Covent Garden drops Deborah Voight for being too large to wear a little black dress in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos.
As a side point the article contains the phrase
Nowadays, however, we expect Tristan and Isolde to look shaggable as well as sound it
I am fascinated by the evolution of the word 'shag', and its derivatives. I'm sure it's a recent development. For example, I think when I was a student (86-89) the mot de jour was bonk, which seems to have fallen out of usage. The tabloids use the word 'bedded' which I hate. In intimate surroundings I like to use the good old Anglo-Saxon word 'fuck'. I think, however, shag is acceptable in polite-ish company, although I don't think that it has quite the acceptability yet of 'crap' which I have encountered in formal work situations.
There are so many euphemisms for the act of sexual congress. I suspect if someone said "Let's have sexual intercourse", certainly if they said it without irony, I would immediately turn frigid.
'Going to bed with' or 'sleeping with' are way too euphemistic, and miss the point. 'Screwing' seems a little too aggressive. 'Making love' works in some contexts - you know, men who say "I don't have sex, I make love" (again, a slight sense of irony helps!). But, for example, in the novels of Jane Austen 'making love' has different connotations, perhaps somewhere between flirting and whispering sweet nothings.
And what is flirting? Does it always have to be sexual, or is it okay to flirt, for example, with colleagues, or shop assistants, or with child relatives, when there is absolutely no sexual intention.
I like the word 'shag'. It has no sense of obscenity, and enables one to establish the fact without going into details.
Whether Wagner intended Tristan and Isolde to look and sound shaggable is a whole other question.
