RECREATION

Austin opera singer sheds weight to keep roles coming

Cindy Sadler lost more than 100 pounds

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, July 11, 2008

Cindy Sadler stands next to the piano in her living room, opens her mouth and lets fly with a firestorm of booming opera music.

Her two wirehaired dachshunds, Samson and Delilah, howl in protest. They aren't opera fans. They are, however, fans of Sadler's new healthy lifestyle, which includes daily walks along the neighborhood greenbelt. Sometimes, they get to go along.

As for Sadler, she is hardly intimidated by the complicated music and lyrics of "O Mio Fernando," from the Italian opera "La Favorita." But until a year ago, the challenge of losing weight seemed nearly impossible.

That's all changed for the veteran of Austin Lyric Opera productions of "The Barber of Seville," "Elektra" and "Dead Man Walking." Since September 2007, Sadler has dropped more than 100 pounds and adopted habits to help keep her health in control. She blogs about her progress at www.thenext100pounds.com. The New York Times even wrote an article about what she's dubbed her "fat relocation project."

Sadler grew up in a musical family and was raised in the Church of Christ, where everyone sang a capella. Her mother played clarinet, her father piano and her two brothers trombone. She knew a little guitar, and when she got to the University of Texas, she decided on a whim to take formal voice lessons. When a faculty member heard her sing, she encouraged Sadler to pursue opera. She did.

"I liked the way it felt to sing that way," the mezzo-soprano says. "I have an operatic voice. I just don't sound good singing pop."

Opera singing is athletic. Singers use abdominal muscles to control the intensity of breath as it passes through the vocal cords. Traditionally, opera singers don't use artificial amplification. "You're creating all that sound out of your own body, and must be heard over a full orchestra," Sadler says.

She had the voice. But she says being heavy has negatively affected her career. "I've been steered away from certain roles," she says. "Right or wrong, it's a reality."

Besides the Austin Lyric Opera, Sadler has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Opera Pacific in Orange County, Calif.; El Paso Opera; New Orleans Opera; Opera San Jose; and Arizona Opera.

More importance is placed on being thin now than ever before in the opera world. Opera star Deborah Voigt, 120 pounds lighter after gastric bypass surgery, recently returned to singing at London's Covent Garden four years after she lost her job because she was too fat.

It's that kind of attitude that really annoys Sadler. She scoffs at the stereotype of stout opera singers, and says weight doesn't affect an opera singer's ability to play a role.

"We have a media-driven society, and this is what we're fed," she says. "We're held to a certain standard of how we're supposed to look. That bleeds over into the opera world. Society has a very distorted view of what is allowed to be beautiful."

Sadler has dieted on and off since she was 9 years old.

A few years ago, she educated herself about nutrition, threw out processed foods, started eating organic food and emptied her house of sweets. She joined a gym and started walking with her husband, shedding 30 pounds. But a hectic travel schedule made it hard to keep it off, and she gained it all back. It wasn't until months later, when she saw some vacation pictures, that something snapped. "At that point I was unhappy with it," she says.

About the same time, a friend, also a singer, had become a trainer and gently offered to train her. "Even though he loved me just the way I was, he was concerned because I was heavy," she says. She didn't take him up on his trainer offer, but that sparked something inside her.

When another friend recommended the book "The Beck Diet Solution," by Judith Beck, she picked it up. She stuck to its common-sense approach of retraining the way you think about eating. She made a list of reasons she wanted to lose weight. The list stretched to three pages and included better health, more energy and buying off-the-rack clothing more easily. She spent nine weeks doing the book's six-week program, something she recommends to others.

"Some days it's really hard," she says. "But I have not starved myself or taken any drugs."

The weight came off quickly in the beginning but has slowed. She's always loved to hike with her husband and now makes a habit of daily walks around her neighborhood. "As far as going to the gym just to go to the gym, I hate that," she says.

In March, she started working with Round Rock personal trainer Doris Breslin. "I wanted more guidance. I didn't want to just get to my goal weight and be flabby," Sadler says.

Breslin incorporated more fundamental weight and stability training into Sadler's routine to strengthen her core muscles. "It just kind of bumped her resistance in workouts a little higher than she was used to," Breslin says. Sadler is giving herself plenty of time to reach her goal. "It's not a quick, overnight pop-some-pills thing," Breslin says.

Sadler did suffer one setback. On May 23, she broke a wrist after falling off her bike while riding to Breslin's fitness class. She had surgery but hasn't been able to bike since. Instead, she's been walking — an hour to two hours every day. She's gotten faster as she charges through the greenbelt of her Avery Ranch development, admiring plants and wildlife and listening to beat-centric '80s rock 'n' roll on her iPod.

On June 12, she hit her 100-pound goal. She wants to lose another 50 pounds.

Other tips? She surrounds herself with supportive people who love her fat and love her less fat. She doesn't deprive herself of treats (and had a small scoop of gelato before this interview). She plans what she will eat every day and writes it down. She jots motivational messages in a notebook and flips through it regularly.

"I eat so much less, but I am rarely hungry," Sadler says. She also has completely reversed her Type 2 diabetes.

No word yet on what her new weight will mean to her career. "I haven't gone to an audition at my new weight, but I'm trying to get the word out. It will be interesting to see what happens."

The new Sadler might not please everyone. At least one director expressed disappointment at Sadler's trimmer figure.

He'll have to get over it.