Cover not available
Part of
Opera in Translation: Unity and diversity
Edited by Adriana Şerban and Kelly Kar Yue Chan
[Benjamins Translation Library 153] 2020
► pp. 13–33

Opera and intercultural musicology as modes of translation

| Kingston University, London, UK
This chapter proposes that both opera and intercultural musicology can be understood as modes of translation, in which these modes are ways of delivering meaning within a multimodal multilayered context, using the media (the art form) within a genre (a style, a way of doing things). With reference to an operatic production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Sferisterio Macerata Opera Festival (2013), evidence of an intercultural artistic agenda is explored through reference to primary source interviews with the artistic director, the festival director and the surtitle translator. Translation is a necessary act for the spectator and production team in ensuring diversity and accessibility of opera across cultural borders. This translation process is multimodal. Intercultural musicology seeks to assess the interplay between the different cultural components of artistic works to explore this multimodal artistic translation.
Keywords: interculturality, music, opera, multimodal translation, Shakespeare, Britten, Mendelssohn
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Sogni as intercultural practice
  • 3. Sogni : An intercultural production
  • 4.Conclusions: Intercultural musicology as a mode of translation
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.153.01min
References (27)
References
Abbate, Carolyn. 1996. Unsung Voices: Opera and Narrative in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, NY: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Albright, Daniel. 2007. Musicking Shakespeare: A Conflict of Theatres. Woodridge: Rochester University Press.Google Scholar
. 2009. Music Speaks: On the Language of Opera, Dance, and Song. Rochester: The University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
. 2014. Panaesthetics: On the Unity and Diversity of the Arts. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, Mona. 1992. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Born, Georgina. 2010. “For a Relational Musicology: Music and Interdisciplinarity, Beyond the Practice Turn.” The Journal of the Royal Musical Association 135 (5): 205–243. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1971. “Systems of Education and Systems of Thought.” In Knowledge and Control, ed. by Michael F. D. Young, 189–207. London: Collier-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Burnard, Pamela, Elizabeth MacKinley, and Kimberley Powell (eds). 2016. The Routledge International Handbook of Intercultural Arts Research. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cachopo, João Pedro. 2013. “Opera’s Screen Metamorphosis: The Survival of a Genre or a Matter of Translation?” The Opera Quarterly 30 (4): 315–329. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cook, Nicholas. 2010. “Intercultural Analysis as Relational Musicology,” First Conference on Analytical Approaches to World Music. The University of Massachusetts Amhurst, [URL], last accessed 16 July 2018.
. 2012. “Anatomy of the Encounter: Intercultural Analysis as Relational Musicology,” in Critical Musicological Reflections: Essays in Honour of Derek B. Scott, ed. by Stan Hawkins, 193–208. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Desblache, Lucile. 2019. Music and Translation: New Mediations in the Digital Age. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Desblache, Lucile, and Helen Julia Minors. 2013. “Translating Music,” [URL], last accessed 23 March 2020.
Gabrieli, Daniele. 2014. “ Sogni di una note di mezza estate: A New Opera.” Unpublished MA dissertation, Università degli studi di Macerata.Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo. 2003. “Cross cultural translation studies as thick translation.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 66 (3): 380–389. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jakobson, Roman. 1960. “Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics.” In Style in Language, ed. by Thomas Albert Sebeok, 350–377. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kildae, Paul. 2013. Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther. 2010. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Micheli, Francesco. 2013. “ Sogni: Score of the New Production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream .” Rehearsal Copy. Sferisterio Macerata Opera Festival.Google Scholar
Minors, Helen Julia (ed.). 2013. Music, Text and Translation. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
. 2016. “Mediating Cultures and Musics: Researching an Intercultural Production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream .” In The Routledge International Handbook of Intercultural Arts Research, ed. by Pamela Burnard, Elizabeth MacKinley, and Kimberley Powell, 417–430. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2019. “Translations between Music and Dance: Analysing the Choreomusical Gestural Interplay in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Dance Works.” In Translation and Multimodality: Beyond Words, ed. by Monica Boria, Ángeles Carreres, María Noriega-Sánchez and Marcus Tomalin, 158–178. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Powell, Neil. 2013. Benjamin Britten: A Life in Music. London: Windmill Books.Google Scholar
Rosand, Ellen. 1992. “Operatic Madness: A Challenge to Convention.” In Music and Text: Critical Inquiries, ed. by Steven Paul Sacher, 241–287. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Steiner, George. 1975. After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Susam-Sarajeva, Şebnem (ed.). 2008. Translation and Music. Special issue of The Translator, 14 (2).Google Scholar
Weaver, Sarah. 2010. “Opening Doors to Opera: The Strategies, Challenges and General Role of the Translator.” inTRAlinea 12, [URL], last accessed 23 March 2020.
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Minors, Helen Julia
2021. Desblache, Lucile (2019): Music and Translation: New Mediations in the Digital Age. London: Macmillan, 407 p.. Meta: Journal des traducteurs 66:1 ► pp. 230 ff. DOI logo
Ożarowska, Aleksandra
2021. Od czynów do słów: intersemiotyczne nadpisy w uwspółcześnionych spektaklach operowych. Przekładaniec :43 ► pp. 162 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.