Transcending Gender : Mezzo-Soprano Trouser Roles in Opera

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that composers wrote the parts for women with a specific intent in mind, so that a listener/viewer wouldn't take the role at face value but would instead "read into" the role. In most instances, composers wrote trouser roles as examples of human emotions that surpass the boundaries of gender; in other words, the most enduring qualities of humans know no sex (Duncan 12).