The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2018 - 25

Was there one performance that was
especially memorable?

From left: Tenor Brett Sprague as Pedrillo, soprano Sarah Hayashi as Blondchen, tenor Stephen
Steffens as Belmonte, and soprano Halley Gilbert as Konstanze, in a scene from Act II of the Bronx
Opera's recent revival production of Mark Herman and Ronnie Apter's English translation of Mozart's
The Abduction from the Seraglio. (Photo used by permission of Hannah Spierman, social media director
of the Bronx Opera.)

which is closely related to contemporary
Catalan), and some ancient Greek.
Between French and Latin, Ronnie was
able to pick up Italian. When the Bronx
Opera asked us to translate a Czech
opera, Ronnie said, half jokingly, that
we would do it if the company paid for
Czech lessons. They said yes, and Ronnie
studied with a native Czech speaker for
about six months.

What did you learn from that first
assignment in 1979 that encouraged you to
keep translating operas?
We learned that we loved struggling
to make meaningful, singable phrases,
the thrill of working toward an actual
performance, getting input from the
directors, conductors, and singers, and
hearing our words come alive in the
voices of the performers. We also loved
bringing our children to performances.
After all, they had heard us test singing
the lyrics for months.

Who usually commissions your translations?
Our work is commissioned by publishers,
opera companies, and school music
programs. We also do some translations on
our own. Our publishers include Ricordi
in Milan, Italy (the original publisher of
operas by composers such as Verdi and
Puccini), as well as Musica Russica in San
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Diego. For Ricordi, our work is subject
to scrutiny by editors, who, initially, were
conveniently located at the University
of Chicago. We send them a translation,
they make suggestions, and, usually, after
three or four go-rounds the translation is
considered publishable. When we work for
an opera company or school, we submit
each act as we finish it to the stage director
(or conductor, if there is no stage director,
such as for a choral work), who makes
suggestions. Once rehearsals start, we also
receive suggestions from the performers
and conductor, most often still via the
stage director.

When several people have a say in the
performance of your translated lyrics, how
are differences of opinion resolved? Who
makes the final call?
The final say is with the editor of a
published work. For an opera company,
it's usually the stage director. However, we
require that no changes be made without
consulting us first. Often, we just make
changes in line with the criticisms. In the
remaining cases, we argue; sometimes we
win, sometimes we lose, and sometimes
we compromise.

Do you attend rehearsals of an opera
you've translated, or attend opening night?

If possible, we attend both rehearsals
and performances. However, distant
locations often make it impossible for
us to attend either. Most memorable for
us, because they were our first, were
the Bronx Opera performances of The
Abduction from the Seraglio. We attended
the opening night on Friday and the
second performance on Saturday. The
audiences were enthusiastic. After the
Saturday night performance, we went
with friends to Greenwich Village, ate
a late supper, and then bought an early
morning edition of the Sunday New York
Times. In it was a favorable review of
both the Friday performance and our
translation: "Highly singable." We were
soaring pretty high ourselves.

What can you tell us about how critics react
to foreign opera sung in English?
Reactions vary widely. Some critics hate
the very idea of opera performed in
translation. Others blame the translators
for everything they don't like about
the performance, or, if they like the
performance, don't mention that it was
sung in translation, much less mention
the translators. The New York Times,
however, has mentioned us every time it
has published a review of an opera sung
in our translation.

Opera lyrics challenge the translator in
all the ways that poetry does, but with
the added burden that the words must
also fit into a pre-existing-and largely
unforgiving-musical structure. The poetry
translator must prioritize meter, rhyming
scheme, syllable count, and rhythm while
keeping the meaning and allusions in mind.
What must the opera translator do
in addition?
In addition to functioning as poetry,
words in an opera serve theatrical and
musical functions. Therefore, in addition
to the elements of poetry you mention,
we must consider diction level and
characterization and how the words fit
the music.

You've said that "During the Victorian and
Edwardian eras, the unwritten rules for
American Translators Association

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2018