Citizendia
Your Ad Here

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). Breeches (pronounced) are an item of male Clothing covering the body from the Waist down with separate coverings for each Leg, usually stopping just below 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. This article is related to a series of articles under the main article Voice type. This article is related to a series of articles under the main article Voice type.

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. Fidelio (Op 72 is an Opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. Rigoletto is an Opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian Libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based

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. Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J 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. Hamlet is a Tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601 Sarah Bernhardt (October 22 1844 &ndash March 26 1923 was a French stage actress and has been referred to as "the most famous actress in the history of the world" 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.

Contents

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. William Shakespeare ( baptised 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. Restoration comedy is the name given to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710 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". Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothing commonly associated with another gender within a particular Society. A gender role is defined as a set of perceived behavioural norms associated particularly with Males or Females in a given social group or system A rake is defined as a man habituated to immoral conduct Rakes are frequently Stock characters in novels The discovery of the character's real gender on stage often involved a discovery of her breasts (the short story that was the basis for Twelfth Night actually has the Viola character expose herself to reveal her identity and "pretty teats". Twelfth Night Or What You Will is a Comedy by William Shakespeare, based on the Short story "Of Apolonius and Silla" by [1], and there are many references in prologues and diaries of the period to the fascination of seeing the actress' buttocks, hips, and legs, normally hidden by a skirt, outlined by the male outfit. The epilogue to Thomas Southerne's Sir Anthony Love (1690) suggests that it doesn't 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. Thomas Southerne ( 1660 - May 22, 1746) Irish Dramatist, was born at Oxmantown, near Dublin, in 1660 and entered Susanna Verbruggen, née Percival aka Susanna Mountfort (c 1667 &ndash 1703 was an English actress working in London

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. Burlesque is theatrical entertainment of broad and parodic humor which usually consists of comic skits (and sometimes a strip tease) In Pantomime, a principal boy role is the young male protagonist of the play traditionally played by a young Actress in boy's clothes Pantomime (informally panto) (not to be confused with a Mime artist, referring to a theatrical performer of mime is a performance genre traditionally found

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. A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, or Contralto voice produced either by Castration 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. This article is related to a series of articles under the main article Voice type. (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. Edward Benjamin Britten Baron Britten, OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976 was an English Composer, conductor, 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. A Midsummer Night's Dream is an Opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from

Casting directors are left with odd choices. Consider the role of the young Prince Orlofsky, in Die Fledermaus. Die Fledermaus ( The Bat; in French La chauve-souris) is an Operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German Libretto 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 step-sisters or very old women, and are not as common as trouser roles. Britten's Madwomen in Curlew River and the Cook in Prokofiev's Love of Three Oranges are examples. Curlew River &mdash A Parable for Church Performance (Op 71 is the first of three Church Parables by Benjamin Britten. Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Серге́й Серге́евич Проко́фьев Sergéj Sergéjevič Prokófjev) ( - 5 March 1953 was a Russian composer who The Love for Three Oranges ( Russian: Любовь к трём апельсинам, or Lyubov k Tryom Apelsinam in Transliteration

Operas with breeches roles include:

In addition, in Il Muto a fictional sub-opera of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Phantom of the Opera (and later in the film), the role of the pageboy, a breeches role, is originally cast for Christine Daaé, a point of contention for the Phantom. La finta giardiniera ("The Pretended Garden-Girl" K 196 is an Italian Opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Jacques Offenbach (born Jacob Offenbach 20 June 1819 in Cologne &ndash 5 October 1880 in Paris) was a German Tancredi is an Opera in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and Librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire 's play Johann Strauss II (also known as Johann Strauss the Younger, Johann Strauss Jr Die Fledermaus ( The Bat; in French La chauve-souris) is an Operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German Libretto Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 &ndash 8 September 1949 was a German Composer of the late Romantic era and early modern era particularly noted Ariadne auf Naxos ( Ariadne on Naxos) is an Opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 &ndash 8 September 1949 was a German Composer of the late Romantic era and early modern era particularly noted Der Rosenkavalier ( op 59 ( The Knight of the Rose) is a comic Opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 &ndash 8 September 1949 was a German Composer of the late Romantic era and early modern era particularly noted Arabella is a lyric comedy or Opera in 3 acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball, is an Opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. Il Muto is a fictional Opera by Albrizzo within the musical The Phantom of the Opera, just as Hannibal and Don Andrew Lloyd Webber Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948 is a British Composer of Musical theatre, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the book written by the French novelist Gaston Leroux The Phantom of the Opera is a 2004 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart 's 1986 stage musical, which is based Christine Daae is the main female character in Gaston Leroux 's novel The Phantom of the Opera (1910 the young singer with whom the main character Character history In the original novel few details are given regarding Erik's past although there is no shortage of hints and implications throughout the book

See also

References

  1. ^ Matteo Bandello, adapted by Barnabe Riche, "Of Apollonius and Silla" from Riche His Farewell to Militairie Profession. Matteo Bandello (c 1480 &ndash 1562 was an Italian novelist Biography Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Tortona (current Included in The Sources of Ten Shakespearean Plays. ed. Alice Griffin. ) New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1966. p. 224
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic