Swing (Jan-Dec 1953)

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3 The CREAM of CROSBY The New York HERALD-TRIBUNE'S sometimes acid radio and television critic often steps on tender toes. SWING presents more excerpts from bis syndicated column on the subjects: Opera in English, Academy Awards, Gerald Johnson, Copy Writers, the Johns Hopkins Science Review, Joy Scouts and other topics. JOHN CROSBY "La Bobeme" in English THE final curtain of Howard Dietz's English version of "La Boheme" at the Metropolitan Opera which was broad' cast over ABC radio last Saturday, was greeted with shouts of "bravissimo." In other words, while Dietz had contrived very skillfully to translate the Puccini opera into English, he didn't manage to translate the audience into English, too. (The proper ejaculation of approval for an English language rendition of opera is not "bravissimo" but "just great.") The same spirit that prompted the 'bravissimos," it seems to me, settled heavily on the music critics who viewed the Dietz libretto with something less than wild enthusiasm. There was considerable muttering in print that he had cheapened the opera and changed the spirit of it. Of course, among traditional opera lovers, a crusty bunch, some of this could be ex' pected. There was a certain amount of initial resentment that Howard Dietz, a Broadway character who co-authored "The Bandwagon" and "Inside U. S. A.," and Joseph Mankiewicz, a Hollywood character who directed among other things, "All About Eve," were permitted to lay their hands on Puccini in the first place. Opera is generally a closed artistocracy and outsiders, particularly such crassly successful ones as Dietz and Mankiewicz, were regarded with grave suspicion. My own decidedly amateur opinion is that the Dietz libretto was an immensely ingenious, gay and singable interpretation of one of the most beloved of all operas. There were some violations of the mood of the opera but then it's hard to see how any major works can be transformed from Italian into English without it. After all, there are certain irreconcilable differences in the language. Dietz's version had a jauntiness and simplicity and sheer singability that is sorely missing from the only other English version I ever saw (that of W. Gri6t and P. Pinkerton). The first entrance of Colline, for example, when he returns from an unsuccessful visit to a pawnbroker, his opening words — in the old version — are : "Surely miracles apocalyptic are dawning "For Christmas ever they honor by allowing no pawning." I don't know how anyone can sing such a thing. The Dietz version: "He was born in a manger "In sorrow and danger. "A merry Christmas to all "Except the old money-changer." The Dietz version throughout made an alarming sort of sense which, I guess, was a little too prosaic for the critics. Dietz, thank God, banished some of the dust of centuries which had settled at least on the prior English translations.