Customer Reviews

Carlo Gozzi: Translations of The Love of Three Oranges, Turandot, and The Snake Lady with A Bio-critical Introduction (Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I appreciate DiGaetani's effort and I do agree with him on one count, the plays of Carlo Gozzi had nearly been lost and he has provided the English speaking audience with access to them. Something, however, has been lost in the translation. Having read Gozzi's original, DiGaetani does not help it into this century all that much as it reads like something not thought out. He has changed the original scenarios into playtexts but the plays still read like something made up on the spot, there is very little flow. I suppose the best way to pu it is it reads like a bad translation, sentences and characters are choppy and the jokes often make no sense and are rarely even amusing. By far the worst is his version of The Love of Three Oranges, likely Gozzi's most popular play since the fame of the opera. Do yourself a favor and skip this version of Three Oranges in favor of DePiano's (ISBN: 1411602250). In fact, a moments review will find you better versions of each of these plays and you will likely be able to even get them cheaper if you by the plays individually. Overall, I was very disappointed in this book. I had high hopes for having these plays brought into today and instead found texts as old as before, only now in english.