ABSTRACT
Richard Traubner's seminal Operetta: A Theatrical History (1984) repeatedly mentions the need to rewrite and adapt operetta librettos so as to make works now deemed problematic palatable to the present stage. This chapter aims to examine a sample of canonical operetta texts that might be found ‘politically incorrect’ today, or at least morally intolerable to certain ears. It focuses on lyrics extolling sexual freedom such as those that can be found in pieces sung by characters once presented as inveterate but charming seducers who might well be perceived today – when sexual harassment has become such a burning issue – as dangerous and detestable male predators. Case studies include Henri in Les Cloches de Corneville (1877), Brissac in Les Mousquetaires au couvent (1880), Simon Rymanowicz in Der Bettelstudent (1882), the Duke of Urbino in Eine Nach in Venedig (1883), Barinkay in Der Zigeunerbaron (1885), Florestan in Véronique (1898), and Paganini in Paganini (1925).
This chapter will demonstrate the complications in the textual history of such works whether in translation or adaptation. It takes into account the various historical and sociological contexts likely to have fostered such textual modifications. Overall, it seems that, at the very least, fidelity in translation has no more existence than in the amorous transactions of some of operetta's favourite characters. As the Duke of Urbino says: ‘treu sei, das liegt mir nicht’ (‘faithfulness does not suit me’).
