Viola Outfit

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July 24th, 2010 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Viola Outfit

Breeches Role

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.
pvc dress
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. 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 risqu 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 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”. 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.
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BALLETTO DI BRONZO “Deliquio Viola” 2007