From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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-	{{Template}}	+	#REDIRECT [[Claudio Monteverdi]]
-	'''''En travesti''''' (literally "in disguise") is a theatrical term referring to the portrayal of a character in a [[Play (theatre)|play]], [[opera]] or [[ballet]] by a performer of the opposite sex. ''The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English'' classifies the term as "pseudo-[[French language|French]]". The phrase itself is not recorded in French, and derives from the misinterpretation of ''travesti'' (the [[past participle]] of the French verb ''[[travestir]]'') as a noun.	+
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-	==Men in female roles==	+
-	[[File:Farinelli female caricature edited.jpg|thumb|150 px|left|The famous castrato [[Farinelli]] caricatured in one of his female roles]]	+
-	Until the late 17th century, women were conventionally portrayed by male actors (usually adolescents) in [[drag (clothing)|drag]] because the presence of actual women on stage was considered immoral. As a [[boy player]], [[Alexander Cooke]], is thought to have created many of Shakespeare's principal female roles, as well as [[Agrippina the Elder|Agrippina]] in [[Ben Jonson]]'s ''[[Sejanus His Fall]]''. [[Castrato|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 of [[Monteverdi]]'s ''[[Orfeo]]'' in 1607 the roles of [[Eurydice]] and [[Proserpina]] were both sung by castrati. However, by 1680 the castrati had become the predominant singers for leading male roles as well. The portrayal of women by male dancers was very common in [[Renaissance]] court ballet and has continued into more modern times. The role of the evil fairy Carabosse in ''[[The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)|Sleeping Beauty]]'' was created by [[Enrico Cecchetti]]. Other female ballet characters traditionally performed by male dancers are Old Madge, the village sorceress in ''[[La Sylphide]]'' and the Widow Simone in ''[[La Fille Mal Gardée]]''.	+
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-	==Women in male roles==	+
-	[[File:Bernhardt Hamlet2.jpg|thumb|150 px|right|[[Sarah Bernhardt]] as [[Hamlet]]]]	+
-	With the [[English Restoration|Restoration 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. Amongst the 19th century actresses who made a mark in ''en travesti'' roles were [[Mary Anne Keeley]] who portrayed Smike in the stage adaptation of ''[[Nicholas Nickleby]]'' and the robber [[Jack Sheppard]] in [[John Baldwin Buckstone|Buckstone]]'s play based on his life; [[Maude Adams]] who played [[Peter and Wendy|Peter Pan]] in the American premiere of [[J. M. Barrie|Barrie]]'s play and went on to play the role over 1500 times; and [[Sarah Bernhardt]] who created the role of [[Napoleon II of France]] in [[Edmond Rostand]]'s ''[[L'Aiglon]]'' as well as playing [[Lorenzino de' Medici]] in [[Alfred de Musset|Musset]]'s ''Lorenzaccio'', Pelléas in [[Maurice Maeterlinck|Maeterlinck]]'s ''[[Pelléas and Mélisande]]'' and perhaps most famously the title role in ''[[Hamlet]]''. The practice of women performing ''en travesti'' in operas became increasingly common in the early 19th century as [[castrato]] singers went out of fashion and were replaced by [[mezzo-soprano]]s or [[contralto]]s in the heroic masculine roles. See for example, the title role of [[Rossini]]'s 1813 ''[[Tancredi]]'' which was specifically written for a female singer. However, mezzo-sopranos ''en travesti'' had been used earlier by both [[Handel]] and [[Mozart]], sometimes because a castrato was not available, or to portray a boy or very young man, e.g. Cherubino in ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]''. From 1830 to 1850, female ballet dancers were increasingly seen in the ''[[corps de ballet]]'' portraying toreadors, hussars, and cavaliers, and even as the [[prima ballerina]]'s "leading man", a practice which was to last into the early 20th century.	+
-	==See also==	+
-	*[[Breeches role]]	+
-	* [[Pantomime]]	+
-	* [[pantomine dame|Dame]]	+
-	* [[Cross-dressing]]	+
-	* [[Principal boy]]	+
-	* [[Onnagata]]	+
-	* [[Commedia dell'arte]]	+
-	* [[Burlesque (genre)]]	+
-	{{GFDL}}	+

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Current revision

1. REDIRECT Claudio Monteverdi