American audiences, while being treated to better and better live opera performances, understand little of what they hear . Opera in the original language (mostly fr. ger. it. russian) has become the standard at our principal and regional opera houses, despite the fact that few in the audience have even a passing understanding of the text. This situation amazes opera goers in Europe who hear most of their live performances translated into their 'mother tongue'. This summer I heard "The Sound of Music" (Innsbruck) and "Il Viaggio a Reims" (Mannheim) in German. The audiences loved them. They could understand what was going on. I think the time has come for Americans to demand opera they can understand! In the following notes I will state the arguments made for opera in the original language and offer my rebuttal.
Surtitles (projections above the stage with running text of the opera) have made understanding the language of the opera unnecessary. Everyone can read.
Surtitles are perforce an abbreviated adaptation of the libretto. The subtle poetic shadings and forms, idiomatic meanings, and timing are lost. This is particularly true in comedy. How often have you heard an audience laugh at the surtitle before the gag has been performed onstage! It is rather like watching a badly dubbed foreign language film where the comedy is the result of mouths moving when they should not be moving rather than the text of the film itself. Operagoers inevitably miss something onstage while they are shifting their focus back and forth between surtitle and the stage. This happens even when the titles are projected on the seat-back in front of you, as they are at the Met.
Opera doesn't sound good in English. The music is composed for the rhythm of the original text, and therefore must always be sung in it.There is some merit to this argument. Opera of the standard repertory is set to mostly pulsatile music, the exception being some of the french repertoire (p.e."Peleas"). English is a pulsatile language (strong and weak beats) and can with care and craft be well set to most music. Even "Carmen" fared well in an english version I heard once from Sadler's Wells.
Singers have such poor diction that they can't be understood in any language, so they might as well sing from the original.Singers understandably wince when this criticism is made because they spend a great deal of time learning diction techniques to be understood. It is a proven fact that the diction of higher voices in the higher ranges is very poor. This is the reality of the instrument. Skillful composers and librettists have always worked around this problem by either repeating texts or saving important passages for lower, slower passages of singing (p.e. recit). Orchestral masking, poor tempo choices, and faulty stage positions also contribute to poor text recognition in opera.
Opera is about sound. It doesn't matter what language it is sung in, only the physical response to the music matters.
This is one of my least favorite arguments because it lowers the operatic musical art to the same level of visceral responses found in pop music. My children can't experience music at anything but high dynamic levels. It is their physical response to the energy of the music rather than a thoughtful probing of the ideas, situations, and emotions found within it that interests them. It is certain that operaphiles will always cherish moments when high emotion is expertly portrayed through a huge orchestral climax and a perfect 'high C', but it will be understanding the situation and our empathy for the character that provides the real excitement! That excitement depends on understanding what is happening at that particular moment, and for Americans that moment needs to be sung in english.
DR. DAVIS (rt.) AS MORALES IN CARMEN AT NEW ORLEANS OPERA-1995
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A Beginning Singer's Guide is available from Scarecrow Press in paper ($26.50) or hardcover ($45). Orders can be taken by phone at 1-800-462-6420. The mailing address is : 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706 for written requests. The website is http://www.scarecrowpress.com.
Description
A Beginning Singer's Guide is a new vocal pedagogy with four practical uses. First, it can be used as a collateral text for studio voice lessons. The teacher can conserve time by assigning relevant reading in the book instead of making lengthy expositions during the lesson. Second, it can be used as a primary text for undergraduate vocal pedagogy classes. Many schools offer a vocal pedagogy class whose population includes singers and future choral conductors. A special chapter for the future choral conductor containing methods and other 'helps' should meet the need for an all in one text for this class. Third, it can be used as a practical guide for new voice teachers. A special chapter containing methods for new voice teachers and studio administration 'helps' will be very useful to the new teacher of voice. Fourth, the text can serve as a reference for those interested in areas of vocal pedagogy not covered in other books. Working with a pianist, improving memory, acting, subtexting, and alleviating performance anxiety all have chapters devoted to them. These important, often disregarded skills, can make the difference in a singer's success or failure.
A Beginning Singer's Guide is written from the point of view that no one can learn to sing from a book, but that everyone's singing can be enhanced by knowing more about it. The author does not espouse any particular "method" of singing; instead, he applies a universal, scientific approach to the natural sequence of learning to sing. The book is rounded out with line art of the vocal mechanism, musical examples, tables outlining the musculature of singing, practical forms, information for the beginning teacher, and a bibliography.
Richard Davis (Baritone, D.M. in Music Performance, History, Literature, and Pedagogy, Indiana University) is as Assistant Professor of Voice at University of Texas-Pan American. He has sung with regional symphonies and opera companies in Atlanta, Savannah, Columbus, Augusta, Rochester (NY), Wolf Trap, Chautauqua, East Lansing (MI), Springfield (MO), and New Orleans.
See
One of My Singing Adventures
Hear me Sing the Schubert "Romanze" (1823)
Video Highlights of Goldilocks
Video Highlights of of the Zarzuela "LA GRAN VIA"
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©Richard Davis, Baritone, 2000
