What is a Tenor's Friend?

It’s a surgical support, also known as a truss. Operatic tenors were commonly believed to be at risk of hernias due to the pressure that singing put on the abdominal muscles (which is in fact medically true, but relatively rare). To prevent this happening or stop the hernias growing one they had occurred, you could wear a truss- a kind of leather patch covering the area. Hence the “Tenor’s Friend”.