Who’s wearing the TROUSERS?
Opera singer Aoife Miskelly on her rather unusual role in The Marriage Of Figaro
IT’S often thought of as a romantic genre where heroes and heroines fall together in tragic and sometimes comic circumstances. But in the world of opera, there’s now a place where women wear the trousers.
A trouser role is the term given to a part played by a mezzo soprano or a soprano that was once the domain of the castrati.
Aoife Miskelly, from Belfast, is a soprano who is putting on her breeches in the Irish National Opera’s new production of The Marriage Of Figaro tonight in Wexford National Opera House and from April 17 in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin.
And it’s challenging for the soprano as it’s her first trouser role.
‘I’m playing a teenage boy, Cherubino, who is going through puberty and his hormones are all over the place,’ Aoife says. ‘He has developed a huge crush on every woman who walks the planet, in particular he adores his employer, the countess.
‘As a page boy Cherubino is privy to a lot of information as he transcends both the upstairs and downstairs of the house. He has a good relationship with the Count and Countess as she is also his godmother.
‘He gets into hot water as he tries to use the information he hears to his advantage and lands himself in all sorts of situations.
‘At one point he has to dress up as a girl in an attempt to hide away as the Count tries to throw him out and get him to go to war. It is interesting from my point of view as a female singer who plays a teenage boy who then has to dress up as a girl.’
For her latest role, Aoife is putting herself out of her comfort zone.
‘It is my first time ever playing a trouser role. Normally Cherubino is a mezzo soprano role and I am a soprano but it sits beautifully for my voice,’ she says.
‘I was asked to try it out and I am really enjoying it and the challenge that playing a boy has presented. And I get to wear a really short, cute wig.’
Although there are many parts in opera written for castrati, thankfully these no longer exist.
‘Years ago there would have been the castrati so they would have been men who would have had anatomical adjustments, shall we say, for their voices not to break,’ Aoife explains. ‘So men would have been able to sing much higher but they haven’t existed for about 100 years or more.
‘And so male voices can no longer sing the repertoire that was written for them in Mozart’s time in and around the 18th century so it has to be adopted by modernday soprano or mezzos who then dress up and make the audience suspend their belief a little bit.’
Some men still sing in the roles but they demand the voices of counter tenors, tenors who sing in falsetto.
And for Aoife, the demands of being a bold teenager are quite a challenge, as is the life of an opera singer itself.
‘There’s a lot of training,’ she explains. ‘Outside the vocal aspect, you have to work on your languages and also keep fit and healthy. What is demanded of you on the stage can be quite physical — in this production, for example, we have a fandango dance and we have had a lot of fun with that.
‘You have to learn to be an actor as well.
‘There are a lot of aspects that go into the training of becoming a well-rounded opera singer. You can’t just have talent — you have to put the work in.’
For tickets and details on The Marriage Of Figaro performances, see irishnationalopera.ie