Favourite opera libretto quotes
Anthony
opera librettos (English translations) that make sense in modern
context -- eg 'Your Tiny Hand is Frozen' could be used during
modern-day courting in Alaska.
I'm scouring librettos but thought this excellent group could help
supply a few favourite quotes that make for witty reading if placed in
a new or totally unexpected context. It's for a magazine article here
in Australia and I'll most certainly credit the group for expert
peer-assistance.
Cheers, Anthony
Jon E. Szostak, Sr.
"Nemico della Patria"= Enemy of the State...used at the up-coming trial of
Sadam Hussein in Irag.
"Das ist kein Man!"= This is no man...proverbial sailor realizes his date
ain't the gal he thought she was!
"Norma vieni"= Class studying 'Sunset Boulevard'.
"Wahn, wahn überalls wahn"= Mad, mad everyone's mad...President Bush about
the rest of the world.
"Die Frist is um"= The time is up...any State execution.
"Milk Punch o Whiskey?"= Happy hour at the Vatican.
--
Jon E. Szostak, Sr.
"Anthony" <anthonyj...@netscape.net> wrote in message
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Mark D Lew
<anthonyj...@netscape.net> wrote:
I don't know what your audience is, but the problem with using
translated lines is that there's no real standard. "Your tiny hand is
frozen" comes from the old Pinkerton translation in the original
Ricordi score. Ruth and Thomas Martin render it "How cold your little
hand is", which in this case is much closer to a literal translation.
Most opera fans know it best in Italian, and whatever English they know
is from the supertitle projection, which will surely be something other
than "your tiny hand is frozen." Those houses that do perform in
English may well eschew all of the published English versions and use
one of the newer singing translations.
Getting to your request -- surely the classic line for this sort of
thing would have to be Siegfried's exclamation, "Das ist kein Mann!"
(That's not a man!) The runner-up is perhaps "When I am laid" (or, as
I like to say it, "When I am laid by Henry Purcell").
My favorite opera libretto lines tend to be goofy things like "We're
the squirrels of the sea" or dramatic moments like "E avanti a lui
tremava tutta Roma", but I'm not sure they'd be very useful for your
purposes. (Another one I like is from Attila, where Ezio says something
like, "You can have the rest of the world, just give me Italy.")
If you want to reach anything more than a specialist audience, you'd
probably do best with first lines from famous arias. My suggestion
would be to leave them in the familiar original language, but insert
them into English text so that the translation is humorous, like in the
limerick:
There once was a tenor named Fred
Who took a soprano to bed.
When she handled his weenie
He quoted Puccini:
"Che gelida manina!" he said.
The point is that anyone who is familiar with the aria is going to have
an idea of what the foreign words mean, enough to get the joke. Anyone
who doesn't wouldn't recognize the English translation anyway. Try
substituting "your tiny hand is frozen" in the limerick: If you know
the aria, it's funnier in Italian than in English. If you don't know
the aria, it's not funny at all in either language.
Here are some more you might use, loosely translated. A few are
inherently amusing. The rest are just common phrases which could be
witty in the right context.
* Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön = This picture is magically
beautiful.
* Donna non vidi mai = I've never seen such a woman.
* La donna è mobile = Woman is fickle.
* Dalla sua pace il mio dipende = My peace depends on hers.
* Scintille, diamant = Sparkle, diamond.
* Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix = My heart opens to your voice.
* Pari siamo = We're the same.
* Batti, batti = Beat me, beat me!
* Ach, ich fühl's = Ah! I feel it!
* Chacun à son goût = To each according to his taste.
* Stride la vampa = The flames shriek.
* Je crois entendre encore = I think I hear it again.
* Pourquoi me réveiller? = Why do you awaken me?
* Nessun dorma = No one sleeps.
* Ombra mai fu di vegetabile = Never has there been such a shady tree.
* Come scoglio = Like a rock.
* In fernem Land = In a distant land.
* Quando m'en vo = When I go out.
* Avant de quitter ces lieux = Before I leave this place.
* Vesti la giubba = Put on your jacket.
* Leb' wohl = Good bye.
No doubt there are plenty more. Funny how some of them seem to go
together in sequence....
mdl
P.S. There's also plenty of mileage to be had out of cross-language
puns, but that's for another thread.
Ortrud
Lohengrin.
baci,
Orty
and...@comcast.net
"Mark D Lew" <mark...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:010320051816599040%mark...@earthlink.net...
> * Ach, ich fühl's = Ah! I feel it!
>
You must be the fellow, Sam Most,
Who once was fucking a ghost.
In the throes of a spasm,
said the poor ectoplasm,
"I think I can feel it, almost."
Sammy Most played good clarinet during the "bop" era.
Æ S
James Kahn
I would think
"Che importa?! Spasimi d'ira... spasimi d'amore!"
[What's the difference?! Spasms of anger ... spasms of love!]
would have to be in there somehow.
--
Jim
New York, NY
(Please remove "nospam." to get my e-mail address)
http://www.panix.com/~kahn
REG
Who expired after fucking the beast.
While humming Horst Wessel
You burst a blood vessel,
And now you are cyst and deceased
REG, dedicating his art to his favorite soprano. Io son l'umile ancella
<and...@comcast.net> wrote in message
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Anthony
As for cross-language puns -- that's definitely for another time,
another place ... though I've seen a few good ones posted from time to
time at rec.classical.recordings when the fellows are feeling a tad
bored.
david...@aol.com
opera. It may even be a true statement. I leave it to the
knowledgeable opera mavens here to translate and identify its origin:
"Ogni cor serba un mistero."
A line that has only a very limited utility is the following: "Ist das
noch der Diwan auf dem sich dein Vater verblutet hat?" That's not
something you hear every day. Again, the aficionados will be able to
translate and tell you where this line comes from.
Far more useful is the following bit of dialogue. We've all heard
similar arguments in "real life":
Don Giovanni: No.
Commendatore: Si
Don Giovanni: No.
Commendatore: Si
Don Giovanni: No.
Commendatore: Si. (And so forth.)
-david gable
Richard Loeb
<david...@aol.com> wrote in message
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Mark D Lew
<loe...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Lulu - funny I just said it a couple days ago
And the other is from Ernani.
mdl
stephenmead
A favourite of mine is a Victorian English translation of Weber's Der
Freischutz, in the scene where Caspar is telling Max about the magic bullets
that will go unerringly to the target and in that translation Max enquires
"Whence gottest thou such wondrous balls?"
I expect one could find a new or unexpected context for that question.....