From: kludge@panix.com   
      
   Gary McGath   wrote:   
   >   
   >Soprano Kathleen Battle has been noteworthy as Pamina in _The Magic   
   >Flute_. Because of a racial subplot, Pamina is supposed to be white, but   
   >no one really cares. In opera, physical suitability for the role doesn't   
   >matter. I've seen a singer who was well over 6 feet tall play a   
   >half-dwarf in Wagner. Heavily built women singing the leading part in   
   >_La Traviata_, a woman who's dying of tuberculosis, have become a   
   >standing joke. I recently heard of a production of _Fidelio_ where   
   >Leonore, who is a woman disguised as a man until the final scene, was   
   >played by a woman who was eight months pregnant.   
      
   Opera is often very silly and is an abstract art form even by the standards   
   of the theatre where animals are frequently performed by humans in costume   
   and boys play womens' roles and vice-versa.   
      
   But... I could easily see Falstaff played by a women who was eight months   
   pregnant.   
   --scott   
      
   --   
   "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)