Participant and musical characteristics influence singers’ physiological stress during opera performances

Some music performance situations are more stressful than others for performers. Through comparison of heart rate or heart rate variability during different categorical levels of difficulty, researchers have begun to understand the situational factors impacting stress. However, to date, there has been no systematic investigation of how musical difficulty (“musical factors”) may impact performers’ physiological stress. We addressed this gap in the literature by analyzing n = 356 excerpts of cardiac activity from 22 opera trainees performing in four different opera productions. We next modeled cardiac activity as a function of an ensemble parameter (i.e., whether the singer performed solo, in an ensemble, or in a chorus), and the musical characteristics of melodic range and tempo. Although participant-related characteristics had the largest influence on the variability of cardiac activity, Bayesian regression modeling showed small but systematic effects of melodic range and tempo on cardiac activity which depended on whether the excerpt was performed solo or with others. These results suggest that musical factors do impact stress and should be considered alongside situational factors impacting stress.