The Language of Opera – Lyndon Teracini’s response.

Do the sung arts have to be monolinguistic to be “accessible” ? The intrinsic quality of the language is why Janacek sounds so wonderful in Czech; and Britten in English  To take the idea to its extreme, the Czechs would be translating “Porgy and Bess” into Czech, and “Peter Grimes” would sung in Italian; opera companies would never be able to undertake international tours.

Lyndon Teracicni, artistic director of Opera Australia responds to Matthew Westwood’s arguments on the language of opera

Teracini:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/whose-language-is-opera-the-audiences-or-the-composers/story-e6frg8n6-1226036886148

Westwood: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/opera-everyone-can-understand/story-e6frg8n6-1226034929514