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

speak German should be in
the know and those who
don't be left in the dark?
A New English Version
I are say the new English
version by w. H. Auden Zone
of our greatest contemporary
poets) and Chester Kallman,
the men responsible for the
magnificent libretto to Stra-
vinSky's "Rake's Progress"
will be in no way inferior
to that by Johann Emanuel
Schikaneder as vehicle
for Mozart's music, and it
will have the additional virtue
of comprehensibility.
Opera in non-English
reaches a virtual reductio ad
abSurdum in the case of
those in Hungarian or Rus
sian.
Last season, the Opera
Society presented Tchai-
kovSky's Queen of Spades"
in the original Russian. 1t
has been reliably reported
that not a single one of the
principals spoke Russian or
understood the language. The
chorus had to be taught its
part-and an important one
it is-by rote, and the Cyrillic
characters we're transliterated
only with great expenditure
of time and effort. The con-
siderable skills of the Soci-
ety's directorial personnel do
not encompass fluency in
Russian: a translator had to
be on hand. And I would be
willing to wager that there
was not one person in ten in
the audience who had the
faintest notion of the mean
ing of the words sung.
Is this not a complete
absuridty?
A TraveSty
In no other country in the
civilized world-and such
countries as France, Germany
and Italy do, after all, have
an operate tradition of some
years standing-would such a
travesty be countenanced.
Opera is drama through
music. 1t is not merely music.
If YOU can't understand the
words being sung it is pretty
hard to feel the drama. This
is especially true when emo
ton in opera continues to be
conveyed by stylized postum
ing. prancing from one side
of the stage to the other,
walking or running up and
down a flight Of steps, or
utter stasis.
"Traviata" in Italian, how
ever. is quite workable.
And if the English trans
lation to any opera is bad
one. I would Just as soon have
it sung in the original Ian
guage. That way, I will
understand fewer of the IL
antics. and new ones won't
be added by another party.
And there are a few mag
ical operate works-for eX-
ample. Stravinsky's Might
ingale"-which are completely
understandable despite the
language difficulty for rea-
sons which have thus far
eluded even the most subtle
aestheticians.
But these and other eX-
ceptional cases aside. opera
in English seems logical,
reasonable. and indeed in
eyitable if the form is to
survive as anything more
than an excuse for a fancy
dress display or an exercise
in snobbery.
The Opera Society is to be
congratulated for it's forth
coming ENGLISH Magic
Flute" I have no doubt that
the production will win for
it new friends and addi-
tional community support.
4
NEWS FROM HERE
Chamber music begins at the
Library of Congress this week,
as the Budapest String Quar-
tet commences operations.
Thanks to the generosity of
Mrs. Gertrude Clarke Whit
tall, the second quarter CEN
fury of concert activity under
the auspices of the founda-
ton which bears her name
promises to be exceptionally
brilliant. AS well as the
Budapest Ito oe heard IN II
programs, the Whittall
Foundation will present the
Pasquier Trio, the LOewen-
guth Quartet, the QuintettO
ChigianO. the Albeneri Trio,
the Festival Quartet, the New
York WOOdwind Quintet, and
the VirtuOsi di Roma, as we'll
as distinguished sSisting
artists. The d. c. Chap
ter of the American Guild
Of CTganists holds its first