This is one of the most difficult things to discuss, my health. Health is such a mercurial thing. You can’t know exactly what it means to be healthy or sick as defined by me, but my health has been affecting my opera schedule and I think it best to dispel some rumors, to possibly inspire, and to be a resource for those in need.
Let’s cut to the bone…I have prostate cancer. I was officially diagnosed on September 3, 2024, but it was affecting my singing and health (unbeknownst to me) for a few years. Let me back up about a decade and take you on a little journey through my first health “scare”.
Generally I have always been a fairly healthy man. I love to workout, lift weights, work hard, lift heavy things. I eat fairly well, watch my weight (for the most part) and keep active. If you have seen me perform onstage, you may recall me lifting my leading lady, or swinging on a rope of some sort. If it requires athleticism I am the tenor for you!
I was singing my first Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in San Francisco, late 2015 when I had a serious bout of food poisoning. A day or two later I noticed my knee swelling up. “Huh, I must of twisted it onstage while singing with the orchestra.” At least that is what I thought. The final week before opening is intense and I had already been ill, so I wasn’t about to let it slow me down. Then my ankle started to swell and my back started to hurt, it could no longer be ignored. After many trips to a walk-in clinic and limping around onstage during the performances, I was told that they could find nothing and to see a rheumatologist when I got home.
I did so when I arrived back in Illinois and lo and behold I have an autoimmune called Ankylosing Spondylitis. It causes swelling of the joints, back, bone decay and a bevy of other wonderful symptoms. My leg had swollen to about 50% it’s normal size, my back was aching and I was in constant pain. BUT, my debut at the Opera Bastille in Paris was in a couple of weeks and with our ol house in constant need of repair and three growing kids…I needed to work!
So off to Paris with a cane in hand (literally), compression socks, tons of prednisone (they wouldn’t give me the highly effective biological drugs until three months of trying a combo of cheaper alternatives) and a low dose chemo I was immersed in Stefan Herheim’s Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
To say I was in pain would be an understatement. I rented an apartment about 8 blocks from the Bastille, a short walk that might take 10 minutes or less to make. I was making the trek in approximately 45 minutes each way. It was exhausting, frustrating and scary. The longer the A.S. worked it's way into my system the more debiltating it was.
People at the opera house knew I was recently diagnosed with something and were trying to work with me. I was literally unable to move onstage after standing for a while and would need to stand on my good leg and spin and pivot in place. I learned a lot about the ole hop/jump step to elicit a youthfulness to my performance. No critic mentioned me looking or sounding ill, no one mentioned anything after the performances, so that was good. I did “okay” in the end. I made my debut!
When I returned to the USA my three months of waiting was up, and although apprehensive I gave the "wonder drug" Humira a try. It is an experience that I will never forget. I got my first injection and after coming home and laying down for an hour or so (I was contantly exhausted) I felt the inside of my body start to crack. It felt like glass was shattering in me!? So very bizarre. I got up and walked down the stairs to our bedroom saying "I think it worked," when Cara replied, "Honey, you are walking without a cane!"
Since 2016 I was on a constant monthy or bi-weekly injection of a biological medicine (supplimented with occasional prednisone) to mitigate my auto-immune. There were "flare-ups" along the way and at times I had to cancel a performance. I was better and that is what counted. It may have been the fine print that got me (see below)? I don't know.
The medicines that I was taking were advertised on TV quite a bit (a practice unique to the US) and would state: "May cause nausea, on-site injection reaction, liver damage, heart failure...etc." Essentially it would suppress my overactive immune system and allow me to function normally, it literally gave me my life back. The downside to that is that my immune system was suppressed in all aspects. It may have allowed other lurking illnesses to gain a foothold in my body.
Fast forward to the spring of 2024. I was to sing a Carmen at the ROH in London. A role that I have sung over a hundred times. A role that I could roll out of bed and sing…until London. I was having such a hard time supporting my voice. My breath support just wasn’t functioning right. My body was out of sorts and couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on. I assumed that my A.S. was acting up and no matter what I was doing it wasn't getting better. So I withdrew from the engagement.
I hated doing it. There is a lot of self-loathing involved in making a decision like that. I let down my family, I let down the public, my agents, the theater...myself. With some time, rest, taking different meds, upping my prednisone intake I got better, for a while.
I was off to Berlin for a short run of La Fanciulla del West at the Berlin Staatsoper. I got there and almost immediately got a stomach bug, or so I thought. Lots of indigestion, nausea, aches and pains. It was a bugga boo! I did get through the production, I even got a pretty good review!
From Berlin I went to Munich for their summer festival where I would revive a production from earlier that season. I was able to perform the first of two shows, but then started feeling off on the morning of the second show, and it was confirmed that I had COVID, so I had to withdraw from the 2nd and last show.
I returned home, got better and about a week later I woke up to extreme pain in my gut. My first thought was a ruptured appendix. So off to the ER I went. A CT scan and a couple of tests later the doctor walked into my room and announced, "You have cancer." It was like a bucket of cold water. I was numb, shocked and horrified all at once. He convinced me to stay in the hospital and get mulitple tests over the next 48 hours.
The tests came back showing different masses in my gut, but no cancer. It puzzled them and me. After listening to the cancer doctor and the endocrinologist argue over my pictures in the room, It was decided that I didn't have cancer, but that I was having a reaction to my A.S. meds. They were inflaming my intestines. Fantastic news to me!
A few days later I flew to NYC for a publicity photo shoot for an upcoming production of Jake Heggie's Moby Dick at the Metropolitan Opera. All went well at the shoot and I arrived home to pack for my next gig Ariadne auf Naxos in Zurich. Before leaving the US, my wife and I were offered a complete blood panel work-up through her school insurance as a “beginning for the school year” get healthy initiative. We got pricked, filled some viles of blood and drove to the airport.
Zurich was going well. It is a company that I worked at many times in my career and the intendant/director was leaving and wanted me in one of his final productions. I was honored and having a blast. Only a couple of days in I received a phone call from the states. "Hello Mr. Jovanovich, we did your blood work here and your PSA level is extremely high at 178. You need to see your primary care doctor right away." Normal Prostate Specific Antigen is 0-4. Anything over 4 and you may have something wrong with your prostate.
Oh boy. That had me worried, but a Google search and some positive thinking had me pointed in the direction of an artificially raised result because of vitamins and minerals that I was taking to mitigate the "swollen intestines." To be sure, I called a friend from Zurich and he put me in touch with his brother, a doctor. He got me in the next day to test my PSA levels, they came back at 211. I talked to my doctor on the phone and they urged me to get home NOW.
Worried, scared and with a heavy heart I broke the news to a few colleagues and finished the rehearsal. I then pulled Andreas aside and broke the news to him. He could see the shock and worry on my face and wished me a speedy recovery.
As luck would have it, my leading lady in the show was friends with a doctor in Munich and they said they could work up all of the panels, take every test possible and get me results almost immediately. That is exactly what they were able to do. From Sept 3-5 of 2024 it was confirmed that I had stage four prostate cancer and would have to take extreme steps to arrest it's progression. I thought I was going to die. I figured I had about four months left.
I flew home and was subjected to more tests, more worry and a lot of apologies from doctors for not looking at the prostate. It was decided rather quickly that I would need chemotherapy, to get medically castrated and to take a testosterone inhibitor (prostate cancer feeds off of testosterone). My first chemo was September 30th of 2024. I was scheduled for six rounds of chemo spaced six weeks apart. In the end they gave me nine doses.
During this time, I performed a Wagner concert in Washington DC, I almost performed a Gurrelieder with the LA Philharmonic, but my weakened immune system made me a ripe target for a cold. I had to withdraw again.
I was scheduled to sing a concert version of Korngold's Die Tote Stadt which I was just too exhausted to do. So another cancellation. I was set to sing Moby Dick in the spring of 2025 at the Metropolitan Opera and although I was loosing my hair, I looked like crap, and felt even worse I showed up. One leg behind my back and a cane in hand I rehearsed Ahab as best I could. The top people at the Met were made aware of my situation and were nothing but supportive.
I had our opening night, and although not in my best form, I did fairly well. I had to fly home for another round of chemotherapy the day after opening. I have a pointer for any opera singer on chemotherapy. Your chords are affected for about 10 days, you shouldn't sing.
I sang show number two, but could tell something was up vocally, and it was confirmed the next day when I couldn't phonate. I ended up missing shows three, four and five. My voice was fried and needed to recover. All in all it was a fairly decent show. My colleagues knew of my struggles and were extremely supportive. It is a hell of difficult role to sing in top form, it was a colossus beast for me.
I was able to rest for a month or two until my next gig in Munich. They were nervous (as word had gotten out) but all went fairly well.
Most recently I sang Parsifal in San Francisco. Another fairly good show!
After my nine rounds of chemo, the words "remission" were mentioned to me. The doctors were shocked at how well it had worked. The cancers in my gut were down to mostly normal size, my PSA was at .44 and I was on the right path! I had changed eating habits, was taking (still am) a ton of suppliments, vitamins, minerals and herbs. All was looking up, but I still had a lot of bone metastasis. So the decision to put me on a new form of radiation was universally agreed upon.
My first Pluvitco injection was November 20th. It is a special form of radiation that they flood into the veins and it attaches only to the prostate cancer cells. It is expensive but highly effective, although not without side effects. My first round of six, spread six weeks apart went well. I found that I couldn't sing for a few days after getting it, but I had spaced them out in a way that would limit any fallout from the injections, or so I thought. On the 30th of December I got shot number two and wow it was different. Headaches, dizziness, nausea, saliva glands dried up...I was a mess.
I was scheduled to sing Herod with my "home" company, but after trying my best...there were just too many obstacles in my way. I had to withdraw.
That brings me to today. To this blog and website. I have some free time now and needed to create a new site. So there is one upside.
There are a lot of downsides too. Word has gotten out about my cancer, hence me writing about it. Theaters have cancelled "scheduled" but not contracted work (something that is done often in our business). I don't have near as many things in the books as I would like, plus I have had to cancel many productions over the past two years. I need to work.
So, I am expanding my horizons! I have a couple of ideas kicking around in my head. I have my agents scouring theaters for work. I am hoping that they see and hear my work still, and that I have a ton to offer audiences. Time will tell.
That is about it! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out. I am currently reading a few books about beating cancer and staying on top of this beast! Wish me luck and you'll see me onstage soon.
My current book list:
How to Starve Cancer
Chris Beat Cancer
Beating Cancer with Nutrition
Radical Remission