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From: greg@olivej.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: The Language Question in Opera
Message-ID: <177@olivej.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-May-84 09:14:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: olivej.177
Posted: Thu May 10 09:14:42 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 12-May-84 13:01:16 EDT
Organization: Olivetti ATC, Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 35


I find I always prefer opera in the original language, even
if it's one that I have no knowledge of, provided either a
libretto with translation or a fairly detailed (scene by
scene) synopsis is available that I can read for the performance
(or follow with a recording).

The main reason is purely musical.  Good opera composers, like
writers of song repertoire, use the actual text as a component
of the music itself.  The particular sounds of the vowels and
consonants of a language make up as essential a part of the
timbre of a work as the choice of instruments for specific parts
in the orchestra.  Furthermore, the inflections of a language
determine (or should if the composer has done his job properly)
the rhythms of the vocal line.  When you translate, you pull
this apart.  Even when you don't translate, there are times
when you have trouble with this due to the singer's lack of
mastery of the language.  An example of this is the Boulez
recording of Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande" wherein good,
but not native French singers (George Shirley, Yvonne Minton,
Donald McIntyre in particular - Soederstrom is an exception
in this cast) are unable to attain rhythmic precision due to
a slight, but in this case critical, hesitancy in handling
the French text.

Of course there are also the cases where radiant music has
been written to a ridiculous text, such as Verdi's "Il
Trovatore".  In cases like this, it really is better to
enjoy the music and the "sounds" of the language rather
than knowing the literal meaning of each word.


	- Greg Paley