The author relates his experience as a translator of opera librettos but also as a stage director for operatic productions; touching upon the literary and artistic facets thereof as well as material and financial side of the question. He sets forth opera translations as one of life's elixirs. Building on numerous examples, the author takes on a tour of his translator's "workshop" and relieves for us his searchings, success and hesitations. One of the foremost areas of his searchings, success and hesitation. One of the foremost areas of his work has benn French musical theatre (Carmen, La Vie parisienne, Catilina). We learn that the work of translation, just as is the case in the opera world in its various visages, is often a victim of pragmatic and sometimes mundane conditions which can border on the absurd. We thus ascertain that a fine translation, at once true to the original and singable, rests not only upon solid craftsmanship and extensive knowledge but often on a moment's inspiration as well, indeed upon a flash of genius.