El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-03-12

q HCULD opera be sung in English.
or In the language in which it was
- written The WOman's club to
member says it should be sung in Eng
lish. This question formed the topic
of a very spirited discussion preceding
the program of the music department
of the club Wednesday afternoon. Mrs
w. r. Brown presented the negative
side, at the request Of the chairman
although in q very witty way she al
lowed ner audience TO UNDERSTAND ll1t
she was contending the negative for the
sake Of argument and not because 1t
was her belief Despite this Mrs. Brown
presented some very good arguments IN
favor of the negative side First she
commented upon the harshneSs OF the
English language, compared 70 the more
sOuOrOus VOWels of foreign tongues.
She spoke OF the difficulty IN getting
the right TRANSACTIONS Tor the operas
and how the poetry and RHYTHM Of the
words were ruined in the translauons.
She also commented upon the Difficulty
foreigners have in mastering our Ian
guage, and that as the best singers OF
the world were foreigners, If they We're
compelled to learn English before they
could sing here, they would not appear
in America at all She closed with the
expression Of musicians composers,
singers and critics, that any Work
should be sung in the language IN
which 1t was written.
that musical works should be sung IN
English. Mrs. Olga KOhlberg said: MI
sic is comparatively new IN America.
The reason for the custom Of singing
the great operas in tongues in which
they were composed is that the first
singers to sing any opera music IN this
country were foreign artists The PEG
DIE went to hear them because OF the
music, and also because of the fame Of
the artists. so our first operas were
sung in the German and Italian Ian
guages. AS the love Of opera music
grew with the people, our young muSl-
clans with operate aspirations were
compelled to go abroad TO study, as
there were no good instructors mere.
In studying abroad they learned TO sing
the operas IN foreign tongues and came
back 70 America trained only to sing
them in this way For the love of the
music, the people endured the operas
in an unknown tongue. In way this
was purely selfish on the singers part,
as IT would require a tremendous
amount Of work if they had to relearn
the entire repertoire in another Ian
guage With the development of mu-
sic in this country, things have changed.
1t is no longer necessary for a young
singer to go abroad to study, as there
are plenty Of the very best of instruc-
tors here.
'"The objection to operas in English,
on account Of the poor translation is
good, as far as it goes, but this could
be remedied by having the TRANSACTIONS
stand the rythm Of words necessary for
the musician phrasing AS far as Eng
lish being less adaptable for singing
than foreign languages, I cannot agree {
In the English language we have three
times as many words as in the German 1
language and 10 times as many as the 3
French language Surely. then there
are words to express every shade of
and every tone of music and p.
II the translator but uses the best or &
his language, the beauty of the onera /
may be preserved in English as wei ss
N us Or, orIg maj tongue Many singers
,Ialn tnat english is much more a5s1t9
able than French. Wagner'g operas 5re