Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100705 in Books
• Published on: 1977-06
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 329 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, German (translation)

Customer Reviews

A translation for singing
Andrew Porter's English translation of the 'Ring' was written to be sung. It has been used in performances of the 'Ring' cycle at English National Opera and elsewhere. When reading this translation, and perhaps using it to follow a recording or broadcast of any of these operas in the original German, you should keep in mind that it is not a *literal* translation. Porter has taken some liberties with the meaning of the original text, in order to match the rhythms of his English as closely as possible to those of Wagner's archaic German. The translator has also attempted to capture some of the alliteration that is characteristic of Wagner's *stabreim*.

It is clear that Andrew Porter understands the text of the 'Ring' well enough that he was able to make this "poetic" translation without distorting the meaning of the original text. For a literal, accurate translation, the only one currently available is by Stewart Spencer (Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung: The full German text with a new translation and commentaries, Thames and Hudson, 1993). You might also be able to find in a library or for sale used, the William Mann translation (Centurion Press Ltd, 1964).

Great libretto for the ring operas
If you collect audio "Ring" CDs, throw out all the libretti that may have come with your CDs and buy porter's book! The nice thing about this translation is that it (a) is understandable, and (b) is easy to follow along to an audio performance because it matches the singing syllable to syllable. Care was also taken in the translation so that the english words occur in the appropriate places where the motif occurs in the music. Also, proper names match up one for one with the German. So, for example when someone refers to "Siegmund", on a recording, the English text at that point is "Siegmund"! Awesome synchronization!

Essential alternative to CD librettos
I bought this book hoping to better understand the text that appears poorly translated in CD librettos. I found that not only the poem (as Wagner called it) is more readable and understandable, but also perfectly matches the music sung in German, so one can read it in English following every syllable along with the music. And that is an important feature for the ring operas, or for all Wagner operas for that matter, mainly because the orchestra contributes so much to the meaning of what the characters are saying. I highly recommend this book to whoever is in the pursuit to better understand the ring operas. I only wish from this book that it had a Spanish translation as well, but I guess that would be asking way too much.