Answers to Everyday Questions : What is the average weightloss of an Opera singer during a performance?

Thirty pounds in a single performance is far fetch indeed. I doubt that they lose any substantial amount of weight at all. It is true that singing certain really taxing and long roles in a very long opera (like the title roles in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde or Octavian in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier) is very tiring to the singer, but it still is nowhere as physical as running a marathon (and most marathoners don’t lose more than 7 lbs in a single race).

The singer may feel s/he has lost a lot of weight (especially if singing during the hottest days of summer), but I doubt that that feeling accurately corresponds to real condition. Besides, it can probably be taken for granted that all opera singers are hypochondriacs (for good reasons) with the tendency to exaggerate how badly they feel. No slur intended on the artists, of course. But that’s just how it goes!

Thirty pounds in a single performance is far fetch indeed. I doubt that they lose any substantial amount of weight at all. It is true that singing certain really taxing and long roles in a very long opera (like the title roles in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde or Octavian in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier) is very tiring to the singer, but it still is nowhere as physical as running a marathon (and most marathoners don’t lose more than 7 lbs in a single race).

The singer may feel s/he has lost a lot of weight (especially if singing during the hottest days of summer), but I doubt that that feeling accurately corresponds to real condition. Besides, it can probably be taken for granted that all opera singers are hypochondriacs (for good reasons) with the tendency to exaggerate how badly they feel. No slur intended on the artists, of course. But that’s just how it goes!