Adele was two days into her four day stand at London's Wembley Stadium when she did the unthinkable: she cancelled the rest of her tour and stopped singing. Her throat troubles had returned, after vocal cord surgery, and she knew she had come to the end of the line--perhaps permanently.
The case of the calloused cords is not new: Roberto Alagna, and many other singers--opera and otherwise--have had to bow out of engagements, citing vocal troubles. And while delicate surgery has helped a few, some experts are saying that's not the answer. The solution, they say, is to start all over again in vocal training. An interesting article in The Guardian discusses the issue.