Patricia Juliana Smith

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!… (plus d'informations)