The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

No files to attach (sorry) but I just played something that made me chortle. It's a 12 inch scroll label of the Victor Opera Company doing Gems from "I Pagliacci" and "Cavalleria Rusticana" The performances are nice, if unremarkable (I think Harold Bauer is the tenor) but anyone unfamiliar with the opera plots would be forgiven for assuming that these works are light comedies with happy endings. Even "Vesti la Giubba" comes off as rather wistful rather than tragic- Bauer's light tenor doesn't quite convey tragedy- the fact that everything is sung in English doesn't help much.

I have that on a later black label repressing.

I agree about Pagliacci, and the Cavalleria comes off like a pleasant rustic romp, though reasonably well sung.

Not one of the better Gems... discs.

Yeah, opera in English translation is often laughable. Even in, or maybe especially in, a good, singable translation (if such is possible), plots are often revealed as flimsy or trivial, or OTOH monumentally absurd (think Wagner). I think comic opera (say, Barber of Seville) comes across better in translation than dramatic opera does, but there are many good reasons why opera should almost never be sung in translation IMO.