Chapter published in:
Opera in Translation: Unity and diversityEdited by Adriana Şerban and Kelly Kar Yue Chan
[Benjamins Translation Library 153] 2020
► pp. 243–270
Translating Wagner’s Versmelodie
A multimodal challenge
Karen Wilson-deRoze | 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, , intersemiosis, multimodality, alliteration, tonality, interval, accent, mode
Published online: 29 October 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.153.12wil
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.153.12wil
References
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
Primary sources
Wagner’s opera libretti
Wagner, Richard
1872b
Der Ring des Nibelungen. Einen Bühnenfestspiel (Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung) [The Ring of the Nibelung. A Stage Festival Play] (The Valkyrie, Siegfried, Twilight of the Gods]. In Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen von Richard Wagner Sechster Band [Collected Writings and Poetry of Richard Wagner Volume Six] (pp. 1–364). Leipzig: E. W. Fritzsch.
Translations
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
Porter, Andrew, and Richard Wagner
Sams, Jeremy, and Richard Wagner
Wilson-deRoze, Karen
2017 Translating Wagner. A Multimodal Challenge. Volume One: Commentary; Volume Two: Translation of Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leicester, http://hdl.handle.net/2381/40878, last accessed 23 March 2020.
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Wilson-deRoze, Karen
2017
Translating Wagner. A Multimodal Challenge. Volume One: Commentary; Volume Two: Translation of Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung
. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leicester, http://hdl.handle.net/2381/40878, last accessed 23 March 2020.