# don Carlo(s) Italian or French



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Verdi wrote Don Carlos in French originally later revising it in an Italian version. Which works best? Please give your reasons.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

No contest. The text just fits nicer in the Italian.

I just came across this... Elina Garanca singing Eboli in concert. Fatal beauty indeed. No suspension of disbelief required here.

She's debuting the role in October in Paris, alas in French. I need to be there!


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

French, easily. Originally written to a French text, and the Italian translation sounds weird. Part of the French tradition of grand opéra.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Still an Italian opera to the core. It's Verdi, not Meyerbeer (and I hold nothing against Meyerbeer, I love his operas, both from Italian and French periods). Verdi was stretching uncomfortably to fit Paris requirements and it's only natural to bring the score home again to sunny Italy.
P.S. 20th Don Carlo in my collection arrived just yesterday (Cerquetti/Bastianini/Siepi/Lo Forese/Barbieri). So yeah.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I am going with Italian too, four acts, five acts, the whole shebang, one goes from one great scene to another, with that absolute climax : Tu che le vanità, till the end of this masterpiece.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Sounds best in French. 

End of.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

And it doesn't sound half bad in Russian.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

SimonTemplar said:


> And it doesn't sound half bad in Russian.
> 
> [


There's even one in German, I hope the clips are working.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Giuseppe-Verdi-1813-1901-Don-Carlos/hnum/2351417


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Italian. Just seems to fit better with the Italian sound.


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## Rossiniano (Jul 28, 2017)

Normally I prefer an opera to be in the original language, but Verdi did nothing to give his writing a French feel. I can't imagine Donizetti's_ La Fille du Regimen_t in anything other than French. The same goes for Rossini's _Guillaume Tell _when the vocal lines and even the orchestration are geared to the French language. Donizetti's _La Favorite_ is a closer call, but the poor Italian translation tilts things in the favor of the French version.

So in the final analysis Verdi remained Verdi and totally Italian to boot. When heard in French things sound too soft or rounded when the vocal lines and orchestration are more pointed. There seems to be a constant conflict between the language and style that gives the same effect as when _Guglielmo Tel_l is performed in Italian. It just does not quite work. Plus Verdi authorized the piece in Italian so it can be considered to be his final thoughts on the matter.. or at least an acceptable option. Still, there are so many versions I'm not sure if Verdi had any definitive final thoughts.


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## Lensky (May 8, 2016)




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## angelo (Jun 20, 2017)

Italian or French? 
It depends whether you understand better Italian or French!
In the 19 century was important that the text was understood. The quality of the poetry was important indeed (for example, the name of the author of the libretto was so highlighted in the poster).


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

angelo said:


> Italian or French?
> It depends whether you understand better Italian or French!
> In the 19 century was important that the text was understood. The quality of the poetry was important indeed (for example, the name of the author of the libretto was so highlighted in the poster).


I am not sure I agree, I can speak French but not Italian, but I choose Italian.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Pugg said:


> I am not sure I agree, I can speak French but not Italian, but I choose Italian.


Yep. Me tooooooooo! (to comply with that stupid 15 letter minimum)


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I have not heard the French yet, all my exposure has been to the five act Italian and I love it. I would enjoy hearing the French version but have not had the opportunity yet.


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## Fat Bob (Sep 25, 2015)

French. Apart from anything else, the excised parts such as Philip's part in Act 4 after Rodrigo's death (later used in the Requiem) has never - as far as I know - been used in any Italian version. Without this section the ending of Act 4 seems rather abrupt to me. But then again I get huge enjoyment from Italian versions such as Giulini or Solti. Glad to have both really.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Fat Bob said:


> French. Apart from anything else, the excised parts such as Philip's part in Act 4 after Rodrigo's death (later used in the Requiem) has never - as far as I know - been used in any Italian version. Without this section the ending of Act 4 seems rather abrupt to me. But then again I get huge enjoyment from Italian versions such as Giulini or Solti. Glad to have both really.


In fact, the Lacrymosa section at the end of Act IV appears in several Italian performances, most notably in the 07.12.1977 live performance from La Scala under Abbado (with Freni, Carreras, Ghiaurov, Cappuccilli, Obraztsova, Nesterenko). Abbado decided to insert it, but the result was absolutely compelling.


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## Fat Bob (Sep 25, 2015)

Azol said:


> In fact, the Lacrymosa section at the end of Act IV appears in several Italian performances, most notably in the 07.12.1977 live performance from La Scala under Abbado (with Freni, Carreras, Ghiaurov, Cappuccilli, Obraztsova, Nesterenko). Abbado decided to insert it, but the result was absolutely compelling.


Thank you, I didn't know that. I'm sure I read somewhere that the sound quality of that recording was rather poor - any comments?


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Fat Bob said:


> Thank you, I didn't know that. I'm sure I read somewhere that the sound quality of that recording was rather poor - any comments?


I got the CDs from arsvocalis, who did the transfer and considered on this forum (especially among Callas fans) as one of the best audio sources available. Too bad he was on the move and still hadn't resumed his business (http://www.ebay.com/usr/arsvocalis). Myto had this on CD, but I cannot comment on the audio quality.
This is the only one available now for reasonable price, quality is unknown:
https://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Carlo-Complete-Opera-Carreras/dp/B0000019XQ
This is long out-of-print Myto version:
https://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Don-Carlo-Mirella-Freni/dp/B0000061DC


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Azol said:


> I got the CDs from arsvocalis, who did the transfer and considered on this forum (especially among Callas fans) as one of the best audio sources available. Too bad he was on the move and still hadn't resumed his business (http://www.ebay.com/usr/arsvocalis). Myto had this on CD, but I cannot comment on the audio quality.
> This is the only one available now for reasonable price, quality is unknown:
> https://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Carlo-Complete-Opera-Carreras/dp/B0000019XQ
> This is long out-of-print Myto version:
> https://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Don-Carlo-Mirella-Freni/dp/B0000061DC


So strange that they vanished completely, they did stole some original recording , so perhaps that's the reason, just a wild guess.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Azol said:


> I got the CDs from arsvocalis, who did the transfer and considered on this forum (especially among Callas fans) as one of the best audio sources available. Too bad he was on the move and still hadn't resumed his business (http://www.ebay.com/usr/arsvocalis). Myto had this on CD, but I cannot comment on the audio quality.
> This is the only one available now for reasonable price, quality is unknown:
> https://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Carlo-Complete-Opera-Carreras/dp/B0000019XQ
> This is long out-of-print Myto version:
> https://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Don-Carlo-Mirella-Freni/dp/B0000061DC


I have the Myto version, which sounds quite good. There's a bit of peak distortion, but that's about the only flaw. I've also heard the Legato version, which is sonically inferior. I haven't heard the Ars Vocalis.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

> This is the only one available now for reasonable price, quality is unknown:
> https://www.amazon.com/Verdi-Carlo-C.../dp/B0000019XQ


As much as I love this opera, this price is way out of line, no wonder so called "pirates "rise by the minute.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

To me the music sounds Italian, and should be sung in Italian. I just can't get used to it in French. However, if someone offered me, say, a free ticket to attend a performance of the French version of DON CARLO, I'd hardly turn it down.


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

This is easy: Italian is the better version. 

Why? Because French is my least preferred opera language. I just don't think French is a great language for operatic singing.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

graziesignore said:


> This is easy: Italian is the better version.
> 
> Why? Because French is my least preferred opera language. I just don't think French is a great language for operatic singing.


Unless French composer wroth them, Massenet, Meyerbeer to name just two.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Was Meyerbeer not German?


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

graziesignore said:


> This is easy: Italian is the better version.
> 
> Why? Because French is my least preferred opera language. I just don't think French is a great language for operatic singing.


Really? Why?

Italian is a musical language, certainly, but so is French: clear, immediate, flexible, elegant,dramatic, and witty.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Barbebleu said:


> Was Meyerbeer not German?


Yes, born in Berlin.


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## skateartguy (Aug 3, 2017)

Don Fatale said:


> No contest. The text just fits nicer in the Italian.
> 
> I just came across this... Elina Garanca singing Eboli in concert. Fatal beauty indeed. No suspension of disbelief required here.
> 
> She's debuting the role in October in Paris, alas in French. I need to be there!


I'll be there!

I got a small season pack for four operas... and it end up being all Verdi.

I am really excited about this upcoming production!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Barbebleu said:


> Was Meyerbeer not German?





SimonTemplar said:


> Yes, born in Berlin.


We Europeans thinking in European terms .


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## davidglasgow (Aug 19, 2017)

I prefer the Italian as well, mainly because the French-language versions tend to be less well cast (in my opinion). Edith Tremblay, Katia Ricciarelli and Karita Mattila performing Elisabeth, for instance, are not really going to set the world alight. This would of course be a different story if Regine Crespin or Montserrat Caballé had recorded the role in French which would surely have added lustre to such an enterprise.

I think it is to be regretted that Giacomo Aragall was not the locus for a studio recording: I think he was superb in the Italian version both in portrayal and that beautiful timbre 



. Also, given his part in Decca's Esclarmonde recording and his broadcast of Manon from 1971, I think he could have provided a French-language portrayal of some stature as well. As it is, Domingo's performance of the titular role with Abbado is arguably the best thing about that set, let-down as it is by the lack of idiomatic and energised support.


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

Azol said:


> In fact, the Lacrymosa section at the end of Act IV appears in several Italian performances, most notably in the 07.12.1977 live performance from La Scala under Abbado (with Freni, Carreras, Ghiaurov, Cappuccilli, Obraztsova, Nesterenko). Abbado decided to insert it, but the result was absolutely compelling.


Worth noting that the Lacrymosa music for "Chi rende a me quest'uom" is also present in the televised performance from La Scala from a month after the Freni/Carreras, but with Domingo, Margaret Price, Bruson, and Roni substituting (with a role swap in Nesterenko's case, from Inquisitor in the earlier recording to the Philip in the latter) for Freni, Carreras, Ghiaurov and Cappuccilli who were contractually unable to do the TV performance.

On CD, it's in boxier sound than the Freni/Carreras but I prefer the performance and the cast as a whole.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I am going with Italian because that is the set I have, which I got from the library sale for $2 (Giulini). Read the synopsis on Wikipedia and it sounded pretty good, until the ending, which was rather abrupt and disappointing. Not even sure what it means (the ending). Kind of blah in fact. Strauss' Capriccio took me that way too--all that time watching them debate ad nauseam and then they leave you hanging.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Rossiniano said:


> Normally I prefer an opera to be in the original language, but Verdi did nothing to give his writing a French feel.


I have to say I totally disagree with this. I was fortunate enough to see one of the performances of the French version of the opera in Paris last year and it's important to bear in mind that the original French version of the opera is also significantly different when it comes to the music and it is this version of the opera that has passages in common with Meyerbeer (e.g. the original version of the duet between Philippe and Posa). It's clear that Verdi tried to emulate the French style in his score for Paris. The conductor (Philippe Jordan) made a very strong case for the 1867 version as a French grand opera.

Therefore this thread concerns itself with two things: 1) do you prefer the 1867 original version or the 1884/86 revised version of the score? and 2) do you prefer the opera in French or Italian? When Verdi rewrote parts of the score for the 1884 Milan performances he started from the French text and that was subsequently translated into Italian, therefore the original language in both versions is French. Whilst the music of the revised version is certainly Italian in style the Italian translation betrays itself in many places.

My favourite version of the music is the 1886 five act 'Italian' version (although I would want to splice in the opening chorus and the duet for Eboli and Elisabeth and the Philippe/Carlos duet in act four). Whilst choosing that somewhat bespoke version I would still prefer to have the original libretto and I will continue to laugh at the line, 'L'acciar! Innanzi al Re! L'Infante e' fuor di sé!' every time I see the opera in Italian.

N.


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

To quote another opera, "don't like the French". Rewatching the Chatelet version right now, and it's good, but especially the Restate! is just weaker in this version. It's so different and less passionate. Some bits feel so alien as if they are from a different opera. When I watched last year's Paris production, I had to switch subtitles on because I was so lost (meanwhile, I could probably sing the whole Italian version).

So my preference is the (extended) 5-act Italian with the Lacrimosa included, like the 2013 Salzburg and recent-ish Munich productions did. As for the woodcutter scene and the Elisabetta/Eboli switch, I can leave them or take them. The Lacrimosa is important, though.


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## SanyiKocka (May 6, 2020)

Azol said:


> In fact, the Lacrymosa section at the end of Act IV appears in several Italian performances, most notably in the 07.12.1977 live performance from La Scala under Abbado (with Freni, Carreras, Ghiaurov, Cappuccilli, Obraztsova, Nesterenko). Abbado decided to insert it, but the result was absolutely compelling.


Not only the lacrymosa but also some of the music of the prince after Posa's death is usually omitted in 4-act or 1886 5-act versions. In this recording Carreras was really moving when he sang the lines mourning Marquis di Posa.


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## Hermastersvoice (Oct 15, 2018)

Don Carlos should like any opera be sung in the language of the audience. Believe you me, only in English-speaking countries is Shakespeare habitually done in English. This is because of the drama. We can discuss the merits of Hamlet in English but the drama works less well for non-English speaking audience in that language. So, it’s translated. Opera ought to be no different and it used not be. Except of course that over the past 40 years we’ve had to contend with the historically informed intelligentsia who claim to know what’s correct. Not the most persuasive way of rendering the argument, not what makes sense musically. But what is correct.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Italian for sure! Listen to the two above. The aria gains so much more oomph (technical term) in the Italian version!


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Hermastersvoice said:


> Don Carlos should like any opera be sung in the language of the audience. Believe you me, only in English-speaking countries is Shakespeare habitually done in English. This is because of the drama. We can discuss the merits of Hamlet in English but the drama works less well for non-English speaking audience in that language. So, it's translated. Opera ought to be no different and it used not be. Except of course that over the past 40 years we've had to contend with the historically informed intelligentsia who claim to know what's correct. Not the most persuasive way of rendering the argument, not what makes sense musically. But what is correct.


I'd agree if you could understand what the singers are singing, but, increasingly these days, it's impossible to make out a word. If you listen to recordings of opera in English from the early 1950s and before, it is to hear clearly enunciated, natural English (just listen to Kathleen Ferrier or Heddle Nash) but over the years diction has become ever more clouded. The problem has become so bad that they have started introducing surtitles at the English National Opera, which performs all operas in the vernacular. If you have to do that, then you might as well perform the opera in the language in which it was written.


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

Hermastersvoice said:


> Don Carlos should like any opera be sung in the language of the audience. Believe you me, only in English-speaking countries is Shakespeare habitually done in English. This is because of the drama. We can discuss the merits of Hamlet in English but the drama works less well for non-English speaking audience in that language. So, it's translated. Opera ought to be no different and it used not be. Except of course that over the past 40 years we've had to contend with the historically informed intelligentsia who claim to know what's correct. Not the most persuasive way of rendering the argument, not what makes sense musically. But what is correct.


It's slightly different with opera I think, because it matters a lot more how the language itself sounds, not just what the words mean. German and Italian opera are a good example of this. I personally really like German language, maybe even more than Italian, but Italian is (arguably) vocally more beautiful. I have a theory that the huge difference between German and Italian opera is at least partially a result of just how different the languages are. Imo German fits for example Strauss's more grotesque operas better than e.g. Italian would. The languages are, in addition, "dynamically" different and I actually think that the composers, often composing using librettos written in their native language, wrote the music so that it would fit with the "rhythm" and sound of their own language. Also, many librettist and composers had a very hard time writing their librettos so that they'd also have some literary merit. I don't speak German, French or Italian and English is not my native language but I still prefer to listen to opera in its original language, even if some composers themselves allowed translating it.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

The sound of the words is important in Shakespeare too. There are plenty of puns, rhymes, etc. that don't come off in performance because the sound of the words has changed from his time to ours. 

I don't have a problem with opera performed in either way. I often think it's nice to hear operas in different languages from what they were originally written in. Then again, when I hear a Puccini opera in translation, I often notice subtle differences in how the text sits on the melody, and that tends to irk me because from a lot of attention and study I know how carefully he set his texts. But then that makes me think, well, what about other composers I don't know quite as well? Then I just throw up my hands and say, well, there are plenty of original language versions to be getting on with. But then I listen to the translations of operas into English, even when just subtitling, let alone when the text has to be set to fit the music, and I think about how dreadfully inaccurate they are, that we're basically hearing a different, usually worse, opera, and then I don't want to hear them in English anymore. It's a process.


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

vivalagentenuova said:


> *The sound of the words is important in Shakespeare too. *There are plenty of puns, rhymes, etc. that don't come off in performance because the sound of the words has changed from his time to ours.
> 
> I don't have a problem with opera performed in either way. I often think it's nice to hear operas in different languages from what they were originally written in. Then again, when I hear a Puccini opera in translation, I often notice subtle differences in how the text sits on the melody, and that tends to irk me because from a lot of attention and study I know how carefully he set his texts. But then that makes me think, well, what about other composers I don't know quite as well? Then I just throw up my hands and say, well, there are plenty of original language versions to be getting on with. But then I listen to the translations of operas into English, even when just subtitling, let alone when the text has to be set to fit the music, and I think about how dreadfully inaccurate they are, that we're basically hearing a different, usually worse, opera, and then I don't want to hear them in English anymore. It's a process.


Sure! I think the way he wrote is one of many reasons why he's so famous. I was rather trying to say that in opera the voice and language are part of the music and thus very important from the musical perspective in addition to the literary merit.


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## VitellioScarpia (Aug 27, 2017)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I'd agree if you could understand what the singers are singing, but, increasingly these days, it's impossible to make out a word. If you listen to recordings of opera in English from the early 1950s and before, it is to hear clearly enunciated, natural English (just listen to Kathleen Ferrier or Heddle Nash) but over the years diction has become ever more clouded. The problem has become so bad that they have started introducing surtitles at the English National Opera, which performs all operas in the vernacular. If you have to do that, then you might as well perform the opera in the language in which it was written.


There is an interesting story with Régine Crespin singing Mme. de Croissy in English at the Met. Crespin was originally against singing in English (in spite of Poulenc's own desire for performance in the vernacular) until she read the phrase "if I could tear away this mask with my *nails*!" It was so much more dramatic in her mind that she took to heart the English and her performance was better enunciated than that of the other native speakers...


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

There is no reason to do it in Italian unless it's in Italy and you want the locals to understand. Every contrary opinion on this makes no sense at all. There were no revisions made in the Italian language. It was written in French for a French opera house in a French format and subsequently revised in French. It's a French opera. Whenever this discussion comes up, you get people deciding that Verdi was Italianness itself, and Jakob Offenbach and Jakob Beer are really Jacques Ruisseau-Ouvert and Jacques Fruitrouge, native-born Parisians who wrote with ink-dipped baguettes.

"Italian is more open!"
"Italian sounds more musical!"
"French is too poetic!"

All this nonsense is just prejudice and familiarity. You hear this all the time. German is guttural, but French is romantic, amirite? Italian is so sensual, and German is harsh. Russian is scary, and English is boring, and oh my isn't Spanish so exotic?



People just form associations based on cultural environment and early exposure and then pretend that those have any objective grounding whatsoever. These are the people who hear Winterreise sung by Hans Hotter and instantly decide that it's laughable for a tenor to sing sad music, even though Schubert wrote it for a tenor. What do Schubert and Verdi know about their music, anyway? Ask Frenchmen who grew up hearing Don Carlos in French how much better it sounds in Italian.

And this is all often from people who can't even tell Neapolitan and Italian apart, let alone speak Italian and French at a near-native level.

So what now? Amahl in Italian? Every Meyerbeer and Offenbach opera in German? Or maybe Yiddish? Was Yiddish Halévy's native language? No more La fille du régiment, Guillaume Tell, Vêpres, Le Comte Ory, La favorite, Dom Sébastien, Iphigénie...what about Tosti and Denza's French songs? Are those all actually written for a more open, forceful, and melodic language? And wait, wasn't Tosti's native language Abbruzzese Neapolitan? And of course, Mozart actually wrote Idomeneo, Nozze, Giovanni, Così, and Tito in German in his head, and then jammed the notes haphazardly into Italian libretti.

Boy, we've got a lot of translatin' to do!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

PaulFranz said:


> There is no reason to do it in Italian unless it's in Italy and you want the locals to understand. Every contrary opinion on this makes no sense at all. There were no revisions made in the Italian language. It was written in French for a French opera house in a French format and subsequently revised in French. It's a French opera. Whenever this discussion comes up, you get people deciding that Verdi was Italianness itself, and Jakob Offenbach and Jakob Beer are really Jacques Ruisseau-Ouvert and Jacques Fruitrouge, native-born Parisians who wrote with ink-dipped baguettes.
> 
> "Italian is more open!"
> "Italian sounds more musical!"
> ...


BRAVO! Standing Ovation!

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

_Pace _PaulFranz. It is nevertheless (Italian) the most performed language version; most opera houses can readily do so in Italian - French takes some work. It may be slowly changing. I saw it in French in San Francisco in 1983 and 2003, and the Metropolitan Opera’s latest effort this year in HD, weakly cast - but was impressed with how Polenzani fit the role in French, which he wouldn’t have done in Italian (he lacks the _spinto _thrust). 

I don’t know how many of the opera houses of the world are going to continue to do it in translation - I’ve always known it in Italian, have most recordings in Italian and my ears will no doubt prefer it that way, but you’re right in a way; I think of *Don Carlos *as French opera.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Italian quite simply scans better with the music.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Rossiniano said:


> ... The same goes for Rossini's _Guillaume Tell _when the vocal lines and even the orchestration are geared to the French language.
> 
> ... a constant conflict between the language and style that gives the same effect as when _Guglielmo Tel_l is performed in Italian. It just does not quite work.


I agree about _Guillaume Tell - _I know only the aria of Mathilde from there, but it only started making sense once I heard it in French for the first time. It is so very much adjusted to that language.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Hermastersvoice said:


> Don Carlos should like any opera be sung in the language of the audience. Believe you me, only in English-speaking countries is Shakespeare habitually done in English. This is because of the drama. We can discuss the merits of Hamlet in English but the drama works less well for non-English speaking audience in that language. So, it’s translated. Opera ought to be no different and it used not be. Except of course that over the past 40 years we’ve had to contend with the historically informed intelligentsia who claim to know what’s correct. Not the most persuasive way of rendering the argument, not what makes sense musically. But what is correct.


I didn't enjoy the operas in Slovak language when I saw them.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

HenryPenfold said:


> Italian quite simply scans better with the music.


Unless your French would be up to date


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Rogerx said:


> Unless your French would be up to date


What does that mean ?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

BBSVK said:


> What does that mean ?


You can follow it better , simple as that


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

It does not scan better in the translated language, lmao. Obviously not. There are so, so many examples, but I get the overwhelming feeling that anyone who says that does not actually speak those two languages, so...pearls before swine.

And we have yet another example of cultural baggage attaching itself to linguistic and acoustical concerns: Italian demands a spinto voice, but French can just be whatever. Like the musical demands instantly change when the language is French.

Hey guys, I'm a light lyric voice, but I'd like to sing Otello. Is it fine if I just sing it in French?


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Anyone discussing the different versions of Don Carlos needs to acknowledge two things. The language the opera is performed in and the fact that, irrespective of the language that the opera is sung in, there are three versions of the score that are different from each other _musically._

When the opera is performed in French it's usually the first Paris version of the score that is used and that version is musically inferrior to Verdi's rewrites. I think the five act Modena version as it's known is the best musically. However, it works better in the original language which was French (yes, Verdi rewrote it to the French text and then it was translated into Italian). The only edition that gives us Verdi's final thoughts on the opera and in the original French is Abbado's DG recording. So despite the faults of that set, it is the only one that presents the best edition of the opera (IMO) and the one that represents Verdi's final sanctioned version of the opera.

N.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

I'm not fussed but all the great performances are in Italian. More because it was the usual at the time.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Op.123 said:


> I'm not fussed but all the great performances are in Italian. More because it was the usual at the time.


And this is also true. All the recordings of the opera in French (whichever version) hold more flaws than the best of the Italian language recordings.

N.


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