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Part of
Opera in Translation: Unity and diversity
Edited by Adriana Şerban and Kelly Kar Yue Chan
[Benjamins Translation Library 153] 2020
► pp. 243–270

Translating Wagner’s Versmelodie

A multimodal challenge

| University of Leicester, UK

Opera is ‘other’ than the sum of its individual verbal, musical and mimic-scenic parts, and a singable translation of its libretto requires that the translator go beyond copying the original prosody, so that the new words fit the notes, to considering the relationship between musical and poetic meaning, as well as the resulting dramatic action on stage. This study considers how three performed translations of Wagner’s Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung, two of the operas in the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, and my own translation, respond to Wagner’s synthesis of verse and music. It reveals how far the translator must consider the way in which musical and verbal meanings converge, and how each contributes to the singer’s interpretation.

Keywords: Wagner, Versmelodie , intersemiosis, multimodality, alliteration, tonality, interval, accent, mode
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Opera as multimodal text
  • 3.Wagner’s Versmelodie as musico-poetic integration
  • 4.Translating Versmelodie in Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung
    • 4.1Accentual relationships
    • 4.2Intervallic tension
    • 4.3Tonal relationships
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.153.12wil
References

Musical examples by Karen Wilson-deRoze, based on

Jameson, Frederick, Richard Wagner, and Karl Klindworth
n.d.-a. Die Walküre [The Valkyrie]. Vocal score, English and German Trans. by Frederick Jameson 1565th ed. New York Gustav Schirmer
n.d.-b. Götterdämmerung [The Twilight of the Gods]. Vocal score, English and German Trans. by Frederick Jameson 1562nd ed. New York Gustav Schirmer

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