A breeches role is one in which an actress appears in male clothing. Breeches, tight-fitting knee-length pants, were the standard male garment at the time these roles were introduced. The theatrical term travesti covers both this sort of cross-dressing and also that of male actors dressing as female characters. Both are part of the long history of cross-dressing in music and opera and later in film and television.

Mozart is a comédie musicale in three acts with music by Reynaldo Hahn and words by Sacha Guitry, a pastiche of the composer's early works to fit beside arias written for Yvonne Printemps. The story concerns the fictional adventures of Mozart on a visit to the French capital.