Words and Music

Abstract

This chapter discusses the matter of texts, translations, and adaptations of particular importance for operas written in French by Italian composers, which often continue to be performed in Italian translation. One significant problem in the performance today of operas by Italian composers, active during the first six decades of the nineteenth century, is the survival (and in some case the dominance) of the French operas by Italian composers in the modern performing tradition of nineteenth-century translations into Italian. Translation, and the process of adaptation that often accompanied it, also helped the works conceived in other traditions to be absorbed into a national sphere and, ultimately, integrated into national traditions. The effect of Rossini's style on French opera of the early nineteenth century was furthered by the performance of his operas in French adaptations.