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).