Talk:Lolita (opera)

Libretto language

Is it customary to categorise operas by all the languages their librettos have been translated to, or should they only be categorised by their original language? -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 14:01, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Generally I would say original language, but in this case the original was Russian, the premiere was in Swedish, the Russian performance was overlooked by some critics, for those the performance in German was the second at all, - a special case, open for discussion. For Le nozze di Figaro a categorization to all languages it was translated to would of course be too long, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:11, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

In my opinion, there is a good arguement for some leeway here. While in most cases I would say original language only, in this case I think including both the original language and the language used for the world premiere would be appropriate. I ran into a similar problem with Menotti's The Last Savage which was written originally in Italian, was premiered in French, but has been predominately performed in English as most stagings have happened in the USA (and the only recordings of music from the opera are in English).4meter4 (talk) 14:55, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

Aside from the categorization, the article doesn’t actually state the original language at all. That’s a bit of an oversight, IMO. — crism (talk) 14:27, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. I made an attempt at fixing the problem.4meter4 (talk) 14:45, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Since this Russian composer wrote the libretto in Russian and apparently composed the music to that language, my first thought is that this should probably be categorized as a Russian-language opera and nothing else. Of course, Don Carlos is categorized as both French and Italian. However, Italian was Verdi's native language, and Charles Osborne has argued that it is really an Italian opera, while other musicologists, for example Andrew Porter, insist it is French because Verdi first composed it to French, French verse is almost impossible to translate into Italian verse, and the minimal modifications Verdi made for Italian version do not always work very well. Perhaps Shchedrin knows Swedish well enough to have modified the music to fit the Swedish version. Did Menotti, who probably speaks both French and English fluently, make adjustments to the vocal parts for the translations? In any case, this is probably not a major issue and justification could be made either way, although in the absence of more detailed information, I suppose I still favor categorizing it as Russian alone. --Robert.Allen (talk) 08:46, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

To my knowledge, Shchedrin failed to get the rights from "the Nabokov estate", therefore it was impossible first to stage the opera in Russian and English first. The German version is altogether different, changing not only the duration, but part of the story. If it doesn't hurt, I would keep the languages. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:08, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

If you have some sources, those would be very interesting details to add to the article. That certainly is more than enough justification for the German-language category, so I certainly have less problem with leaving the many language categories. You people have done a great job with this page, by the way. Thanks for all the hard work! [Update: I see some of this is already there. I must have skimmed that part of the article. Shame on me!] --Robert.Allen (talk) 21:44, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

"Lolita" as Russian Literature?

I think this is a stretch. Yes, Nabokov was Russian-born, but "Lolita" was written in English in the US, where the story takes place. It was his fifth English-language novel. It is a classic of American literature, in which is has been hugely influential. Can I remove the 'Russian Lit' reference? --Tdimhcs (talk) 06:16, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

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