It's not good to agitate the lungs too much. The breath control of the Italian baritone Piero Cappuccilli is the most envied of any living singer. It's very dangerous to breathe at that height, because you don't have time to recover unless the breath is very short, and if you take too long the next note won't be clean. So I'm very happy if I can connect the whole phrase, with 5 B flats, into one line. Physical construction is important to a singer.
Tenors are often small.
Caruso was 5 ft. 9 in. Domingo is definitely a tall tenor. But it helps only dramatic plausibility, not the voice itself. The important bone structures, for the voice, are the skull and the rib frame. I used to be very flat-chested', he says.