Travesti is a theatrical character in anopera,play, orballet performed by a performer of the opposite sex.
For social reasons, female roles were played by boys or men in many early forms of theatre, andtravesti roles continued to be used in several types of context even after actresses became accepted on the stage. The popular British theatrical form of thepantomime traditionally contains a role for a "principal boy" — abreeches role played by a young woman — and also one or morepantomime dames, female comic roles played by men. Similarly, in the formerly popular genre ofVictorian burlesque, there were usually one or more breeches roles.
The word means "disguised" in French. Depending on sources, the term may be given astravesty,[1][2]travesti,[3][4] oren travesti. TheOxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English explains the origin of the latter term as "pseudo-French",[5] although French sources from the mid-19th century have used the term, e.g.Bibliothèque musicale du Théâtre de l'opéra (1876),La revue des deux mondes(1868), a dictionary (1843),[6] and have continued the practice into the 21st century.[7]
Until the late 17th century in England and the late 18th century in thePapal States[8]—although not elsewhere in Europe[9]—women were conventionally portrayed by male actors (usually adolescents) indrag because the presence of actual women on stage was considered immoral.
As aboy player,Alexander Cooke is thought to have created many of Shakespeare's principal female roles, as well asAgrippina inBen Jonson'sSejanus His Fall.[10] With theRestoration of the monarchy in 1660, women began to appear on the English stage, although some female roles continued to be played by boys and young men, including romantic leads.Edward Kynaston, whose roles included the title role in Ben Jonson'sEpicoene and Evadne inBeaumont andFletcher'sThe Maid's Tragedy, was one of the last of the era's boy players.[11]
London'sShakespeare's Globe theatre, a modern reconstruction of the originalGlobe Theatre, continues the practice of casting men in female Shakespearean roles. Toby Cockerell played Katherine of France in the theatre's opening production ofHenry V in 1997,[12] whileMark Rylance played Cleopatra in the 1999 production ofAntony and Cleopatra.[13]
Travesti roles for men are still to be found in Britishpantomime, where there is at least one humorous (and usually older) female character traditionally played by a male actor, thepantomime dame.[14]
Castrati, adult males with a female singing voice (usually produced by castration before puberty), appeared in the earliest operas – initially in female roles. In the first performance ofMonteverdi'sOrfeo in 1607 the roles ofEurydice andProserpina were both sung by castrati. However, by 1680 the castrati had become the predominant singers for leading male roles as well. The use of castrati for both male and female roles was particularly strong in thePapal States, where women were forbidden from public stage performances until the end of the 18th century.[8]
An exception to this practice was in 17th- and 18th-century French opera where it was traditional to use uncastrated male voices both for the hero and for malevolent female divinities and spirits.[15] InLully's 1686 operaArmide the hero (Renaud) was sung by ahaute-contre (a type of hightenor voice) while the female spirit of hatred (La Haine) was sung by a tenor. InRameau's 1733Hippolyte et Aricie, the hero (Hippolyte) was sung by an haute-contre, while the roles of the threeFates andTisiphone were scored forbasses and tenors. The remaining female roles in both operas were sung by women. The title role of the vain but ugly marsh nymph in Rameau'sPlatée is also for an haute-contre.
Female roles in opera sung by men can still be found, although they are not common. The role of the witch inHumperdinck's 1890 operaHänsel und Gretel was originally written for amezzo-soprano, but was sung by the tenorPhilip Langridge in theMetropolitan Opera's 2009 production directed byRichard Jones.[16] In the premiere performance ofPéter EötvösTri sestry (1998), all female roles were sung by men, with the title roles of the three sisters performed by countertenors.[17]Azio Corghi's 2005 operaIl dissoluto assolto, which incorporates story elements from Mozart'sDon Giovanni, casts acountertenor in the role of themannequin of Donna Elvira.[18]
The portrayal of women by male dancers was very common inRenaissance court ballet[19] and has continued into more modern times, although primarily restricted to comic or malevolent female characters. The use of male dancers for all the female roles in a ballet persisted well into the 18th century in thePapal States, when women dancers had long been taking these roles elsewhere in Italy. Abbé Jérôme Richard who travelled to Rome in 1762 wrote: "Female Dancers are not permitted on the stages in Rome. They substitute for them boys dressed as women and there is also a police ordinance that decreed they wear black bloomers."[20] Another French traveller that year, Joseph-Thomas, comte d'Espinchal, asked himself: "What impression can one have of ballet in which the prima ballerina is a young man in disguise with artificial feminine curves?"[20]
In the original production ofThe Sleeping Beauty in 1890, a male dancer,Enrico Cecchetti, created the role of the evil fairy Carabosse, although the role has subsequently been danced by both men and women.[21]
InFrederick Ashton's 1948 choreography ofCinderella,Robert Helpmann and Ashton himself danced the roles of the two stepsisters.Ben Stevenson later continued the practice of casting male dancers as the stepsisters in his own choreography of the ballet.[22] Other female ballet characters traditionally performed by male dancers are Old Madge, the village sorceress inLa Sylphide and the Widow Simone inLa fille mal gardée.
With theRestoration of Charles II in 1660 women started appearing on the English stage, both in the female roles that in Shakespeare's day had been portrayed by men and boys, and in male roles. It has been estimated that of the 375 plays produced in London between 1660 and 1700, nearly a quarter contained one or more roles for actresses dressed as men.[23]
Amongst the 19th-century actresses who made a mark intravesti roles wereMary Anne Keeley, who portrayed Smike in the stage adaptation ofNicholas Nickleby and the robberJack Sheppard inBuckstone's play based on his life;Maude Adams, who playedPeter Pan in the American premiere ofBarrie's play and went on to play the role over 1,500 times;[24] andSarah Bernhardt, who created the role ofNapoleon II of France inEdmond Rostand'sL'Aiglon and once played the title role inHamlet.[25]
In theVictorian era,musical burlesques generally included several breeches roles. According to theGrove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, although "an almost indispensable element of burlesque was the display of attractive women dressed in tights, often in travesty roles ... the plays themselves did not normally tend to indecency."[26] One of the specialists in these roles wasNellie Farren who created the title roles in numerous burlesques and pantomimes, includingRobert the Devil,Little Jack Sheppard andRuy Blas and the Blasé Roué.[27] In Britishpantomime, which is still regularly performed, the young male protagonist orPrincipal boy is traditionally played by an actress in boy's clothes.[28]
The practice of women performingen travesti in operas became increasingly common in the early 19th century ascastrato singers went out of fashion and were replaced bymezzo-sopranos orcontraltos in the young masculine roles. For example, the title role ofRossini's 1813Tancredi was specifically written for a female singer. However, from the late 17th century onwards, the roles of young male lovers and heroes had often been entrusted, as an alternative to castrati, to sopranos or contraltos in travesti. An extreme case was the very character of Don Giovanni being performed by soprano Rosa Cardini[29] in Eustachio Bambini'sLa pravità castigata, staged inBrno in 1734.[30] And many a female singer specialized, albeit usually not exclusively, in performing breeches roles, including contraltosVittoria Tesi, Maria Maddalena Pieri (e.g. in the title role inVivaldi'sFarnace) and Lucia Lancetti (e.g. in the title role in Vivaldi'sOrlando Furioso), or sopranosMargherita Durastanti andMargherita Chimenti.
Further,travesti mezzo-sopranos had been used by bothHandel andMozart, to portray a boy or very young man, such as Sesto inGiulio Cesare and Cherubino inThe Marriage of Figaro. In 20th-century opera (and beyond), composers continued to use women to sing the roles of young men, when they felt the mature tenor voice sounded wrong for the part. One notable example wasRichard Strauss, who used a mezzo-soprano for Octavian inDer Rosenkavalier and the Composer inAriadne auf Naxos. As recently as May 2025, in his operaIl nome della rosa [it], staged atLa Scala inMilan,Francesco Filidei entrusted the role of young Benedictine novice Adso da Melk to mezzo-sopranoKate Lindsey, even though the part of papalinquisitorBernardo Gui was also sung by another mezzo-soprano,Daniela Barcellona.[31]
From 1830 to 1850, female ballet dancers were increasingly seen in thecorps de ballet portrayingmatadors,hussars, and cavaliers, and even as theprima ballerina's 'leading man', a practice which was to last well into the 20th century in France.[32] Although bothFanny Elssler and her sister Thérèse dancedtravesti roles at the Paris Opera, Thérèse, who was very tall by the standards of the day, danced them more frequently, often partnering Fanny as her leading man.[33] The French ballerinaEugénie Fiocre, who created the role of Franz inCoppélia, was particularly known for hertravesti performances.[34]
Dal tardo Seicento in poi certe parti di amoroso (o anche di amoroso-eroe) vengono affidate, in alternativa ai castrati, a soprani o contralti donne in travesti. Da cui un caso limite, per la nostra mentalità: il personaggio di Don Giovanni incarnato da una donna, come nellaPravità castigata di Eustachio Bambini, rappresentata nel 1734.
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