On Jul 22, 2005, at 7:14 PM, John Howell wrote:
And i still don't understand the reason for "pants" roles!
Persistence of tradition, mostly. In the early days there were high-voice male roles written for castrati. Traditionally the pants-role characters were callow young men (but not prepubescent). Before long, female singers were sometimes cast in these roles, if no castrato was available. Composers who wrote the roles understood that they might be sung by a woman or a castrato. Gradually, the castrati were phased out and the roles were sung only by women. Composers continued the tradition of writing pants roles for young male characters, even long after there were no more castrati. (The tradition of casting non-castrated males in these roles is actually a newer tradition.)
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