Sinina
Chorus Member
Avatar by Alienor
Posts: 198
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Post by Sinina on Jun 18, 2007 15:06:35 GMT -5
Were the Finnish translation of Elisabeth that bad? To be honest, I think it was the worst thing I've ever heard on stage. The language was horrible Finnish and the translation was full of mistakes. My friend said he had no idea of what was going on in Wenn ich tanzen will because the lyrics didn't make any sense. And after Wenn ich dein Spiegel wär, he thought Rudolf wanted to kill himself because he was afraid of getting married... Believe me, it wasn't even funny. By the way, Finnish theatres practically never do cast recordings.
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Jun 18, 2007 15:59:47 GMT -5
By the way, Finnish theatres practically never do cast recordings. Now that's not good!!! I want a Finnish Rebecca recording! You people schould write to the Theater to release one in case of Rebecca went to Finnland!
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Post by Valancy on Jun 18, 2007 16:21:19 GMT -5
With Elisabeth, there first was news that there would be a cast recording, and then there wasn't, and people writing in the theatre's forum a lot and saying they wanted a recording didn't help... Mind you, if Rebecca does come to Finland and it's anything decent, maybe we should write to the theatre right away to tell them there should be a cast recording...
And regarding the translation, what Sinina said. Some parts of it were okay, but then others really made you cringe, they weren't always even proper Finnish, and Wenn ich dein Spiegel wär really makes it sound like Rudolf kills himself because he doesn't want to get married. Um. Besides all the other things that are wrong with that, Rudolf was already married at the time and the original lyrics do state it that way... That wasn't the only absurdity in the lyrics, but perhaps the most memorable.
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Jun 18, 2007 16:35:07 GMT -5
Well Elisabeth has trikky lyrics to translate, but that Rudolf problem is far to bad lool I don't care if they butcher a bit of Elisabeth lyrics (sometimes they must do it to make sence from country to country) as long as they keep the Rebecca lyrics faithfull lol:P
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Post by Valancy on Jun 18, 2007 17:06:51 GMT -5
Trust me, the way they butchered Elisabeth lyrics didn't help in making sense of it in Finnish. It made it harder to make sense. There were so many things I didn't understand right at all before I knew enough German to at least somehow understand the German lyrics. It was butchered because the translator didn't know enough German, and probably not really enough Finnish either, not to serve any sort of a purpose. It would be impossible to do a translation that perfectly captures everything Michael Kunze's lyrics say, but one certainly could do better than that.
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Jun 18, 2007 17:12:35 GMT -5
But did he used slang language or what? What do you mean when you say "he didn't know enough Finnish either"? It seems so hard to believe that VBW allowed a bad translation...
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Post by Valancy on Jun 19, 2007 8:07:29 GMT -5
It was just... a lot of it was agrammatical, or just bad language that may be grammatically correct but certainly isn't good writing and doesn't sound good. And there was a lot of, well, not slang but the sort of spoken language that is not the same register as Kunze's original lyrics.
How many people in the VBW do you think know Finnish? They probably had this organisation which looks after copyright of plays in Finland assure them this translation was okay, but I guess the organisation did their job very sloppily. They probably don't know any German and don't realise that musical lyrics don't have to be lousy just because in Finnish translations they often are.
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Jun 19, 2007 9:49:17 GMT -5
I see. Well the translation are allowed to the producer in the country that buys the rights...so I guess it was a bit of the producers falt. And they listen to the music, wich probably sounded ok, and since they don't know Finnish, probably that was the problem. And we're better get back to topic lol So, what countries do you think Rebecca is probable to go?
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Post by Martina on Jun 19, 2007 10:11:24 GMT -5
To be honest, I think it was the worst thing I've ever heard on stage. The language was horrible Finnish and the translation was full of mistakes. We are getting OT here, but it would be interesting if some of you were able to translate back from Finnish to English some of the lyrics, so that we may get an idea of them as well...
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Post by Cia on Jun 19, 2007 12:48:52 GMT -5
That's great news! If my mother wants to visit Vienna later, I can drag her to theatre. ;D
About the Scandinavia thing: I agree, if Rebecca comes to Finland they have to get someone who knows German to translate it. I have a feeling that the Scandinavian country in question might be Sweden, though, because the theatre that did Elisabeth (in Karlstad if I remember correctly) has also done Mozart!, so the seem to like Kunze's musicals. Finland would of course be great (at least for me ;D) but it sounds very unlikely that we would get Rebecca so quickly after its world premiere...
Edit: Shortly after Elisabeth opened I emailed the theatre and asked if there will be a recording and they said yes, there will be a live recording, but it was cancelled later. Idiots. I even wrote a long message about how there would be loads of people outside Finland who want the CD but someone there apparently thought that it wouldn't sell enough. Grr...
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Jun 19, 2007 12:53:21 GMT -5
Hm yes Sweden is also a possibility. I like the idea of a Nordic Rebecca, at least it would explain the coldness of Mrs. Danvers lol. Did the Swedish Theater use to release Cast CDs?
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Post by Cia on Jun 19, 2007 12:55:10 GMT -5
Hm yes Sweden is also a possibility. I like the idea of a Nordic Rebecca, at least it would explain the coldness of Mrs. Danvers lol. Did the Swedish Theater use to release Cast CDs? Nope. Apparently they always do one production only for 3-4 months, but during that time they perform nothing else than that musical or opera.
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Jun 19, 2007 13:00:45 GMT -5
Bah We here release CDs anytime as possible. There is a CD of Sound of Music coming out, and the new JCS production is likely to have one also (the right holders adored the show. It is staged in a post-9/11 world). But usualy the shows run for at least 1 year always with full houses. But that's a pitty. I like to hear nordic people talking...I would love to hear Rebecca in Swedish or Finnish. =\
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Sinina
Chorus Member
Avatar by Alienor
Posts: 198
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Post by Sinina on Jun 19, 2007 13:57:12 GMT -5
In my opinion, it's quite likely that the Scandinavian premiere of Rebecca will be in Värmlandsoperan in Sweden. This far, they have only announced which opera they are going to perform in the autumn 2008, and they usually have one musical in their repertoire as well. I think it could be Rebecca. Cast recordings are always a financial issue. Finnish theatres are rather small and most of them are owned by cities. That's why they don't have producers or sponsors like the big theatres in many other countries. On the contrary, their productions are financed by tax revenues, which means they don't usually have enough money to release cast recordings. I hope this explains the situation a bit.
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Jun 19, 2007 14:57:51 GMT -5
Hmm I see...And I though the money problem in Musical Theater was only in Portugal. Of course we just have one Musical producer (although we have on stage a musical from other producer about "Che Guevara" but I will not see it for political reasons, and anyway is nothing special.) But I understand. Our version of JCS costed 2,5 million Euros and will have to run for at least 3 months with full houses just to cover the expences (of course it will run for mutch more time.) Oh, well...I'll keep my fingers crossed for a Nordic CD of Rebecca. (and for a portuguese production lol) But VBW could at least help with the Cast Recordings.
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