At 1:08 PM -0700 7/23/05, Mark D Lew wrote:
On Jul 23, 2005, at 8:29 AM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
1) In Baroque opera, vocal range was a function of the age of the
character more than its sex. The young hero was a soprano, and so
was his love interest. Her duenna was a tenor. The
king/philosopher/father was a bass.
2) In later operas, pant roles represent prepubescent boys. If you
assume (as was in fact the case) that any significant operatic role
must be performed by an adult, then the role of a little boy must
be played by an alto or soprano. And if (as was again the case)
countertenors no longer were recognized, then it follows
automatically that the part must go to a woman.
Excellent summary, Andrew. I would quibble with only one word. In
later operas, pants roles represent male youths, but they are not
"prepubescent". In some cases, their pubescence is very much a part
of the story. Octavian is most certainly not prepubescent.
Cherubino and Siebel are young, but their behavior is clearly that
of pubescent teenagers.
I'm honored to have two such knowledgeable people replying to and
debating my question! If Mark is correct, then Andrew's equating
youthfulness with vocal range makes sense, even though WE would think
of a treble (or mezzo) voice as representing an unchanged boy's
voice. It is not, then, a literal statement that the character has
or has not gone through puberty (which I assume was associated with
voice change in boys in the 18th and early 19th centuries just as it
is today, but which typically did not hit boys until about age 17
rather than age 12 as it does today). Thus a 15 or 16 year old boy
(a real one, not an operatic character) could still be speaking in an
unchanged voice, but would also not be sexually mature. (Which is
not to say that he wouldn't have been interested!!) But of course it
is the character, as limned by the librettist, that has to determine
how each role is played.
The young couple in Monteverdi's "Poppea," who provide both comic
relief and a wonderfully innocent contrast with the pure ambition
dripping from both Nerone and Poppea, seem to be right on the cusp of
puberty, with Damigella clearly looking forward to learning more as
soon as possible and the boy not quite so sure! My knowledge of 17th
century Venetian opera is not deep enough to guess what gender or age
the actors of those parts might have been. There were no actresses
in Shakespeare's England, correct? But I don't know about
Monteverdi's Italy. I can't imagine Poppea not being a woman, and a
damned sensual one at that. Didn't Strozzi and the Caccini sisters
perform in operas?
On the few occasions when a character in an opera really is supposed
to be a prepubescent boy, the score generally calls for it to be
played by a boy whose voice has not yet changed -- eg, the genii in
Magic Flute, the shepherd boy in Tosca, Yniold, Miles, Amahl,
Griffelkin. These roles are sometimes cast as women simply because
a suitably talented boy cannot be found, but that's not the same as
the trouser-role tradition.
Opera--perhaps theater in general--certainly has some strange traditions!
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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