THE AUGUMENTS

The topic of  whether opera, or some operas should be translated into English for perforamnce in Australia has recently been raised again. Surely there is no clear cut answer to this age old question, but rethinking the dilemna from time to time is healthy, as views, public perceptions and competition for  audiences changes.

The arguments in favour of translation include better understanding of the text, and making the opera more accessible to the audience  - particularly the NEW and YOUNGER audience members . There is certainly an argument for the rich, narrative texts and complex emotions and thoughts in the music dramas by Wagner and Richard Strauss being sung in English. Indeed the first performances of DER ROSENKAVALIER  in Australia in 1972 were sung in English as it was the Australian premier and it was a rich text comedy. Indeed the policy of The Australian Opera at the time was to perform comedies, new lesser known works and operas in difficult languages such as Russian or Czech in English. Mozart comedies during the1990′s were sung in English including new productions of  THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, THE MAGIC FLUTE, DON GIOVANNI and COSI FAN TUTTE. Prokofiev’s WAR AND PEACE  that opened the Sydney Opera House Opera Theatre was performed in English as was Rossini’s BARBER OF SEVILLE in the opening season and Janacek’s JENUFA the following season. Later Auber’s French comic opera FRA DIAVOLO was also sung in English – all to great acclaim. Over the last 25 years this policy of limited performance of some works in English has fallen by the way side. Certainly the performance of 19th Century operas in English has never been entertained due to the repetitive nature of some of the text, relatively straight forward plots and the audience being accustomed to hearing them in the original language (although this may not have been the desire of the composer – see below). More recently again Opera Australia has tentatively explored productions of opera in English again. THE MAGIC FLUTE has recently been staged sung in German but with the dialogue in English, the recent Sharman production of COSI FAN TUTTE was in English and this year’s production of Handel’s PARTENOPE was also sung in English.

The arguments against performing opera in English include not altering the pulse of the music and disparity of vowels to the music, difficulties with obtaining good translations and the difficulty with international singers having to fit into productions if they are not in the same language. The availability of an excellent quality translation is the key to overcoming the musical problems. As performance of operas in the original language seems to be the International standard these days, few International singers know their repertoire in English as well as the original language or are unwilling to learn them. This was not the case in Europe during the 19th Century when many operas were translated for performance in other languages in other cities, and the ability of 19th Century and early 20th Century singers to do this is a facility perhaps many modern singers have almost lost. Not all, as we have recently seen such great (and also Australian) singers such as Yvonne Kenny perform the Marschallin in DER ROSENKAVALIER with the English National Opera (in English),  and Opera Australia and the Vienna Sate Opera (in German), and Stuart Skelton performing the title role in PARSIFAL  for the English National Opera (in English) and Opernhaus Zurich (in German). OzOpera – the touring branch of Opera Australia takes operas on tour to many regional centres around Australia and all operas are performed in English. Performances over the years have included CARMEN, THE MAGIC FLUTE, HANSEL AND GRETEL, RIGOLETTO, LA TRAVIATA and LA BOHEME . So some reasonable translations must be available. Why then the use of translated performances of opera for regional Australia against main-stage performances in Sydney or Melbourne? Perhaps a perception that the works will be more accessible and inviting to an audience less exposed to opera.

Despite what opera managers and audiences may prefer, surely the wishes of the composers should get a say with how their works are performed? It seems not. Consider the following:

WHAT DO THE COMPOSERS THINK?

Wagner arrived in Australia (metaphorically speaking) on 18 August 1877, one year after the first Bayreuth Festival, when LOHENGRIN was performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Melbourne by William Lyster’s Royal Italian and English Opera Company.Soon after the LOHENGRIN performances, a local resident Emil Sander wrote to Wagner to inform him of this noteworthy event – a fact recorded by Cosima in her diary. The entry for 21 October 1877 reads: ‘He receives a letter from a theatre director in Melbourne, according to which LOHENGRIN last month made its ceremonious entry there, too.’

The following day, Wagner replied to Sander as follows:

My very dear Sir, I was delighted to receive your news, and cannot refrain from thanking you for it.

I hope you will see to it that my works are performed in ‘English’: only in this way can they be intimately understood by an English-speaking audience. We are hoping that they will be so performed in London.

We (that is, I and my family) were extremely interested to see the views of Melbourne which you sent me: since you were kind enough to offer to send us more, I can assure you that I should be only too delighted to receive them.

Please give my kind regards to Herr Lyster, and, however remote your part of the world may be, continue to be so well-disposed towards

Your most grateful servant, Richard Wagner

Clearly, Wagner wished his dramatic works to be performed in the local language so every nuance of the text could be understood. However, he was not as fussed as Verdi as who would do the translating .

Verdi was also attune to his works being performed in the local language . JERUSALEM was Verdi’s first commission for the Opera de Paris. It is a grand opera in 4 acts set to a French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz which was partly translated and adapted from Verdi’s original 1843 Italian opera,  I LOMBARDI ALLA PRIMA CROCIATA . There are significant changes in the location and action of the French version, especially given the need to locate them in a French context. The first performance was given by the Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on November 26th, 1847. In 1850, the French text was translated into Italian by Calisto Bassi and performed as GERUSALEMME at La Scala, Milan on 26 December. However, it failed to supersede I LOMBARDI  in the affections of Italian audiences.

IL TROVATORE  was premiered in Italian at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on the 19th  January 1853. It was first performed in Paris in Italian on the 23rd December 1854 by the Theatre des Italiens at the Salle Ventadour.  A French version translated by E. Milien Pacini and called  LE TROUVERE was first performed at the Theatre de la Monnaie  in Brussels on the 20th May 1856 and at the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier on the 12th January 1857. Verdi made some changes to the score for the French premiere of  LE TROUVERE including the addition of music for the ballet in Act 3 and several revisions focusing on the music of Azucena, including an extended version of the finale of Act 4, to accommodate the role’s singer Borghi-Mamo.

Verdi’s LES VEPRES SICILIENNES ,  a grand opera  in five acts by  set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugene Scribe, was first performed at the Paris Opera  on the 13th June 1855.  As was later to happen with Verdi’s DON CARLOS, which was also based on a French libretto, an Italian  libretto was quickly prepared under Verdi’s supervision by the poet Ettore Caimi with the title, GIOVANNA DE GUZMAN.  Verdi was aware that in Italy at that time, it would have been impossible to place the story in Sicily^[ but, based on Scribe’s suggestions for changing the location, it became Portugal in 1640 while under Spanish control. This version was first performed at the Teatro Regio in Parma  on the 26th December  1855. After 1861 in the new post-unification era, it reverted to its setting under the name of  I VESPRI SICILIANI.

DON CARLOS, Verdi’s next commission for the Paris Opera,  a 5 act grand opera to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Mery.  It received its first performance at the Theatre Inperial del’Opera on the 11th March 1867. Over the following twenty years, cuts and additions were made to the opera, resulting in a number of versions being available to directors and conductors. A translation of DON CARLOS into Italian was in preparation as early as the autumn of 1866, and Verdi insisted that the opera, still referred to as DON CARLOS, be given in the same five act version plus ballet as at the Paris Opera. This Italian translation – with some cuts and alterations – was presented first at the Royal Italian Opera House, Covent Garden on the 4th June 1867, and received its Italian premiere – uncut – at the Teatro Communale di Bologna on the 27th October of that year. A new Italian translation of a revised French text, re-using much of the original 1866 translation by de Lauzières, was made by Angelo Zanadarni. The La Scala première of the revision, now re-titled  DON CARLO , took place on 10 January 1884.

MACBETH, LA FORZA DEL DESTINO AND AIDA were also to be translated into French for their French premieres by Verdi working with Charles-Louis-Etienne Nuitter and Charles du Locle.

In more recent times Gyorgy Ligeti’s only opera LE GRAND MACABRE, composed in 1997 and revised in 1996, was written by Ligeti in collaboration with Michael Meschke and  unlike many operas, this one was written specifically with flexibility of language in mind so it could be performed in the language of the audience. Only a few notes need be changed to perform the opera in any  language.The original libretto was written in German, and the opera has been performed also in Swedish, English, French and Italian as was the composer’s intentions.

OPINION

So what is the answer?  There is none, but there is little point sticking to a prescriptive policy of ALL operas in the original language in these modern times.

Currently we live in a time of a global economic recession of indeterminate length.  Australia is in a  lucky position in that we are  affected less than most places around the globe. Despite this we ARE effected , and opera is also affected by increased competition for the entertainment dollar between theatre, opera, concerts, movies and musicals. 30% of ticket sales to opera in Sydney for Opera Australia is said to come from the tourist dollar which is currently in decline due to the global recession. Yet ticket sales to large scale musicals are currently growing at the rate of 10% per annum in Australia.

Opera in Australia has to compete directly with live musicals which are getting more lavishly staged, as well as HD Movie broadcasts of truly great opera productions from some of the greatest opera houses in the world on our cinema screens (and soon in 3D) at a smaller cost than a live opera ticket. Therefore anything that makes the live opera product more attractive , ACCESSIBLE  and marketable to not only current opera goers, but also new and younger potential audience members HAS to be considered.

Limited use of opera in English is worth considering to grow the new and young opera audiences and compete against large scale musicals and cinema opera.  The Mozart comedies, other comedies, new and less well known operas  may benefit from stagings, or OCCASIONAL stagings in English. For these works, which are usually performed by the resident company principals, the argument for staging them in the original language for guest artists is not relevant. Many of the same resident principals have already sung some of the standard repertoire works in English as they rose through the ranks with OzOpera or the Opera Studio.

I think few would argue a more radical approach with ALL opera sung in English in Australia with only one National opera company. Especially works by Verdi, Donizetti, Puccini or Wagner (despite the wishes of some of these composers), as the original words and music have become so closely  knit and accepted.

Simply put, each work could be scrutinised on a case by case basis, balancing audience appeal, how well known the work is, complexity of libretto and text, available translations, singer availability and the desires of the company, director, musical staff and singers.

Perhaps the question needs to be asked “what does our potential audience want?”  instead of  ”what are we prepared to give them?”