People: It’s over for the fat ladies singing

Deborah Voigt is back, in black.

The American soprano returned to London’s Royal Opera House stage Monday, four years after being fired for being too big for the little black dress worn by the title character in Richard Strauss‘ “Ariadne auf Naxos.”

The decision sparked a fierce debate about weight discrimination in opera.

Now a slimmer Voigt is back in the same role – and wearing “that” dress.

“When I got the call from my manager, I have to admit my first reaction was to laugh, because we had come full circle,” she says.

Voigt, one of the world’s leading opera singers, had gastric bypass surgery in June 2004 and subsequently lost 135 pounds.

She says she had been considering the surgery on health grounds for years.

“I was angry about it at the time and for quite a while afterwards,” she says of her firing.

But Voigt now concedes she wouldn’t have been right for the production and thinks opera’s increased focus on image is here to stay.

“To assume that one can weigh 300-plus pounds and still be viable on today’s opera stage is naïve,” she says.

Back to blackout

British singer Amy Winehouse was hospitalized Monday after falling at her north London home.

She lost consciousness but an assistant caught her before she hit the ground, her spokesman said. Doctors are unsure what caused the collapse.

The princess’ new clothes

Princess Eugenie, the daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, was given a “wrist slap” after being caught frolicking naked at her posh boarding school.

According to The Sun newspaper, Eugenie, 18, had been visiting a local pub with friends.

“A senior member of staff was woken up by playful shrieks and discovered around a dozen pupils dancing around in their birthday suits under the midnight moonlight,” it reported.

Warp speed, Mr. Sulu

Former “Star Trek” star George Takei is taking the next step to marrying his partner of 21 years, Brad Altman.

Takei, 71, and Altman, 43, will pick up a marriage license today, the first day licenses are available to gay and lesbian couples in California. They plan to wed in September.

The California Supreme Court last month lifted a ban on same-sex marriage.

Horse-of-a-different-color opera

Finally, “Brokeback Mountain” – the Annie Proulx short story turned Oscar-winning film – is soon to become an opera.

An operatic treatment is being written for the New York City Opera’s 2013 spring season.

The 2005 film co-starred the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy who fall in love.

The birthday bunch

Actor Peter Lupus (“Mission: Impossible”) is 76. Singer Barry Manilow is 62. Comedian Joe Piscopo is 57. Actor Mark Linn-Baker is 54. Director Bobby Farrelly (“Ther’s Something About Mary”) is 50. Actor Thomas Haden Church is 47. Actor Greg Kinnear is 45. Actress Kami Cotler (“The Waltons”) is 43. Actor Jason Patric is 42. Actor-comedian Will Forte (“Saturday Night Live”) is 38.