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  • A Most Extravagant Art
  • William E. Engel (bio)
J. D. McClatchy, Seven Mozart Librettos: A Verse Translation. Norton, 2010. 1,168 pages. $50; Herbert Lindenberger, Situating Opera: Period, Genre, Reception. Cambridge University Press, 2010. 324 pages. $90.

Since production notes and the libretto are included with any opera recording, why do we need a book of the poetry that others wrote for Mozart to set to music? Moreover, with so many English versions already available, do we really need a new verse translation of the seven major libretti (or librettos, as J. D. McClatchy sensibly Anglicizes the term)? The rationale for this project can be found in McClatchy’s belief that the hearts and minds of the characters are revealed by the original poetry, whether in German (Mozart’s native language, which he used for comic operas) or in Italian (the preferred language for heavier fare, but which gave way to a form of tragicomedy pioneered by Mozart that combined opera seria with opera buffa). For those not fluent in these languages or who are rusty in either or both, this book offers a way to understand Mozart’s craft insofar as “verse is the language of the heart talking to itself, and to its beloved.”

Such a claim for poetry is refreshing to read, especially coming as it does from the editor of the Yale Review, the current president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Likewise there is something reassuring about a translator who is quick to admit that “any translation is a shadow” and “English lacks some of German’s grandeur and almost all of Italian’s sonic beauty and ease of rhyming.” What McClatchy brings out though—and he does so in spades—is the unsurpassed range and expressivity of English and its ability to capture an emotion in various exposures. He succeeds in preserving much of the formal clarity of the original poetry while opting for suitable variety in rhyme. For example, at the conclusion of The Magic Flute, when all opposing parties take the stage and the drama’s main conflict is resolved in favor of light over darkness, the ensemble is knit together by rhymes playing off “Nacht” (night). Even though the alternating rhyme word “Macht” (might) used by the different characters remains the same in German, McClatchy wisely does not repeat the same “night . . . might” pattern introduced by the Queen of the Night and her ladies, but instead, for the High Priest Sarastro, renders “Nacht . . . Macht” as “night . . . right”: “The sun’s golden splendor has banished the night, / The forces of evil are vanquished by right.”

As with his own poetry, especially Hazmat (2002) with its intricate stanza forms used to explore the connection between the spirit and body, [End Page 172] McClatchy’s translation respects classical antecedents, observes decorous restraint, and pays homage to the technical virtuosity of versification from another era. He wants the reader “to hear the verse, but listen to the drama.” In the technologically enhanced world of opera, where we have become accustomed to having clipped translations of dialogue intrusively projected above the stage or on tiny screens in seat-backs, this book offers a much needed corrective. It reminds us of the complex poetry with which Mozart worked, shows at a glance his clever and often moving use of repetition, and instructs us in the rich interpretative possibilities of a range of human passions. McClatchy does all of this in the service of giving readers “a clearer insight into the inner lives of characters—which is where Mozart lavished his art.”

McClatchy is sensitive to the demands of both poetry and theater. An accomplished librettist in his own right (most recently Giorgio Battistelli’s An Inconvenient Truth commissioned by La Scala for 2013), he is at pains to justify his undertaking in Seven Mozart Librettos, with its facing-page original text and translation, “so the reader can see or study how the passages were first put together.” His apt choice of word variants, with an eye toward giving voice to subtle shades of characterization, results in credible lines in English that fit the metrical demands...

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