En Travesti : Women, Gender Subversion, Opera

Confession: I adore mezzos! There are marvelous sopranos, and I'm a fool for Callas, but pressed to make choice, I'll pick a mezzo any day! This book was meant for me.

The flip side of The Queen's Throat, this is a collection of essays discussing the "trouser role", the transvestite mezzo who plays the role of a male in opera. Of course, nothing is quite as gender-bending as some of the earliest operas, with castrati singing male and female roles, mezzos as men, sopranos as either, etc. And if the female character had to wear male drag, or vice versa, so much the better!

A fascinating look at "pants roles" for women in opera through essays and criticisms. Opened my eyes to the entire field of operatic gender.

I edited this collection of essays on travesti roles in opera with my dear colleague, Patricia Juliana Smith. I think the best essay in the collection is Terry Castle's, on her love affair with the German mezzo soprano Brigitte Fassbaender. There are many other fine ones, including an exploration of Stein's and Thompson's "Four Saints in Three Acts," Verdi, Orfeo, and Der Rosenkavalier.