Operas in English

In continental Europe opera is usually sung in the language of the country where it is produced. Thus in Germany Pagliacci becomes Bajazzo, in Italy Tristan nnd Isolde becomes Tristano e Isotta, in France Goetterddmmerung becomes Le Crepuscule des Dieux. In England and the U. S. opera is usually given in its original language. But from time to time British and U. S. producers have interested themselves in the idea of translated opera and have tried out performances, even entire seasons, of opera in English.

One of the principal obstacles to presenting opera successfully in English has always been the high-flown, stilted character of the translations. Most pretentious operatic theeing and thouing can be blamed not on opera's original librettists but on their 19th-Century English translators. For many years Cambridge Professor Edward J. Dent; one of England's most eminent critics and musical biographers, has brooded over the problem of translating operatic texts into sensible, singable English. Published recently were his translations of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and Beethoven's Fidelio. Where a hitherto much-used 1850 translation of Don Giovanni reads:

Mem'ried, his passion lingers with still delusive sway,

Though truth's relentless fingers long

dash'd the dream away.

Streamliner Dent has written :

Where shall I find the traitor who stole my heart away?

I gave him all in earnest, he took it all

in play.

Elsewhere in the same opera, when one of the female characters faints at the sight of her sword-spitted father, a much-used English translation staggers out with:

Friends, an immediate succour for this, my treasure! Procure me now, obtain me now, fragrant scent, purest balsam, with speed of lightning!

Translator Dent's version:

Go fetch a surgeon quickly; we still may save him. You women there, bring cordials -- lay her down -- gently, gently.

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