What skills will help Opera Singers earn the most?

Contract negotiation as a singer is a skill that needs to be practiced. Singers must know their worth based on their own training and experience. As important as hard skills and technical proficiency as a singer and actor are to an operatic artist, the skills that are going to get an artist hired more frequently with a more substantial contract fee are the soft skills previously mentioned. If a company/director has enjoyed working with you or has heard good things from other directors who have worked with you, they are going to work harder to get you to sing for their company, typically meaning they will offer more money. From there, it is the responsibility of the singer to negotiate the terms of their contract based on their experience and other hard skills, such as language proficiency and the technical demands of a specific role or show. But, as previously mentioned, those skills don't matter if people don't enjoy working with you, so soft skills of dependability, work ethic, directability, coachability, and overall demeanor as a member of a team are the most crucial in getting continuous work and more substantial contracts.