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Breeches role
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A breeches role (also pants role or trouser role) is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing (breeches being tight-fitting knee-length pants, the standard male garment at the time breeches roles were introduced). In opera it can also refer to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer. In the case of a woman playing the role of a young man, the part is often filled by a mezzo soprano or contralto.
The operatic concept of the breeches role assumes that the character is male, and the audience accepts him as such, even knowing that the actor is not.
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Encyclopedia
A breeches role (also pants role or trouser role) is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing (breeches being tight-fitting knee-length pants, the standard male garment at the time breeches roles were introduced). In opera it can also refer to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer. In the case of a woman playing the role of a young man, the part is often filled by a mezzo soprano or contralto.
The operatic concept of the breeches role assumes that the character is male, and the audience accepts him as such, even knowing that the actor is not. By contrast, a female opera character who dresses in male clothing to deceive other characters — that is, who plays a woman pretending to be a man (e.g. Leonore in Fidelio or Gilda in Act III of Rigoletto) — is not considered a breeches role.
Because non-musical stage plays generally have no requirements for vocal range, they do not usually contain breeches roles in the same sense as opera. Some plays do have male roles that were written for adult female actors, and (for other practical reasons) are usually played by women (e.g. Peter Pan); these could be considered modern-era breeches roles. However, in most cases, the choice of a female actor to play a male character is made at the production level; Hamlet is not a breeches role, but Sarah Bernhardt once played Hamlet as a breeches role. When a play is spoken of as "containing" a breeches role, this does mean a role where a female character pretends to be a man and uses male clothing as a disguise, the reverse of its usage in opera.
History
When the London theatres re-opened in 1660, the first professional actresses appeared on the public stage, replacing the Shakespeare era's boys in dresses. To see real women speak the risqué dialogue of Restoration comedy and show off their bodies on stage was a great novelty, and soon the even greater sensation was introduced of women wearing male clothes on stage. Out of some 375 plays produced on the London stage between 1660 and 1700, it has been calculated that 89, nearly a quarter, contained one or more roles for actresses in male clothes (see Howe). Practically every Restoration actress appeared in trousers at some time, and breeches roles would even be inserted gratuitously in revivals of older plays.
Some critics, for example Jacqueline Pearson, have argued that these cross-dressing roles subvert conventional gender roles by allowing women to imitate the roistering and sexually aggressive behaviour of male Restoration rakes, but Elizabeth Howe has objected in a detailed study that the male disguise was "little more than yet another means of displaying the actress as a sexual object". The epilogue to Thomas Southerne's Sir Anthony Love (1690) suggests that it does not much matter if the play is dull, as long as it offers a view of the famous breeches actress Susanna Mountfort's (aka Susanna Verbruggen) legs:
- You'l hear with Patience a dull Scene, to see,
- In a contented lazy waggery,
- The Female Mountford bare above the knee.
Breeches roles remained an attraction on the British stage for centuries, but their fascination gradually declined as the difference in real-life male and female clothing became less extreme. They played a part in burlesque, and are traditional for the principal boy in pantomime.
Opera
Historically, the list of roles that is considered to be breeches roles is constantly changing, depending on the tastes of the opera-going public and the choices of the opera director. In early Italian opera, many leading operatic roles were assigned to a castrato, a male castrated before puberty with a very strong and high voice. These roles were to be played by men. As the practice of castrating boy singers faded, the roles drifted into the trouser mezzo-soprano arena, for only women were trained to sing that high. (See Xerxes below.)
Currently, many of these roles are being reclaimed by men. As the training and use of counter-tenors becomes more common, there are more men with these very high voices to sing these roles. (They are not as powerful as a castrato, but they are not castrated either.) Some composers, such as the late Benjamin Britten, have begun writing roles for counter-tenors. Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a great example, but many mezzos have sung this role too, making it also a trouser role.
Casting directors are left with odd choices. Consider the role of the young Prince Orlofsky, in Die Fledermaus. Both men and women commonly sing the role. When played by a mezzo, the prince looks like a woman, but sounds like a boy. When played by a counter-tenor, he looks like a man, but sings like a woman. This disparity is made even clearer if, as in this case, there is also spoken dialogue.
There is a closely related term called a skirt role. This is a female character to be played by a male singer, usually for comic or visual effect. These roles are often ugly stepsisters or very old women, and are not as common as trouser roles. Britten's Madwoman in Curlew River and the Cook in Prokofiev's Love of Three Oranges are examples.
Operas with breeches roles include:
- Adès's The Tempest: "Ariel" is sung by a soprano
- Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi: "Romeo" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini: "Ascanio" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Catalani's La Wally: "Walter" is portrayed by a soprano
- Donizetti's Alahor in Granata: the role of "Hassem"
- Donizetti's Anna Bolena: the role of "Smeton" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Dvorák's Rusalka: the role of the "Kitchen Boy"
- Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila: "Ratmir" is sung by a contralto
- Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: the title role "Orfeo" is sung by a mezzo-soprano or a contralto
- Gounod's Faust: "Siebel" is sung by a contralto, a mezzo-soprano or a soprano
- Gounod's Romeo and Juliet: "Stefano" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Händel's Alcina: "Ruggiero" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Händel's Ariodante: The role of "Ariodante" was premiered by a soprano-castrato and is performed today by a mezzo-soprano.
- Händel's Ariodante: "Lurcanio" was originally written for contralto, but later rewritten by Handel for tenor. In modern performances it is generally left to the director to decide whether to use contralto (or countertenor) or a lyric tenor.
- Händel's Giulio Cesare: "Julius Caesar"
- Händel's Giulio Cesare: "Sesto" is sung by a mezzo-soprano or countertenor
- Händel's Xerxes: the title role "Xerxes" - sung at its premiere by a castrato - is currently played by a mezzo-soprano or a countertenor
- Haydn's La Canterina: the role of "Don Ettore" is sung by a soprano
- Humperdink's Hänsel und Gretel: "Hänsel" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Jules Massenet's Cendrillon: Unusual for a male lead in French opera (which did not utilize castrati), the role of "Le Prince Charmant" was originally written for dramatic soprano, to emphasize the character's youthfulness. In many modern performances (including in the opera's only recording), the Prince is sung by the more traditional lyric tenor.
- Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots : "Urbain" the page is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro: "Cherubino" is played by a mezzo-soprano
- Mozart's La clemenza di Tito : "Sesto" and "Annio" are sung by mezzo-sopranos
- Mozart's Idomeneo: "Idamante" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Mozart's Il re pastore: "Amintas" was originally written for soprano-castrato, and in modern performances is sung by a lyric soprano.
- Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto: "Farnace" is sung by a mezzo-soprano or contralto, and "Sifare" is sung by a soprano. However, "Farnace" is commonly done by a countertenor.
- Mozart's La finta giardiniera: "Ramiro" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Offenbach's Hoffmanns Erzählungen: "Nicklausse" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges: the title role of L'enfant is written for a mezzo-soprano.
- Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges: the role of the male shepherd is sung by a mezzo-soprano.
- Rossini's Tancredi: "Tancredi" and "Ruggiero" are sung by mezzo-sopranos or contraltos
- Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus: "Graf Orlofsky" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos: "the Composer" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier: "Octavian" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
- Richard Strauss's Arabella: Zdenka, a soprano, is actually a woman, but plays a man's part through most of the opera
- Verdi's Un ballo in maschera: "Oscar", Gustavus III's page, is sung by a soprano
See also
Footnotes
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