The Historical Journey of Opera Translation in Turkey and its Perception by Contemporary Turkish Opera Performers

Abstract

Opera, evolving on the foundation of two art forms, theatre and music, is a multidisciplinary genre that has affected many countries and cultures profoundly over the centuries. Even though opera emerged and blossomed in Western societies in the early sixteenth century, it took four more centuries to pass so that opera could meet the Turkish audience. Translation from Western sources has been a substantial medium to Westernize and Europeanize the Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey. The proclamation of Tanzimat was the beginning of transformation in the multicultural and multilingual Ottoman Empire to form a nation-state, and therefore the Westernization process started in all fields including literature and music. Opera was one of the new art forms that came into prominence apart from theatre and prose. Since the Republic gave much importance to polyphonic music and attempted to carry Turkish music into universal standards, works of art in the most paramount genre of music, the opera, were translated. Translations of operas were carried out by the Turkish composers of the time in order to achieve a singable and coherent translation in terms of prosody. In this context, this study aims to present both the historical journey of opera translation in Turkey and to introduce the remarks of some contemporary opera performers of Ankara State Opera and Ballet, who were interviewed so as to grasp their perception of translated opera.