Breeches Role - Opera

Opera

Historically, the list of roles that are considered to be breeches roles is constantly changing, depending on the tastes of the opera-going public. 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. As the practice of castrating boy singers faded, composers created heroic male roles in the mezzo-soprano range, where singers such as Marietta Alboni and Rosamunda Pisaroni specialised in such roles. (See Xerxes below.)

Currently, many castrato 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.

Casting directors are left with choices such as whether to cast the young Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus for a woman or man; both 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.

The term Travesty (from the Italian travesti, disguised) applies to any roles sung by the opposite sex.

A closely related term is a skirt role, 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. The role of the witch in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, although written for a mezzo-soprano is now more regularly sung by a tenor, who sings the part an octave lower. In the same opera the "male" roles of Hänsel, the Sandman, and the Dewman are however meant to be sung by women.

Operas with breeches roles include:

• Adès's The Tempest: "Ariel" is sung by a soprano
• Arne's Artaxerxes: "Arbaces" is sung by a mezzo-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
• Chabrier's L'Etoile: "Lazuli" the peddler is portrayed by a soprano
• Chabrier's Une éducation manquée: "Gontran de Boismassif" is sung by a soprano
• Corigliano's "The Ghosts of Versailles": "Cherubino" (a recreation of the same character from Le nozze di Figaro) is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Donizetti's Alahor in Granata: the role of "Hassem"
• Donizetti's Anna Bolena: the role of "Smeton" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Dvořák's Rusalka: the role of the "Kitchen Boy" is sung by a soprano
• Glinka's A Life for the Tsar: "Vanya" is sung by a contralto
• Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila: "Ratmir" is sung by a contralto
• Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: "Orfeo" is sung by a mezzo-soprano, contralto or counter-tenor
• 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
• Hahn's Mozart: the title is sung by a 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" is sung by a mezzo-soprano or countertenor
• 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
• Lecocq's Le petit duc: the title role is sung by a soprano
• Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel: "Hänsel" is sung by a mezzo-soprano, sand-man and dew-man sung by sopranos, witch often sung by a tenor.
• Janáček's From the House of the Dead: Aljeja, a young Tartar is a mezzo-soprano
• Massenet's Cendrillon: the role of "Le Prince Charmant" was written for a soprano (in some performances the role is taken by a tenor).
• Massenet's Chérubin: the title role is sung by a soprano.
• Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots : "Urbain" the page is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea, "Nero" is often 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 Mesdames de la Halle: Croûte-au-pot (the kitchen boy) is sung by a soprano; Madame Poiretapée, Madame Madou, and Madame Beurrefondu are sung by a tenor and two baritones
• Offenbach's Geneviève de Brabant: "Drogan" the young baker is sung by a soprano
• Offenbach's Daphnis et Chloé: "Daphnis" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Offenbach's Le pont des soupirs: the page "Amoroso" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Offenbach's Les bavards: the young poet "Roland" is sung by a contralto
• Offenbach's La belle Hélène: "Oreste" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Offenbach's Robinson Crusoé: "Friday" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Offenbach's Les brigands: the farmer "Fragoletto" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Offenbach's La jolie parfumeuse: the young clerk "Bavolet" is sung by a soprano
• Offenbach's Madame l'archiduc: "Fortunato, captain of the archduke's dragoons" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Offenbach's Le voyage dans la lune: "Prince Caprice" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann: "Nicklausse" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers: "Cupidon" (Cupid) is sung by a soprano
• Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges: the title role of the male child is written for a mezzo-soprano; the shepherd is sung by a mezzo-soprano.
• Rossini's Tancredi: "Tancredi" and "Roggiero" are sung by mezzo-sopranos or contraltos
• Rossini's Bianca e Falliero: "Falliero" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Rossini's La donna del lago: "Malcolm" is sung by a contralto
• Rossini's Le Comte Ory : "Isolier" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Rossini's Semiramide: "Arsace" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Rossini's Otello: the title role was written for a tenor, but also was sung by mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran
• Rossini's Guillaume Tell: Tell's son Jemmy is sung by a soprano
• Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus: "Prince Orlofsky" is sung by a mezzo-soprano (almost always)
• 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
• Verdi's Un ballo in maschera: "Oscar", Gustavus III's page, is sung by a soprano
• Verdi's 'Don Carlos: the page Thibaut is sung by a soprano
• Wagner's Rienzi: "Adriano" is sung by a mezzo-soprano
• Wagner's Tannhäuser: the role of the shepherd is sung by a soprano
• Wagner's Parsifal: two novices in the all-male society of Knights of the Grail are sung by sopranos.
• Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: several apprentices are sung by women.