Research Reports
Opera’s Appearance Problem
One-hundred-sixty-nine opera singers demonstrated the impact Hollywood-influenced beauty demands have had on the self-esteem and self-perception of female singers
Findings from “The Slimming Soprano: Body Image and Health Anxiety in Female Opera Singers” (Colyer, 2022), doctoral dissertation, Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA.
Imagine an opera singer standing onstage, her voice soaring above the orchestra. What does she look like?
Chances are, you imagined a Brünhilde-esque character: a woman, adorned with a metal breastplate and winged helmet. You also probably imagined that she was overweight because we all know the saying: “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”
This singer you imagined would have been quite popular when Wagner composed his infamous Ring Cycle, however, this aesthetic has dramatically shifted over the last two decades.
Background and Context
With technology driving the industry towards Hollywood-level scrutiny, opera singers are exceptionally vulnerable to anxiety about their outward and inward physical experiences, putting their overall well-being at risk.
As major opera houses like The Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera have begun simulcasting live operas and displaying them in movie theaters-- and even baseball stadiums-- there has been a shift toward casting younger, thinner singers. This has most notably impacted female opera singers.
In addition to these increasing expectations on their outward appearance, singers must maintain their physical health and stamina in order to deliver phenom-level performances. A typical opera’s run-time is about 3 hours and singers must project their voices over a full orchestra without amplification. Often they have to repeat this feat multiple times per week.
A singer’s body is her instrument. Repeated performances are physically and emotionally demanding — and the new beauty standards are taking a toll on singers’ well-being.
The Study
I examined the relationship between female opera singers’ body image and health anxiety in light of the Hollywood-style changes occurring within the opera industry.
This study of 169 opera singers, ages 18–69, found female opera singers experienced significantly lower body esteem, a measure of how one feels about her appearance; and exceptionally high levels of health anxiety compared to the general population.
Orthorexia Nervosa: An Eating Disorder Hiding Behind Health
An eating disorder hiding behind a focus on health, called orthorexia nervosa (ON), is marked by an obsession with “being healthy,” eating healthy foods, and exercising.
While not yet a formal diagnosis in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-5), the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) considers orthorexia to be a category of eating disorder since it leads to disordered eating and obsessive thoughts about food and weight.
Obsessions about “staying healthy” is a more socially acceptable way for people with eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa to hide or justify their disturbed eating behaviors and obsessive thoughts about food.
72.7% of female opera singers met criteria for orthorexia nervosa, compared to 57.6% prevalence in the general population (Ramacciotti, et al., 2011).
Personality of an Opera Singer
Female opera singers’ personality traits were assessed using the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) (Gosling, et al., 2003) and singers were significantly higher in Agreeableness, Openness, and moderately higher in Extraversion than the general population. These findings are similar to Sandgren’s (2018) findings on music college vocalists.
These traits allow singers to be adventurous and take emotional and physical risks onstage, however, they also make singers vulnerable to being mistreated by directors and casting agents since their livelihood depends on being “castable.”
In Singers’ Own Voices
Open-ended questions allowed singers to provide narrative responses in their own words about their experiences in the opera world given the backdrop of the current beauty and body size demands within the industry.
In addition to worries about how their physical appearance impacts their ability to gain and maintain work, many singers expressed concerns about opera’s lack of diversity and inclusion, specifically in regards to race, ethnicity, and age.
Conclusion
Opera singers are tasked with impressive physical and emotional demands to make their performances vocally stunning and dramatically nuanced. Each performance is a physical and artistic feat of strength. The additional-- and unnecessary-- pressures for opera singers to achieve Western beauty standards and the thin-ideal are impacting the well-being of many female singers.
If we want this art form to survive, we must make sure its singers thrive.
References and Other Articles
Colyer, A. (2022). [In press] The slimming soprano: Body image and health anxiety in female opera singers. [Doctoral Dissertation, Wright Institute]. ProQuest Dissertation and Theses Global.
Cooke, S. (n.d.). [@sashamezzomama]. Posts [Instagram profile]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/sashamezzomama/?hl=en
Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B., Jr. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(6), 504–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1
National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA). https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
Ramacciotti, C. E., Perrone, P., Coli, E., Burgalassi, A., Conversano, C., Massimetti, G., & Dell’Osso, L. (2011). Orthorexia nervosa in the general population: A preliminary screening using a self-administered questionnaire (ORTO-15). Eating and Weight Disorders, 16(2), e127–e130. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03325318
Sandgren, M. (2018). Exploring personality and musical self-perceptions among vocalists and instrumentalists at music colleges. Psychology of Music, 47(4), 465–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735618761572
