Customer Reviews

Masters of the Italian Art Song

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

 

 

This is a collection of song lyrics (or libretti) and translations.

The only thing I would call into question is the claim that the book had "poetic" translations of the songs. I'm not sure what this would mean. What's there is a word-by-word translation and then an interpretation of that, such that it makes sense in English. That part, of course, sounds like poetry because the songs are largely poetic. These are not "dumb translations" like so much of what I see. Are they perfect? I don't know enough to say. But I think that LeVan paid attention to every line and understands quite a bit about the sometimes ancient, poetic Italian that these songs contain.

Both of these types of translations are very useful to the voice student or anyone wanting to learn or simply study these songs. The selection of songs is quite good. There are many which are somewhat obscure and hard to find. It seems a simple little book, but a lot of work and thought must have gone into it. It's a great reference.