The personality of opera singers

Ninety-one opera singers in the London area completed a questionnaire concerning their voice type, experience, physical characteristics, performance habits and personality. They also rated the personality of one singer of each voice type with whom they were familiar, and one man and one woman who were not singers. Higher-voiced singers emerged as more emotional, difficult, unreliable, conceited and feminine than lower-voiced singers of the same sex, according to their own report and that of others. Lower-voiced singers were taller and thinner, and within the men particularly, more inclined to sexual affairs with fellow singers. These findings are seen as consistent with German research showing a higher testosterone/oestradiol ratio in lower-voiced singers.