Interesting how we tend to translate some opera (or other music) titles, but not others!
Parsifal is never translated as Percival, although Guillaume Tell is William Tell! No, Parsifal is "sacred", but we have no hesitation turning Guillaume Tell into William Tell, or back into Wilhelm Tell or Guillermo Tell. He was Swiss, after all - they are polyglots, it is only fitting!
"Der fliegende Holländer"... too complicated; so we translate it, all over the world: "The Flying Dutchman", "El holandes errante", "Le Vaisseau fantôme", "L'olandese volante", "Летучий голландец" etc!
"Così fan tutte" - no, we can't possibly translate that! Maybe because "Thus Do They All" sounds so ... un-Mozartian! But "Die Zauberflöte" smells like headaches, so: "The Magic Flute" is preferable; much easier!. And since "Le nozze di Figaro" is not too serious, "The Marriage of Figaro" will do just fine.
But not "The Knight of the Rose". That sounds too ... simple; and a bit cheesy; so we'll stick with "Der Rosenkavalier". Not in most other countries though, where it is often translated as "El caballero de la rosa", "Le chevalier à la rose", etc.
Too bad we can't replace "Peer Gynt" with anything - that is a bit of a pain, but at least is short! But thank God for "Bluebeard's Castle" imagine having to learn how to say "A kékszakállú herceg vára"!!
Don Giovanni will stay that way; changing it to "Don Juan" would cause too much confusion.
And we don't translate Verdi! It sounds so much better in Italian! "Un ballo in maschera": you say it! You see? So much more classy than "A Masked Ball"! And "La forza del destino", "La battaglia di Legnano", "I due Foscari" usually remain unchanged too. "Il trovatore" .... well. Here we concede. Translation not prohibited! "Le Trouvère" (which is only fair, since Verdi did a French version too, anyway), "El Trovador", "Trubadurul", etc
But we'll stick with "L'italiana in Algeri"; because "The Italian Girl in Algiers" sounds a bit like something written by Max Steiner as a sequel to "Casablanca"!
Oh, I forgot "La Traviata" which is never translated either. "The Fallen Woman"! And perhaps some first time listeners wonder if "Traviata" is Violetta's surname?! Or something?
Often if the original title happens to be in Italian, German or French, we are so very pretentious! Oh yes, we "believe" in the original titles. (when not too complicated; though we still find something like "Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche" a bit annoying, so we shorten it). But if the original title is in Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, English, or anything else - we are much less preoccupied with "keeping the original intact".
Anyway!
Whatever!
Now that was a waste of time!
Parsifal is never translated as Percival, although Guillaume Tell is William Tell! No, Parsifal is "sacred", but we have no hesitation turning Guillaume Tell into William Tell, or back into Wilhelm Tell or Guillermo Tell. He was Swiss, after all - they are polyglots, it is only fitting!
"Der fliegende Holländer"... too complicated; so we translate it, all over the world: "The Flying Dutchman", "El holandes errante", "Le Vaisseau fantôme", "L'olandese volante", "Летучий голландец" etc!
"Così fan tutte" - no, we can't possibly translate that! Maybe because "Thus Do They All" sounds so ... un-Mozartian! But "Die Zauberflöte" smells like headaches, so: "The Magic Flute" is preferable; much easier!. And since "Le nozze di Figaro" is not too serious, "The Marriage of Figaro" will do just fine.
But not "The Knight of the Rose". That sounds too ... simple; and a bit cheesy; so we'll stick with "Der Rosenkavalier". Not in most other countries though, where it is often translated as "El caballero de la rosa", "Le chevalier à la rose", etc.
Too bad we can't replace "Peer Gynt" with anything - that is a bit of a pain, but at least is short! But thank God for "Bluebeard's Castle" imagine having to learn how to say "A kékszakállú herceg vára"!!
Don Giovanni will stay that way; changing it to "Don Juan" would cause too much confusion.
And we don't translate Verdi! It sounds so much better in Italian! "Un ballo in maschera": you say it! You see? So much more classy than "A Masked Ball"! And "La forza del destino", "La battaglia di Legnano", "I due Foscari" usually remain unchanged too. "Il trovatore" .... well. Here we concede. Translation not prohibited! "Le Trouvère" (which is only fair, since Verdi did a French version too, anyway), "El Trovador", "Trubadurul", etc
But we'll stick with "L'italiana in Algeri"; because "The Italian Girl in Algiers" sounds a bit like something written by Max Steiner as a sequel to "Casablanca"!
Oh, I forgot "La Traviata" which is never translated either. "The Fallen Woman"! And perhaps some first time listeners wonder if "Traviata" is Violetta's surname?! Or something?
Often if the original title happens to be in Italian, German or French, we are so very pretentious! Oh yes, we "believe" in the original titles. (when not too complicated; though we still find something like "Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche" a bit annoying, so we shorten it). But if the original title is in Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, English, or anything else - we are much less preoccupied with "keeping the original intact".
Anyway!
Whatever!
Now that was a waste of time!
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