Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-10-01

ton. Details are compare
lively unimportant the
broad lines are blocked out in
rough, and everybody gets the
picture with no difficulty
c4lsed by any inability to
comprehend the not-too-in-
spired Italian prose of Fran
cesco Maria Piave.
The young principals in
the Opera Society's "Trav-
iata," Mildred Allen as Vio-
1etta, Charles Anthony as
Alfredo, and Morley Meredith
as Germont, are all quite
lfiFst-rate. All are members of
the Metropolitan Opera Com
pany. Miss Allen and Mr..
Anthony will be remembered
for their exquisite singing as
Nannetta and Fenton in the
society's lovely "Falstaff." Mr.,
Meredith is making his local
bow.
A good, uncomplicated time
should be had by all.
Magic Flute" in English
There are certain other
operas, however, which are
not quite so simple. One of
these is Mozart's Magic
Flute" which the society will
present as its second offering
in December. This may not
seem like an appropriate time
to discuss Mozart, what with
Verdi waiting in the wings,
but a considerable amount of
criticism has been directed at
the society for its decision to
offer the Magic Flute" in
English, and I think it is
time that somebody said a
few good words for the idea.
1t seems to me that there
is far too much nonsense
being written about the I'M
desirability of opera in Eng
lish. True, there are definite
artistic reasons for presenting
an opera in the same Ian
guage in which it was set to
music, and they are good
ones, too. But it is too fire.
quently forgotten that for
those who don't happen to
understand that language
easily, these reasons don't
have much validity.
The fact of the matter is
that the vast majority of OPP
era lovers, both discriminate
ing and nondiscriminating,
understand only one language
well enough to feel comfort
able with it-and that one
language is English.
One may enthuSe about
the subtle values of vowel
color and about the marvel
Gus setting of just such a
phrase from now until dooms-
day. However. is it not just
as important to the operate
experience that the audience
should know what is going
on?
The Believing Soprano
1t is not enough, I am
afraid, to just read a libretto
and get the general drift.
Such BADLY obvious pieces as
La Traviata" are exceptions.
perhaps. But for the worst
part. it doesn't do much good
to know what the plot is when
you are listening to soprano
busily believing a long aria
and you don't have the faint
est notion what she is so ex-
cited about.
Then. there are the inter
minable passages of recitativo
secco in such operas as
"Idomeneo," last seasons
candidate for the bore Of the
year. Unless you happen to
be either Italian or fluently
bilingual,l I defy you to de-
cipher such jargon perform
ance.
It would not be difficult to
compile a large anthology of
completely ghastly English
versions of operas in the
standard repertory. AS l see
it, the only thing this demon
strates is that a vast num-
Der of bad English transla-
tons exist-it does not in the
slightest demonstrate that
opera in English is impos-
sible.
Mozart's Magic Flute" a
complex mixture of mysticism
and freemasonry. not with
out a touch of outright nom
sense. is a fine candidate for
a good English translation.
The original libretto has lit
tie to recommend it except
that it did inspire Mozart to
pen some of his greatest mu-
sic.
Why, should it be sung in
Germap2 To mask its made
quacies? So that those who