1. What are your expectations of “opera” (what does the word bring to mind for you?

) and
how did Peter Sellars’ interpretation of Le nozze di Figaro confirm to or challenge these
expectations?
2. Summarise David Levin’s argument, focussing on the significance of the title “Fidelity in
translation:” what are some of the ways in which fidelity is understood in this production of
Mozart’s opera? How does the concept “translation” apply? What is the relationship between
the two concepts?
3. If you were staging Le nozze di Figaro in Wellington in 2019, what might you do to
“translate” the work for your audience? Would you consider using aspects of Sellars’
interpretation? If not, why not, and if so, are there elements that would require further
“translation” for your audience?

For me opera is something I think of as a sort of spectacle and retelling of an old story. And
basing it off my previous experience with the NZopera staging of Le Nozze di Figaro the
modern reinterpretation of Sellars’ was certainly not what I knew or expected. That being
said as someone who’d been in the opera scene for the last five or so years I definitely knew
of the modern regietheatre type resetting of the old classics and they were something I was
really interested in learning more about and seeing how they might play around with fidelity
and differences in the translation. I found that in general the interpretation by Sellars’
recontextualised a lot of the story as in the previous 18 th century setting I’d seen the opera
was more about a spectacle of music and an auditory experience. Rather than the setting in
“modern day” New York that allowed me to actually understand the story and grasp at the
meanings that Mozart might’ve been trying to convey despite the language barrier of Italian
still existing.

David Levin talks about the problems with translation of dramatique works beyond that of
the straight libretto and even what mires translation there. And the significance of fidelity in
translation is asking the question to the reader and those translating such texts how do we
remain accurate in our translation of these texts. And in a modern context what does such
fidelity mean in terms of the libretto translation but also the mise-en-scène translation. He
suggests that in order to accurately translate the texts we must make a decision on how we
intend to underscore or reaffirm the anachronistic differences inherent in staging the
operas in modern day western society. In the context of the Sellars’ production the non
translation of the libretto reaffirms the differences BY underscoring the the differences and
that juxtaposition is a key aspect of the success of the production.

If I were to attempt to translate the opera for a 2019 audience in wellington I think the
contemporary setting of Sellars’ production is important to help reaffirm the differences
within our modern society and the 18th century aristocracy. However I feel that while taking
on the ideas of class and economic segregation is important, there is a lot more that can be
emphasized with the discussion of identity politics and sexual freedom that is mostly left
untouched and unexplored in the current discussion of those topics. I feel that extra
attention needs to be payed to the translation of the “trouser-roles” and thinking about
what they mean in todays context as we talk more about gender and the fluidity of that
spectrum.