Breeches role
Composers from the 20th century do not usually have breeches roles in their operas. There is the role of Oktavian in Richard Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier (1911), but this opera was deliberately trying to produce the old-fashioned atmosphere of Mozart’s time. Benjamin Britten wrote an opera called Midsummer Night’s Dream, based on Shakespeare’s play. There is no breeches role here. Instead, the part of Oberon is written for a countertenor: a man with a high, falsetto voice.