A contralto is the lowest category of the female voice; the middle category being mezzo-soprano and the highest soprano. It is not unusual for a contralto to sing roles normally designated for mezzo-soprano nor for a mezzo to perform those usually sung by a soprano. In addition, some Italian and French composers merge these two lowest designations into one. To the listener, the differ­ence among these roles is not so much the range as the tone or color of the voice. The lower voices have a darker and richer tone. In many cases, their roles are sinister and/or maternal. In addition, they usually require more acting ability than those of the soprano. Personally, I find these characters more interesting than the so­prano roles. Thus I heartily disagree with the sentiment that "contralto parts are limited." There are many of them, and appar­ently Ms. Adler performed those in her repertoire admirably.

This being said, there is little, if any, evidence to determine pre­cisely what these roles may have been. However, we know that because of her "manly" disguise and letter to Sherlock Holmes at the end of the story that she had "been trained as an actress myself. Male costume is nothing new to me." These statements indicate that she performed roles in which she portrayed men. These are called in English either "trouser roles" or "breeches parts." The Italians refer to these as travesti, from the word for "disguise."

Using this information, I compiled a list of contralto or mezzo‑soprano trouser roles which could have been performed by Ms. Adler since they were written and performed before the late 1880’s. My research reavealed the following: Handel wrote twenty-one trouser roles; Rossini created seven; Donizetti composed four; Mozart produced three, Glinka, Gounod and Offenbach each wrote two. At the bottom of the list were Berlioz, Chabrier, Gluck, Mey­erbeer, Mussorgsky, Smetana, J. Strauss, Thomas, Wagner, and Wallace who each wrote one.

As you can see, the names of two composers dominate this list, Handel and Rossini. While Handel was not born in England, he did spend the majority of his life there and is celebrated as a national English composer. Most of these Italian operas were actually writ­ten for an English audience and were not widely performed on the Continent. By the time in question, they seemed dated, having been written in the first half of the 18th century. For example, these operas consisted of a series of individual arias, usually followed by the singer's exit from the stage. In addition, there was little, if any, character development. Typically there were no ensembles or cho­ral numbers.

While the average person identifies Rossini with his most famous work, The Barber of Seville, he was prolific, having written 35 operas in 19 years, and an influential composer. He dominated Italian opera in the first half of the 19th century as Verdi did in the last half. Not only did he devise and codify serious 19th century Italian opera into his own image, but he also set the standard for Italian buffo (comic) tradition. The operas of Bel­lini, Donizetti, and Verdi were modeled on his example. He was indeed one of the giants of Italian opera.

While the average person identifies Rossini with his most famous work, The Barber of Seville, he was prolific, having written 35 operas in 19 years, and an influential composer. He dominated Italian opera in the first half of the 19th century as Verdi did in the last half. Not only did he devise and codify serious 19th century Italian opera into his own image, but he also set the standard for Italian buffo (comic) tradition. The operas of Bel­lini, Donizetti, and Verdi were modeled on his example. He was indeed one of the giants of Italian opera.

In 1824, at 32 years of age, Rossini moved to France where he stayed for the remainder of his life, living to the then ripe old age of 76. Just as he had done in Italy, he greatly

Gioacchino Rossini

influenced French opera of the 19th cen­tury. In fact, his last opera, William Tell, is regarded by many critics as the finest specimen of French grand opera. As might be expected, his works were widely performed throughout Europe. Given this information, it would appear that Ms. Adler was much more likely to have per­formed Rossini operas than those of Handel.