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Target
Vol. 9:2 (1997) ► pp.234–269

Intercode Translation

Words and Music in Opera

| SIGV The Hague & University of Innsbruck
Opera is a synchronization of different media of artistic expression, with a dual emphasis on music and drama. Operatic scholarship has voiced different views on the fusion of verbal and musical discourse, the two extremes being logocentrism and musicocentrism. The interlingual translation of the verbal subtext is a complex enterprise subject to multiple constraints. By focusing on its intricacies in some detail (the anatomy of the human vocal apparatus, high/ low pitches, stress, prosodic and intonational patterns, rhyme, etc., together determining the singability of the libretto), I hope that the discussion will shed light on the manifold problems involved in opera translation. The theoretical remarks are exemplified in an analysis of selected passages from Das Rheingold, by Richard Wagner.
Article outline
  • Introductory Remarks
  • Words and Music
  • Intersemiotic Translation
  • Opera Translation
  • Richard Wagner
  • Wagner's Das Rheingold
  • Concluding Remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 January 1997
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.9.2.03gor
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