Opera in Prose

Generations of U.S. operagoers have wondered vaguely just what the words meant that the singers were singing. Perhaps they were well off not knowing. In too many English translations attempted by U.S. opera troupes in recent years, the English words (if they could be heard at all) only revealed the silliness of the librettos. This week RCA Victor is releasing a series of records entitled Arias Sung and Acted which present the dramatic contents of selected arias together with the original words: first, well-known actors act out the scenes in English, then the music starts up and big-name artists sing them in the original language.

Inevitably, the acted scenes contain some purple-prose trills. The crusty voice of Judith Anderson as Carmen gasps: "I cannot live a lie . . . Free I was born and free I want to die." Joseph Gotten as Canio in Pagliacci moans: "To have to act, act, when my brain whirls in an agony of madness! . . . Change into grins your sobs and suffering, change into a leer your sighs and your tears." Dennis King as Rigoletto shouts: "Unarmed though I be, I'll kill you, I warn you!" But the familiar music (in familiar performances by Rise Stevens, Jussi Bjoerling, Leonard Warren) restores the order of things. Most acceptable acting job is done by Deborah Kerr, who renders the ingenuous roles of Mimi in La Boheme and Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly with winning simplicity before Soprano Licia Albanese takes over.

The new series is the latest foray in a campaign by Victor's Artists and Repertory Director George R. (for Richard) Marek. His plan: to win new audiences for records by making music "painless." Among his other recent projects: a series of almost featureless "mood music" (TIME, Feb. 22), e.g., "Music to Read By," "Music to Help You Sleep," and a 2 min. 52 sec. orchestral condensation of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata for the disk-jockey trade. Such popularizations, some serious musicians feel, kill not only the pain but the music.

But Vienna-born Director Marek (a lifelong opera lover and author of a Puccini biography) has an answer. He thinks Americans are frightened by serious music, and he wants to "unscare" them. His reasoning: if he turns enough honest dollars on things like Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music and Opera Without Singing, he can afford to risk a few on more esoteric items. His own pet recording project: the huge (oversize symphony, chorus, soloists, four brass choirs) and presumably profitless Requiem by Berlioz. This way, he believes, everybody wins.

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