Opera Singer Has 'No Idea' What Those Lyrics Even Mean

8 August 2014 | 2:58 pm | SPA Confidential

"I'm not going to learn another language for a four-minute song"

Sydney-based soprano and O(z)pera Inc. lead performer Helena Lance has revealed that she doesn't speak a word of Italian, and has absolutely zero understanding of the lyrics that pass through her lips on a weekly basis.

In a stunning confessional chat with SPA Confidential, Lance — who got her stage break at the tender age of eight years old, when she absolutely dominated the role of Tree #3 in her primary school's amateur production of The Wizard Of Oz — admitted that, despite having been cast in the lead role in no fewer than fourteen different Italian musical tragedies in as many years, she has not taken in a single syllable of the language.

"Actually, that's not entirely true," she corrected herself, after making the admission. "I know what 'amore' means; that pops up in a good 95 per cent of the songs I sing.

"But, otherwise, I have almost no idea what I'm saying the majority of the time that I am on-stage. I'm not going to learn another language for a four-minute song."

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Audiences have been swift to condemn Lance's candid revelation, with some social-media warriors saying the deception is near-unforgivable.

"I can't believe it," opined one. "She always sang with such heart and excitement, which was maybe a bit weird when she performed La Tragedia Di Funerali in Waluigi Cientro's Tristezza! Tristezza! (Sadness! Sadness!), but generally I found her very captivating. Not so sure now."

"It's an absolute joke," commented another. "It's bad enough that most pop musicians barely seem to understand English as it is, and now we have to contend with the notion that this self-absorbed diva can't even be arsed to have the respect for the material to understand the sheer power behind the words?

"How are we supposed to believe that she's sad about the tragedy of funerals when she smiles like a chimp through that entire song every fucking time she performs it? Drop the curtain; I want to go home."