Mediated Translation between Italian and Russian Languages

The Case of the Opera La forza del destino

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46991/TSTP/2024.SI.2.061

Keywords:

Verdi, La forza del destino, Italian opera, Grigor'yev, Piave

Abstract

La forza del destino was commissioned to Giuseppe Verdi by the St Petersburg Imperial Theatres in 1861, and premiered in November 1862,  at the Bolshoy  Kamenny Theatre. The opera was written on a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, and draws its subject from the Spanish drama Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino, by Ángel de Saavedra, through an Italian version by Faustino Sanseverino, and with insertions of fragments from Schiller’s trilogy Wallengstein. In this paper I analyse the genesis of the opera, considering the typical derivation of Italian operatic librettos from pre-existing literary works, a process that combines mediated and inter-semiotic translation. This allows me to show the artistic resources offered by mediated translation in the field of stage literature. On another level of discussion, given that for the Premiere Apollon Grigor’yev translated the libretto from Italian to Russian, I consider the role of translation on the reception of this subject by the local audience.

Author Biography

Anna Giust, University of Verona

Ph.D., Associate Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Verona, Italy; former professor of Theory, History of Musical Instruments and Russian Language at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice; author of two monographs as well as articles on Russian opera from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Her main field of research is Russian music, notably opera with research approaches including music nationalism, inter-semiotic translation, music mobility towards and from Russia, and the reception of Italian opera in Russia.

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Published

2024-03-29

How to Cite

Giust, A. (2024). Mediated Translation between Italian and Russian Languages: The Case of the Opera La forza del destino. Translation Studies: Theory and Practice, 61–77. https://doi.org/10.46991/TSTP/2024.SI.2.061

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Section

Part II