Donald Pippin Pocket Opera

DONALD PIPPIN, TRANSLATOR

List of Libretti, with Samplers
Why Opera in Translation?
Turning Opera into English
A Pocketful of Wry
As the Lights Go Up
Donald Pippin,
a San Francisco Institution

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Donald Pippin's English Translations

The goal of the translator, as I see it, is not so much to translate as to illuminate, to convey as much as possible with the fewest words: words that are simple but not banal, words that resonate without sounding hollow, that float without sounding inflated, words that somehow get into the bloodstream of the music, words that aim for the heart of the matter.

Donald Pippin - from "Turning Opera into English"
a post-performance talk February 22, 1998.

PIPPIN is to opera what Mark Twain was to American literature, a breath of fresh air and a national treasure.

Masullo in the Sacramento Bee.

An English version of indescribable resource ... full of irresistible delight.

Rich in the New West Magazine.

* Indicates One Act Opera

AUBER
                       Fra Diavolo (sampler)

BACH
                       The Coffee Cantata * (sampler)

BELLINI
                       Norma (sampler)

BIZET
                       Carmen (sampler)
                       Don Procopio (sampler)
                       Doctor Miracle (sampler)

CHABRIER
                       An Education Incomplete * (sampler)
                       The Star (L'Etoile) (sampler)

CIMAROSA
                       The Secret Marriage (sampler)

DONIZETTI
                       Anna Bolena (sampler)
                       Betly * (sampler)
                       Daughter of the Regiment (sampler)
                       Don Pasquale (sampler)
                       The Elixir of Love (sampler)
                       Lucia di Lammermoor (sampler)
                       Lucrezia Borgia (sampler)
                       Maria Padilla (sampler)
                       Mary Stuart (sampler)
                       Roberto Devereux (sampler)
                       The Tutor in a Tangle
                           (L'Ajo Nell' Imbarazzo) (sampler)

von FLOTOW
                       Martha (sampler)

GOUNOD
                       Doctor in Spite of Himself (sampler)

HAYDN
                       The Apothecary (sampler)
                       The Budding Soprano * (sampler)

JANACEK
                       The Cunning Little Vixen (sampler)

LECOCQ
                       The Daughter of Madame Angot (sampler)

LEHÁR
                       The Merry Widow (sampler)

MOUSSORGSKY
                       The Marriage * (sampler)

MOZART
                       Bastien and Bastienne * (sampler)
                       Così fan tutte (sampler)
                       Don Giovanni (sampler)
                       The Magic Flute (sampler)
                       The Marriage of Figaro (sampler)
                       Yanked from the Harem (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) (sampler)

NICOLAI
                       The Merry Wives of Windsor (sampler)

OFFENBACH
                       The Bandits (sampler)
                       La Belle Hélène (sampler)
                       Bluebeard (sampler)
                       The Bridge of Sighs (sampler)
                       The Cat That Turned Into a Woman * (sampler)
                       The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein (sampler)
                       Marriage by Lantern * (sampler)
                       The New Woman (Genvevieve de Brabant)
                       Orpheus in the Underworld (sampler)
                       La Périchole (sampler)
                       The Princess of Trebizonde (sampler)
                       Tales of Hoffmann (sampler)
                       La Vie Parisienne (sampler)

PERGOLESI
                       La Serva Padrona * (sampler)

PUCCINI
                       La Bohème (sampler)
                       La Rondine (sampler)
                       Madame Butterfly (sampler)
                       Manon Lescaut (sampler)
                       Tosca (sampler)

ROSSINI
                       The Barber of Seville (sampler)
                       La Cenerentola (sampler)
                       Count Ory (sampler)
                       The Italian Girl in Algiers (sampler)

SCHUBERT
                       The Wedding Roast * (Der Hochzeitsbraten) (a trio - Op 104) (sampler)

SMETANA
                       The Bartered Bride (sampler)
                       The Two Widows (sampler)

STRAVINSKY
                       The Soldier's Tale (sampler)

von SUPPE
                       My Fair Galatea * (sampler)

TCHAIKOVSKY
                       Eugene Onegin (sampler)

VERDI
                       Ernani (sampler)
                       Falstaff (sampler)
                       King for a Day (Un Giorno di Regno) (sampler)
                       Macbeth
                       The Marauders (I Masnadieri) (sampler)
                       Oberto (sampler)
                       Luisa Miller (sampler)
                       Rigoletto (sampler)
                       Stiffelio (sampler)
                       La Traviata (sampler)

WAGNER
                       No Love Allowed (Das Liebesverbot) (sampler)

von WEBER
                       Abu Hassan * (sampler)
                       Der Freisch�tz (sampler)

FOR YOUTH AUDIENCES:
                       Alice in Opera Land
                       La Cenerentola - children's version
                       The Escape
                       A Mini Magic Flute

Libretti and piano-vocal scores are available from:

Pocket Opera
469 Bryant St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 972-8930
fax: (415) 348-0931
email: info@pocketopera.org

English versions copyright © Donald Pippin.
Exclusive agent: Pocket Opera, Inc., San Francisco.