A Quebec tenor has gone on "vocal cord strike" to protest against posters advertising Opéra de Montréal's La Chauve-Souris (Die Fledermaus), in which he stars. That's one of them, above.
The company's advertising campaign this season is rather like ENO's, featuring hot models instead of the singers who actually perform in the show. Presumably they're trying to tempt new audiences - who of course will feel disappointed, if not downright cheated, when faced with the oldish, fattish, plainish regular human beings who have the rare skills and training to sing opera on stage and get paid for it.
"If you don't know a lot about opera, you see this poster of this beautiful girl or this beautiful guy," says Hervieux in CBC news. "When you buy your ticket, suddenly, where is this beautiful guy?"
"Call this guy on the poster to sing," he said in rehearsals as he downed his cords.
The Opéra de Montréal has responded by putting together a new poster - with a photo of Hervieux:
