case, she has taken a big risk: one can die from internal hemorrhage with an ectopic pregnancy.
I wish her and her lovely friends family all the best.
Erratum: in my previous message, the word “friends” came uninvited, sorry!