Former opera singer writes book about cancer, life
Mar. 25—A former opera singer has written a book about how a facial bone cancer diagnosis changed her life.
Kathleen Watt, who moved to East Meredith during the COVID-19 pandemic, said she went to a dentist 25 years ago during the middle of the Metropolitan Opera season in New York City. According to her bio, she sang principal roles with Boston Lyric Opera, Utah Opera Company, Springfield Regional Opera, and in the Extra Chorus of New York's Metropolitan Opera.
"I was a hairbreadth away from canceling the appointment," she said of the dentist appointment. Watt had a bump in one of her gums and the dentist suggested she see an endodontist to see if she needed a root canal. She saw the endodontist later that day and before a root canal could be done, she had to see an oral surgeon who immediately ordered a biopsy. The biopsy came back positive for osteogenic sarcoma.
"It's a very rare cancer," she said. Bone cancer is typically found in long bones in young people and is more rare in the head and skull, and even more rare in women. Because it is pretty rare, there isn't a lot of research being done.
Watt said she met with a team of surgeons at Mount Sinai Hospital and then with a team of surgeons at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital about her diagnosis. After talking with the two teams, she decided to have her surgery at Mount Sinai.
The tumor, which was the size of a golf ball, bone and some of the surrounding tissue would need to be removed. There were two options for reconstructive surgery — taking part of her shoulder blade and inserting it where her jaw was, or a prothesis. She chose using her own shoulder blade.
Watt said the surgery, which was on audition day for the new Metropolitan Opera's season, lasted 17 hours. She developed complications after the surgery and ended up needing another surgery to remove the bone. A prothesis was inserted instead.
Watt said she was declared cancer-free after three years and had reconstructive surgeries throughout a decade. At the beginning, her eyelid on one eye had to be stitched shut so her eye wouldn't droop a lot. She wore an eyepatch. She recalled seeing a young boy at a crosswalk tell his mom there was a pirate behind them. Another time, teenage boys passed her on the sidewalk "and started practicing their pirate voices," she said.
Watt was 43 and was mid-career when it happened. After cancer ended her singing career, she started writing features for the Metropolitan Opera and other publications.
She decided to write a book after her stepchildren graduated from high school. "To be honest, I didn't want to write a cancer survivor story," she said. "There are lots of them." However, the more she tried not to write about it, the more she realized she needed to because it was one of the biggest things in her life. "So many things happened because of it," she said.
Watt said there is a lot of humor in her book, "REARRANGED: An Opera Singer's Facial Cancer and Life Transposed." "It's not all about cancer," she said. "There is a little bit about backstage at the Met; living in New York City."
Watt said she will read for about 45 minutes from her memoir at 7:30 p.m. April 17, at the Writers Salon, which is held at the Wilber Mansion, home of the Community Arts Network of Oneonta at 11 Ford Avenue, in Oneonta. The event will be moderated by Racheal Fest, a pedagogy support specialist at SUNY Oneonta.
Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.
