also was sung by mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran Rossini's Guillaume Tell: Tell's son Jemmy is sung by a soprano Gil Shohat's The Child Dreams: "The Child" is sung by a soprano; "The Crippled Youth" (i.e. The Poet) by a mezzo-soprano Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de loin: "The Pilgrim" is sung by a mezzo-soprano Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus: "Prince Orlofsky" is sung by a mezzo-soprano (almost always) Richard Strauss's Salome: "The Page of Herodias" is sung by a contralto Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos: "The Composer" is sung by a mezzo-soprano Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier: "Octavian" is sung by a mezzo-soprano Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades: Milovzor is sung by contralto Verdi's Un ballo in maschera: "Oscar", Gustavus III's page, is sung by a soprano Verdi's Don Carlos: The page Thibault (Tebaldo) is sung by a soprano Wagner's Rienzi: "Adriano" is sung by a mezzo-soprano Wagner's Tannhäuser: The Young Shepherd is sung by a soprano Wagner's Parsifal: Two novices in the all-male society of Knights of the Grail are sung by sopranos Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Several apprentices are sung by women Weber's Oberon: "Puck" is sung by a mezzo-soprano See also Breeching (boys) Principal boy Travesti (theatre) Takarazuka Revue History of cross-dressing Footnotes Further reading Howe, Elizabeth (1992). The First English Actresses: Women and Drama 1660–1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Maus, Katharine Eisaman (1979). "'Playhouse Flesh and Blood': Sexual Ideology and the Restoration Actress". New York: Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama (1996). Pearson, Jacqueline (1988). The Prostituted Muse: Images of Women and Women Dramatists 1642–1737. New York: St. Martin's Press. Cross-dressing culture Drama History of theatre Opera terminology Stock characters