Michael Fabiano grew up on heaping helpings of pasta — not that opera lovers would know it when they saw him earlier this year peacocking his pecs in “Rigoletto.”
“I was so big,” sighs the 28-year-old tenor who topped out at 275 pounds before making a major career move: He lost weight. Now, two years after making his Met debut, he’s a lean, 184-pound operatic machine, going where Pavarotti couldn’t — shirtless — in major opera houses around the world.
Then again, Pavarotti didn’t have this kind of pressure.
“The image of a person matters so much more today than it did even a few years ago,” says Fabiano, who’s from Philly. “It’s not exactly a prerequisite to be thin in my business — but it’s nearly a prerequisite.”
With the stakes this high, the steaks are giving way to salads for the world’s biggest divas. With opera broadcast these days in HD, on DVD and YouTube, you not only have to sound great — you have to look great, too.
Daniel Frost Hernández, the 27-year-old founder and executive director of New York City’s Opera Hispánica, sheepishly admits to casting for a specific ideal body type.
“The main question opera companies ask themselves now is, ‘How are we going to connect with new, young audiences?’ ”
He fondly remembers the opera world of old, when it was all about the music. “Nowadays, production plays a much bigger role,” he concedes. “I think people often forget this is entertainment, and with all entertainment it has to be marketable, sellable.
“It’s survival of the fittest — it’s adapt, or not have a job.”
Gone are the days lovingly remembered as the “park and bark” era. “That was back in the day,” says longtime publicist Glenn Petry, whose clients include superstars Deborah Voigt and Anna Netrebko.
“Now the bar has been raised; people expect more . . . everyone goes to the gym now. You look at pictures of these guys now, and they could be movie stars.”
Exhibit A: Newly buff Ildar Abdrazakov, the Russian bass singing the dashing title role of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Don Giovanni.” At his 2004 Met debut in the same opera, a far chunkier Abdrazakov sang Masetto — the peasant.
About four years ago, he started hitting the gym daily with a cardio and weight-lifting regimen.
Not only has he chiseled his abs, but he’s catapulted his career, even though he downplays his dramatic transformation.
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“I now feel more confident because I’ve regained complete control of my body,” he says.
Still, some singers say the new focus on physique isn’t true to the art form, and wonder whether any of opera’s greats — Pavarotti, Maria Callas, Leontyne Price — would have had the same legendary careers if they were subject to today’s skinny standards.
In 2004, when England’s Royal Opera House dumped then-portly powerhouse Voigt for a singer who could fit into a “little black dress” for Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos,” it sent shock waves through the industry.
“I don’t know her,” Voigt told The Post back then of her replacement. “I hope she’s very good — either that or she’d better look damn good in that dress!” But a few years later, even Voigt, who returns to the Met tonight in “Les Troyens,” got with the program: She opted for gastric-bypass surgery, which reportedly reduced her dress size from 30 to 14.
Jessica Tivens Schneiderman isn’t convinced. She’s got a big figure and an even bigger voice and isn’t afraid to flaunt both, invoking the famous line: “You can’t get a cello sound from a violin body.”
“It’s gotten to the point where they train like an athlete would train,” the 31-year-old soprano says of her ripped-looking rivals.
“As a kid, I loved going to the opera to see average-looking people with insane voices doing something extraordinary. Back then, your size did not a career make.”
The Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, says that while larger singers aren’t overlooked, appearance is often a consideration. “We don’t pass on any great singers,” insists Gelb, “but we’re also looking for people who are believable in the world they play.” So does the Met cherry-pick its stars with its eyes more than its ears? “We audition with both,” Gelb says, adding: “If you can’t sing on the stage of the Met, it doesn’t matter what you look like.”
Sensual star-on the-rise Ailyn Pérez, 33, has been rewarded for her dramatic weight loss a few years ago — down from 175 pounds to 135 — she just won a Richard Tucker Award. Even so, she wonders about a culture in which she says most ingenues max out at a size 6.
“For every great voice you hear onstage, how many do you have singing in subways or in churches? There are those voices that can do Verdi,” says Perez, who keeps her weight down with Bikram yoga, weight training — and previously Weight Watchers, during an initial diet push: “The scary thing is, are we missing out on voices?”
Some men wonder the same thing.
“So many famous singers lost weight, and their voices were never the same again,” says Harlem-based baritone Stan Lacy, who’s 65 pounds lighter after a warp-speed summer diet. “One of the most famous sopranos is Maria Callas — and the story is that she swallowed a tapeworm, shed more than 100 pounds and became a totally different singer.
“I’m not bitter about the drive to cast thin, good-looking people; I get it,” continues the 6-foot, 180-pound belter, who’s sung with the Dicapo Opera.
“But it’s an insidious pressure. You can sit in the corner and be mad about it, or you can play. There are definitely parts I would sing for now that I was hesitant to before,” he adds. “We call it the ‘shirt off’ parts, like Don Giovanni. Before, it’s not like I couldn’t sing the music, but there would be at least five guys who are better looking. Now my name could be in the hat,” he says triumphantly.
Just how much skin are today’s operagoers demanding? Neal Goren, founder of Gotham Chamber Opera, knows where his bread’s buttered: The company’s recent “Il Sogno di Scipione” had its male stars singing in their skivvies.
“I will always go for voice first,” Goren says, adding that “if it’s between someone who looks gorgeous” and someone who doesn’t, he’ll take the first. He recently auditioned gladiators for his new production, “Eliogabalo,” set in the decadent days of ancient Rome.
“They test fully dressed,” Goren says, “but we did send out a description that the role is shirtless and perhaps oiled up.”
Opera Hispánica, meanwhile, is staging a forthcoming tango opera. “It’s very sexy and seductive,” Hernández says. “You have to have a particular look for that — you have to be sexy, and we have to cast accordingly.
“It’s the point of no return now.”
dlewak@nypost.com