Opera translation and the transmission of knowledge: Amour courtois and troubadour poetry in Kaija Saariaho’s first opera - Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2019

Opera translation and the transmission of knowledge: Amour courtois and troubadour poetry in Kaija Saariaho’s first opera

Adriana Serban

Résumé

An art and a craft (Burton 2009) as well as an eminently “specialised translating task” (Low 2002), opera translation is rich in difficulties for the translator, and it seems natural this should be so since opera itself challenges audiences while at the same time rewarding them in more ways than one: by providing an experience of the beautiful and by conveying different types of knowledge. In this interdisciplinary study, I focus in particular on the transmission of literary knowledge through opera and opera translation, taking as a case in point Kaija Saariaho’s first opera, L’Amour de loin, and the DVD subtitled translation into English for the 2004 recorded performance recreating the 2000 world premiere directed by Peter Sellars, who worked with the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, the soprano Dawn Upshaw, and the Finnish National Opera (for a discussion of intermedial issues in filmed opera and the aesthetics of the opera/film encounter, see Citron 2000 and 2010). Saariaho’s opera is a tale of courtly love based on the life of Jaufré Rudel, a prince and troubadour in 12th-century France. The score is set to a libretto by Franco-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf, member of the French Academy. The elegant music literally conjures images of the water which separates the lovers and expresses their moods; the layers of sound are close to the words’ simple poetry inspired by troubadour music and also by Debussy and Messiaen. Opera libretti frequently have mythological and literary roots (Rosmarin 1999) and are anchored in specific historical, religious, cultural, and social contexts which some audiences may no longer be familiar with. I contend that L’Amour de loin—in the original French language, as well as all its translated performances (recorded or not)—contributes to bringing literary heritage to contemporary audiences, and examine the issues and challenges this entails. References BURTON, Jonathan. 2009. “The Art and Craft of Opera Surtitling.” In Jorge Díaz-Cintas & Gunilla Anderman (Eds.) Audiovisual Translation. Language Transfer on Screen (pp. 58-70). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. CITRON, Marcia J. 2000. Opera on Screen. New Haven: Yale University Press. -----. 2010. When Opera Meets Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. LOW, Peter. 2002. “Surtitles for Opera. A Specialized Translating Task.” In Babel 48(2), 97-110. ROSMARIN, Léonard. 1999. When Literature Becomes Opera: Study of a Transformational Process. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
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hal-04406811 , version 1 (19-01-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04406811 , version 1

Citer

Adriana Serban. Opera translation and the transmission of knowledge: Amour courtois and troubadour poetry in Kaija Saariaho’s first opera. Translation and knowledge transfer: New trends in the theory and practice of translation and interpreting, Université de Cordoue, Oct 2019, Cordoue, Spain. ⟨hal-04406811⟩

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