More trouble at ENO

[Conchis]

Agreed! And it's not too difficult to find out what the words mean if you can consult a text/libretto.

[Study Session]

Maybe ENO can expect a ‘Brexit bonus’?

After all, if the (s)will of the people....

Go on Conchy - squeeze in a reference to the Daily Fail. You're on a satirical roll here, sunshine.

[Once Was 4]

Maybe ENO can expect a ‘Brexit bonus’?

After all, if the (s)will of the people is correctly applied to arts policy, it means MORE funding for ENO and less (much less) for Covent Garden.

Seriously, I don’t see the point in ‘adapting’ librettos into English, as no-one can hear what is being sung, anyway; and a ‘British only’ policy would result in a very small repertoire.

I think the idea of Opera in English is pretty much dead nowadays.

Which reminds me that a certain British opera company once ran a survey: would the audience prefer: a/original language;b/ original language with surtitles or c/ translations into English? A surprising number of those who responded asked for a d/ - translations into English with surtitles!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Which reminds me that a certain British opera company once ran a survey: would the audience prefer: a/original language;b/ original language with surtitles or c/ translations into English? A surprising number of those who responded asked for a d/ - translations into English with surtitles!

[MrGongGong]

... for me, often the words get in the way. The cringe that comes with the libretti of Tippett -
.

Not to mention a certain work by El..........

[gradus]

Not to mention a certain work by El..........

Elvis!

[Mal]

Elton?
El Sistema?

[Bryn]

That's enough DoGging talk.

[MrGongGong]

Elvis!

Elvis McGonagall

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That's enough DoGging talk.

Yer! Geron yer bike!

[teamsaint]

Yer! Geron yer bike!

Dream on....

[underthecountertenor]

... for me, often the words get in the way. The cringe that comes with the libretti of Tippett - the clunkiness of even the best English language versions of Wagner.

I'm glad here that my grasp of Italian and German is pretty loose - if I really understood every word of the famous arias 'È pericoloso sporgersi...' or 'Nicht Hinauslehnen!' I wouldn't enjoy them half as much....


.

Tippett's libretto for King Priam was pretty good, I thought, but I agree that the rest of them are for the most part cringingly pretentious. And in any event, Italian, French, German, the Scandinavian languages, Russian, all just sing better, don't they?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And in any event, Italian, French, German, the Scandinavian languages, Russian, all just sing better, don't they?

I think they do for the operas intended for those languages (I wouldn't wish to hear Don Giovanni* in Russian, nor Rheingold* in Italian). But I feel that, too, about the Tippett libretti - they're no more (nor, indeed, less) flawed/pretentious than Wagner's or Piave's. It's a great disappointment for me to see that next year's ON production of Kat'a Kabanova* is going to be done in English.

(* - apologies to Mal: Lord John, The Gold of the Rhine, Katie Newkaba.)

[underthecountertenor]

I think they do for the operas intended for those languages (I wouldn't wish to hear Don Giovanni* in Russian, nor Rheingold* in Italian). But I feel that, too, about the Tippett libretti - they're no more (nor, indeed, less) flawed/pretentious than Wagner's or Piave's. It's a great disappointment for me to see that next year's ON production of Kat'a Kabanova* is going to be done in English.

(* - apologies to Mal: Lord John, The Gold of the Rhine, Katie Newkaba.)

It looks as if the ROH's new Kat'a will be sung in Czech though.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It looks as if the ROH's new Kat'a will be sung in Czech though.

- I don't think I'll be able to get to that (but hoping it will be broadcast). I don't understand ON's policy on giving Janacek in English - it's more understandable that The Magic Flute is being done in English (otherwise, what do you do with the spoken dialogue?) but ...