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The Translation of Opera as aMultimedia TextClaus Clüvera

a Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, Bloomington,Indiana, USAPublished online: 21 Feb 2014.

To cite this article: Claus Clüver (2008) The Translation of Opera as a Multimedia Text,The Translator, 14:2, 401-409, DOI: 10.1080/13556509.2008.10799264

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ISSN 1355-6509 © St Jerome Publishing, Manchester

The Translator. Volume 14, Number 2 (2008), 401-09 ISBN 978-1-905763-10-8

Revisiting the Classics

The Translation of Opera as a Multimedia Text

CLAUS CLÜVERProfessor Emeritus, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

Die Oper als Textgestalt: Perspektiven einer interdisziplinären Überset-zungswissenschaft. Klaus Kaindl, Studien zur Translation, Vol. 2. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr, 1995. xv + 289 pp. ISBN 3-86057-241-5, 49.50 Euros.

The importance and relevancy of Klaus Kaindl’s book have not diminished during the thirteen years since its publication. The study has indeed opened up “perspectives of an interdisciplinary study of translation” and clarified those already in existence. It examines opera as the object of translation, which it constructs as a multimedia textual gestalt. Consequently, the various ap-proaches to this object, the methods employed and the conclusions at which it arrives are of considerable interest also for students of intermediality who are not particularly concerned with questions of interlingual translation.

According to the concluding summary the study has as its objective “to develop theoretical approaches to a translation of opera texts that is fit to be staged (bühnengerecht), and to the critical evaluation of such translations” (p. 256).1 Based on the widely shared assumption that the starting point for any translation is not words or phrases but a text, Kaindl’s study defines the translation of opera as “the creation of textual interconnections that can be realized on the stage” (ibid.). In this view, a translation has to consider the connection of word and sound on the one hand and the scenic performance of this combination on the other. The text to be translated is thus characterized by its multimediality – a characteristic that, according to Kaindl, has received very little attention from students of translation, although the wide range of multimedia texts that has actually been covered by translations comprises a rich but as yet unexplored area for research. While questions concerning the interdependence of word and music in opera have been treated in numerous

1 All translations from German are my own.

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Klaus Kaindl: Die Oper als Textgestalt402

studies, aspects of staging and scenic performance tend to be disregarded; more importantly, such discussions rarely reach the level of theoretical dis-course. Aiming to remedy the situation, Kaindl’s study focuses on the forms of traditional opera and their history, disregarding certain developments in contemporary musical theatre where the relations of music, literature, stage and audience are often redefined.

The work deals in its first, larger section with ‘Theoretical Aspects of Translating Opera’, which are presented in five chapters. Most important is the elaboration of the concept of ‘the opera as text’. Examining models developed in a number of relevant disciplines, such as linguistics, literary studies, music-ology, theatre studies, the semiotics of theatre and music, and the psychology of perception, as well as models offered by the field of translation studies, Kaindl pinpoints each model’s deficiencies in search of a definition that would include the numerous functional connections between music and language and between the printed text and its scenic realization, all of which will have to be considered in the process of translation. While favouring semiotic concepts of ‘text’ because they include non-linguistic systems, Kaindl criticizes those that disregard the audience and the conditions of text reception, since more recent translations and translation theories favour an orientation toward the target culture. He insists, however (p. 22), that

in order to preserve the holistic (ganzheitlich) character of a work in the translation, the reception of the source text must also contain the holistic reception of the work’s gestalt in the source culture, so that the multilayered simultaneous and successive interplay of the individual text elements may also be adequately rendered in the target culture.

Looking for a way to conceive of the totality of each individual operatic text, Kaindl resorts to concepts derived from gestalt theory, building on earlier work by students of translation who held that the (verbal) text to be translated should be considered as a gestalt, as a complex structure of heterogeneous signs, including non-verbal components; the translator is to see this werkgestalt in turn as embedded in a context comprising sender, receiver, extra-linguistic reality and a particular situation. In every case involving translation the relation between text and context has to be newly determined. Kaindl applies these ideas to the task of understanding opera as a complex multimedia Textgestalt. He insists, however, that it is not sufficient to see it as being constituted by several media; instead (p. 39-40), it is necessary to realize

that the media involved in the total text do not exist side by side but are fused into a whole by mutual perception and realization. The encounter of musical, verbal and scenic sign formations (Zeichengestalten) cre-ates something qualitatively new, which is not the sum of its parts.

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Claus Clüver: The Translation of Opera as a Multimedia Text 403

Consequently, the goal of the present study (p. 41) is

to understand the different media of the opera as a gestaltic-semiotic relational configuration of verbal and non-verbal subtexts and of their functional interconnections, so that translation will have to be under-stood, far beyond being a linguistic transposition of verbal signs, as a re-creation of a textual whole.

In the chapters dedicated to ‘The Libretto’, ‘The Music’, ‘The Voice as a

Factor in the Translation Process’ and ‘The Stage’ (Die Szene), Kaindl exam-ines how these functional interrelations operate in the case of each of these ‘subtexts’ and throughout their history, although only by sketching charac-teristic moments and highlighting significant changes. In this approach, the libretto is always to be considered in the context of its musical setting and its realization on the stage, since the translator will grasp the libretto’s functions in the text as a whole only by understanding these connections. The chapter dedicated to the libretto focuses on its generic characteristics and on the ques-tion of its functions within the operatic text as a whole – which, as a historical overview shows, have changed remarkably over the centuries. A section on ‘Opera as a Dramatic-Fictional World’ compares the alternate worlds created on the operatic and the dramatic stages. According to Kaindl, the differences exist less with regard to the degree of reality than with the means by which these worlds are established – by the rational-discursive elements of stage dialogue and the affective-emotional means of song. While for the transla-tion of drama the considerations of the target culture may be paramount, the fact that the verbal text of the opera is tied to the musical setting with its own structures of meaning and its own references to the source culture requires a balanced procedure in the cultural transfer. With the musical score the target culture will always receive aspects of the source culture, not only because the composer may have fixed in it decisive aspects for an understanding of the total text, but also because it will have been conditioned by the respective cultural conventions of the national operatic traditions: “A translated opera will only be internally coherent if it is coherent with the musical source text” (p. 59).

In order to illuminate the means employed by the libretto for constructing an alternative world, Kaindl considers crucial aspects of the transposition of a play to the operatic stage, which involve structural, narrative, scenic and temporal factors. Conceived with regard to musical rules, the verbal text has to be considerably shortened – which is likewise required by the different physical efforts demanded of the singers. Consequently, dramatic action and interpersonal relations have to be clarified and compressed and conveyed by all the media involved. The verbal elements of the opera serve primarily (but not exclusively) to describe emotional states rather than to pursue an argu-ment, in which they are complemented by the music. The reliance on visual scenic and gestural effects is important; besides being embedded in the music,

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the libretto must always be related to the stage, either in connection with an actual stage production or generally as a scenic design, in order to provide opportunities for staging ‘sonorous tableaux’. Specific to the opera libretto is finally the simultaneity of (sung) verbal passages, which usually does not represent interpersonal communication but rather the simultaneous utterance of individual states of emotion, somewhat like a set of externalized internal monologues. This results in a remarkable difference between the time of representation and time represented, and potentially in difficulties of under-standing the text(s), which are partly alleviated by repetitions and by musical structuring. For the translator, who has to render a text that was usually written before the music in a manner that has to fit the musical form, such passages present particular difficulties.

In a final section Kaindl examines the applicability of established ty-pological models proposed for the evaluation of translations of all kinds to multimedia texts and in particular texts for staging, such as the opera libretto. Adjusting those models to the greater complexities of the libretto text, he looks at its representational, expressive and appellative functions and demonstrates with telling examples of translations into German of passages from Madam Butterfly and Rigoletto how carelessness or misunderstanding of the overall text and these specific functions can falsify what is to be communicated.

With respect to ‘Music’ and its position in the total text, Kaindl discusses various approaches to establishing musical meaning in order to determine music’s contribution to the dramatic-theatrical events in opera and the vari-ous levels of musico-verbal-scenic interaction. Rehearsing several positions in the age-old discussions concerning the dichotomy of form and content, he establishes a theoretical frame to account for the ability of music to commu-nicate meaning, primarily by drawing on models of musical semiotics, which he examines for their usefulness in the analysis of translations. If music is able to communicate meanings in a specific manner, the interaction of music with the verbal text in opera is to be considered as a combination of different kinds of meaning. The musical text in opera figures as its own semiotic gestalt whose semanticity is more open than that of the verbal text and more subject to changing situational, including cultural, contexts. Besides dealing with biologically and psychologically based relations between music and emotion and with cognitive functions of musical ‘gestures’ equal to ‘showing’, which combine in vocal music with the ‘telling’ of the verbal text, Kaindl critically examines attempts at classifying musical signs according to Peirce’s cat-egories and their ability to serve dramatic functions, concluding that all these approaches make only partial contributions to determining the ways in which music communicates meaning. For him, the schema elaborated in a recent Czech study, a table of which he reproduces (p. 108), is more satisfactory because it emphasizes the dynamic character of musical meaning constitution, where the variable combination of such basic categories as pitch, dynamics,

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rhythm, timbre and tempo constitutes contents and meanings in every concrete musical statement, depending on the context. These categories work for the tonal expressiveness of the voice as well as for the semantics of the orchestral apparatus, which is understood as a ‘semanticizing instrument’ capable of co-determining dramatic action. But Kaindl rejects this model’s insistence on a concrete relation between musical meaning and extra-musical/extra-medial reality and on considering every musical moment as semantically charged. Relying on aspects of all of these models of musical semiotics he distinguishes between three basic kinds of musical sign gestalts (Zeichengestalten) that are relevant for an analysis of opera for the purposes of translation: (1) Signs relat-ing to characters, which can express psychological as well as physiological or sociological states (melodic line, timbre and instrumental and especially vocal modulation can clarify character, and changes in emotional states can in addition be signified by changes in rhythm and dynamics; facial expres-sion, gestures and even proximity on stage can be musically underlined or determined; social status can be indicated by generic or stylistic quotation); (2) situational references: musically suggested movement can designate spa-tial relations and refer to objects; synaesthetically perceived musical effects (changes in pitch and timbre, ‘dark’ and ‘light’ tones) can indicate changes in lighting and local as well as situational atmosphere; and (3) musical signs that refer to concepts and ideas. These also include the use of leitmotifs or musical symbols, which have no generally valid significance but are established by the specific context.

The score, in which these signs receive their more specific meanings in connection and interdependence with the (highly reduced) verbal text, can serve as a musical model for the staging of the opera and can as such also be a useful aid for the translator. However, the ways in which it can be understood to determine the staging will depend on an era’s and a culture’s conception of music and accordingly of the function that music is to serve in the totality of the operatic text. In shaping his text as a design for staging, it is the translator’s task to grasp the interconnections of tone and word with regard to its scenic realization, possibly and preferably for a specific production.

Dedicating a separate chapter to ‘The Voice as a Factor in the Translation Process’, Kaindl emphasizes the special functions and possibilities the voice receives in opera in comparison with its use on the dramatic stage. Besides injecting the words with a greater emotional charge, in opera the vocal qual-ities conventionally become signs for the identity of a stage character, a fact to which the translator has to pay special attention. After sketching changes in the use of voice from the beginnings of opera, Kaindl proceeds to represent the various manifestations of the voice and song phenomenon in order to ar-rive at determining the quality of a text’s ‘singability’ (Sangbarkeit), which is a particularly important consideration in shaping a translation and judging its success. The two basic elements of the voice in opera are its materiality

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as an instrument of sound and its ability to transport verbal meaning. While there are proponents of the view that the voice’s significance in opera is as the producer of sound, Kaindl points out that the singer requires the verbal text not only as a means to structure his vocal performance but as a basis for creating his part in a verbally formulated situation: only the interaction of these two aspects will result in the proper vocal gestalt (Stimmgestalt). Individual sections of this chapter deal with physiological aspects of tone production, the articulatory shaping of the text, intelligibility and breathing, and musical aspects of singability: since the singer is essentially identical with his or her voice and the vocal text therefore decisive for the representation of an operatic character it is imperative that the verbal text form an adequate (stimmig) whole with the melodic-rhythmic shape. A singable translation must also consider the orchestral parts in which the vocal text is embedded. Neglect of this relation, which according to Kaindl is frequent in translations, may result in conflicts between the effects of the verbal and the musical media and difficulties in the singability of a part.

Considerable attention is given to the ‘grammar of voices’, for a set of vocal-musical conventions has traditionally determined the verbal representation of operatic characters, who are understood to be personifications of emotional states. There is a detailed discussion, with examples, of the relationship of vocal genres and plot structure as well as of the disposition of vocal registers to characterize operatic parts. These relations affect the verbal text, for a char-acter’s vocally established emotional disposition determines that character’s verbal expression. But in the process of translation the voice may be treated with regard to several different criteria: the translation may attempt an imitation of the sound of the source text, aim at creating a singable language structure or at achieving coincidence with the musical rhythm and accentuation, or it may prefer to imitate the verbal characterization of a role.

The chapter about ‘The Stage’ (Die Szene) elaborates the observations made in earlier chapters that libretto and musical score will contain numerous signs regarding their realization on the stage, and that an adequate translation will have to take these into account. The chapter examines those signs that are suggestive of a text’s production and then goes on to discuss the relevancy for the process of translation of the relations between the translation on the one hand and staging and audience on the other.

As regards textual signs relating to the singers/actors, Kaindl distinguishes between signs suggesting facial expressions and gestures as well as relative proximity on the stage. The former tend to be more conventionalized in opera because of the demands made on the projection of the voice; facial expression is generally given greater support through gestures than on the dramatic stage. The gestural structures inherent in dramatic speech are complemented in the musical score by the association of music and emotion. Besides indicating movement and the distance of characters from each other in the same way play

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texts do, operatic texts will take into account the singer’s need to breathe and to project the voice. Moreover, opera will resort to ‘kinetic signs’ also because of its tendency to create striking visual effects. As regards the possibilities of conveying all kinds of information by means of stage costumes, which may also result in specific ways of moving and posturing, opera does not differ from the dramatic stage.

The same is true regarding the signs conveyed by the stage and such ele-ments as scenery, props and lighting. Traditional operas were usually conceived with particular types of theatres and theatrical conventions in mind. Important for opera productions was the presence and placement of the orchestra, which generally created a greater distance between performers and audience. For contemporary productions, both of traditional operas and of recent forms of musical theatre, different kinds of locations may be chosen, which will affect the relations of audience and stage events and will co-determine the function that the staging of an opera is meant to have in our society. Since new translations are written for new productions, spatial conceptions of the theatre involved in a specific production and the social function it is perceived to assume should inform the translation prepared for it.

The remainder of the chapter is therefore devoted to considerations con-cerning the relations between translation and the staging of operas, which more than ever presents a particular interpretation of the whole, using modern means and intended for a contemporary, often heterogeneous audience that does not share generally accepted conventions or norms. For Kaindl, the translator should ideally be part of the team responsible for the staging, which includes at least the director, the conductor and the individual(s) responsible for scenery, costumes and lighting. The translator ought to know something about the material conditions as well as the artistic orientation of the theatre where the opera is to be staged, and he or she ought to know about the general conception of the specific production and be involved in its development by the team. Adjustments of the translation to these conditions and conceptions should be made not by the director but by the translator, who should also keep in touch with the conductor, whose interpretation may involve questions of how language is to be treated. An opera-specific situation may arise during rehearsals, when performers may refuse or have difficulties to memorize arias in a new version. Frequently, only scenes involving ensembles or recitatives may be rehearsed using the new text, which may have to be adjusted by the translator in order to harmonize the whole. As in all instances of translating for the stage, the actual reception of the text will be made by the team responsible for its staging, whereas the audience will only receive the interpretation of the text by that team. By participating in that process the translator may have a chance to affect the way in which his or her conception of how the verbal, musical and scenic signs of the source text should be shaped for a contemporary target audience and are actually realized on the stage.

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In the second, shorter section of his book Kaindl investigates ‘Possibil-ities of a Criticism and a Description of Translations by Means of Two Case Studies’. In the absence of a systematic set of criteria for judging opera trans-lations, which have often been ridiculed on more or less subjective grounds, he proposes to lay a theoretical foundation and simultaneously test some of the concepts developed in the earlier section for their applicability to a textual analysis relevant for studies of translation. While he endorses the general thrust of the then new functional translation studies, which privileges the target text and pays only secondary attention to its relation to the source text, Kaindl insists that for the evaluation of such multimedia texts as that represented by opera a purely prospective orientation is inadequate. The preservation of the music requires that a critique of any translation must consider the relationship of the target text and its place in the target culture to the cultural contexts in which the musical source text is embedded (p. 184):

The translator of the written operatic score will not orient himself solely by the horizon and the situation of the target audience but, by accepting the musically indicated meaning perspectives in his interpretation of the source text, he must also respect the intentions of the authors of that text. Likewise, because of the culturally complex medial relations between music, language and stage, the evaluation of the Stimmigkeit [the term Kaindl prefers for ‘coherence’ of these elements] in a transla-tion will be made with regard to the tensions between the source text and its new, situational embeddedness in the target culture.

Kaindl distinguishes between the functions of a criticism of translation,

which would be concerned with an intersubjective evaluation for the purposes of improving translations to be made or, in the case of older translations, to be used in actual productions, and a historical-descriptive orientation, which treats a translation as an existing literary text and situates it within the literary system of the respective target culture. As an example of the latter he analyzes retrospectively the Stimmigkeit of a translation, as a Gesamtkomposition, of Meilhac/Halévy’s text for Bizet’s Carmen, focusing on the relations between music-language and voice. The second example considers the Stimmigkeit prospectively with regard to an English translation made for a concrete con-ception for staging Mozart’s Don Giovanni as a kind of Mozart in modern dress, which he places against the background of German translations (and the implied interpretations) of the opera.

Kaindl’s brief concluding summary reinforces the goal of creating a theoretical foundation for the translation of multimedia texts that may assist translators and can serve as a starting point for the criticism and description of such translations. He also emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary col-laboration in dealing with such a complex phenomenon as opera as a textual gestalt, even without the further concern with its translation. His broadly

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based study with its references to and quotations from texts originating in many disciplines (and several languages) is proof that this task can also be successfully undertaken and completed by a single scholar, to the benefit of many. His study is clear and systematic and remains throughout firmly oriented toward its established goals. But the book was not very carefully edited, a fact that might possibly even interfere with a successful translation into English, in itself not an easy task but worth undertaking.

CLAUS CLÜVERDepartment of Comparative Literature, Indiana University, Ballantine Hall 914, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405-2688. cluver@indiana.edu

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