FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

UNIVERSITY OF SILESIA IN KATOWICE

PAULINA MERZ

279461

DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING MUSICALS

Differences in translations of the main song

from the musical The Phantom of the Opera.

B.A. DIPLOMA PAPER

SUPERVISOR: DR. KRYSTYNA WARCHAŁ

SOSNOWIEC, 2014

WYDZIAŁ FILOLOGICZNY UNIWERSYTETU ŚLĄSKIEGO

W KATOWICACH

PAULINA MERZ

279461

TRUDNOŚCI W TŁUMACZENIU MUSICALI

Różnice w przekładach na podstawie głównej piosenki

z musicalu „Upiór w operze”.

PRACA DYPLOMOWA

LICENCJACKA

PROMOTOR: DR KRYSTYNA WARCHAŁ

SOSNOWIEC, 2014

Słowa kluczowe: musical, tłumaczenie, Upiór w operze

Oświadczenie autora pracy

Świadoma odpowiedzialności prawnej oświadczam, że niniejsza praca została

napisana przeze mnie samodzielnie i nie zawiera treści uzyskanych w sposób niezgodny z

obowiązującymi przepisami.

Oświadczam również, że przed stawiona praca nie była wcześniej przedmiotem

procedur związanych z uzyskaniem tytułu zawodowego w wyższej uczelni.

Oświadczam ponadto, że niniejsza wersja pracy jest identyczna z załączoną

wersją elektroniczną.

Data

Podpis autora pracy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 6

1. What is a musical? ....................................................................................................... 8

1.1. The notion of the musical ..................................................................................... 8

1.1.1. Etymology of the musical .............................................................................. 9

1.2. A short history of the musical ............................................................................... 9

1.2.1. Antiquity ........................................................................................................ 9

1.2.2. Opera ............................................................................................................ 10

1.2.2.1. Comic opera .......................................................................................... 11

1.2.2.2. Ballad opera .......................................................................................... 11

1.2.3. Operetta ........................................................................................................ 12

1.2.4. Minstrel show, jazz and rock ....................................................................... 13

1.2.5. Musical comedy and musical play ............................................................... 14

1.3. The first musicals ................................................................................................ 15

1.4. Characteristics of the musicals............................................................................ 16

1.4.1. Structure ....................................................................................................... 16

1.4.2. Music............................................................................................................ 17

1.4.3. Draft ............................................................................................................. 17

1.4.4. Libretto and lyrics ........................................................................................ 18

1.4.5. Dance ........................................................................................................... 18

1.4.6. Title .............................................................................................................. 19

1.5. The term megamusical ........................................................................................ 19

1.5.1. The characteristics of the megamusical ....................................................... 20

1.5.1.1. Plot, emotions and setting ..................................................................... 20

1.5.1.2. Music..................................................................................................... 21

1.5.1.3. Marketing and critics ............................................................................ 21

2. Translation and/or adaptation? ................................................................................... 22

2.1. The notion of translation ..................................................................................... 22

2.1.1. Audio-visual translation as intersemiotic one .............................................. 22

2.1.2. Audio-visual translation ............................................................................... 23

2.1.3. Poetry translation ......................................................................................... 24

2.1.4. Theatrical translation ................................................................................... 24

2.2. Adaptation versus translation .............................................................................. 25

2.3. Musical as an intersemiotic translation ............................................................... 25

2.4. The Phantom of the Opera as a megamusical ..................................................... 27

3. The analysis ............................................................................................................... 29

3.1. Background to the analysis ................................................................................. 29

3.2. Analysis of the main song from the musical ....................................................... 30

3.3. The song The Phantom of the Opera .................................................................. 31

3.3.1. English versions ........................................................................................... 33

3.3.2. Polish translations ........................................................................................ 33

3.3.2.1. Polish adaptation of the musical ........................................................... 34

3.3.2.2. Polish subtitles in movie ....................................................................... 38

3.3.2.3. Voice-over in movie ............................................................................. 41

Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 44

Streszczenie pracy ........................................................................................................... 46

Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 47

6

INTRODUCTION

The author of this research paper attempted to combine her two fields of interests in

one, coherent whole. There is a part dedicated to music and the other one dedicated to

translation. The author considers her work as a short introduction to the themes which

she specializes in and she tries to explain all phenomena in a brief, easy way to make

the reader aware of translation processes and problems occurring when music functions

as a main component of the translated text. This paper is divided into three separate

parts.

In this paper, the author studies problems occurring in Polish translations of the musical

The Phantom of the Opera and she also tries to give possible reasons for the particular

translation in three different types of translation which are, as follows: adaptation,

subtitles and voice-over. Moreover, the author explains which translation is the most

suitable for musicals.

Andrew Lloyd Webber asked a question “What do we mean by opera, anyway?”.1

In the first part of this paper, the author explains briefly what is a musical and she

introduces a short history of all music genres which appeared in theatres and which are

connected with the musical. The author of this work wanted to present it in as easy and

understandable away as possible and she also was aware that the reader might not be

familiarized with the history of music. At the end of the first chapter, the author

discusses the musical in detail and analyses the notion of a megamusical.

The second part of this paper is focused on the notion of translation and adaptation. This

time, the author treats of different types of translation, starting from the most general

one and finishing with these which are the essence of the whole work.

And where does that put Phantom? Obviously, there is a world of difference

between Phantom and something like Sugar Babies. But there is no difference

today between opera and serious musical theater.2

The last part of this research paper includes the author’s analysis of three types

of translations of the musical. Apart from introducing general information about

The Phantom of the Opera, the author is wondering whether this performance is

1 Lloyd Webber to Walsh, Magician of the Musical

2 Ibid.

7

in fact the opera or the musical. At the end, she not only observes differences between

the original and its translation, but also presents differences and problems which

appeared while analysing particular translations.

8

Chapter 1: What is a musical?

1.1 The notion of the musical

The notion of the musical is difficult to discuss. There is no single definition of this

term. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition (2013),

the musical is a kind of theatrical performance, the aim of which is to show simple, but

distinctive plot, using music, dancing and dialogue. The musical was created

in the United States and it is treated as a genre similar to the European operetta.

However, Marianowicz (1979) disagrees with the statement that “the musical is

a modern form of operetta which is a purely American phenomenon” (p.5; trans. PM)

and he shows that musical comes not only from the operetta and it is not only

the American genre. The musical is a composition of the ballad opera, burlesque,

extravaganza, minstrel show, vaudeville, operetta, musical comedy and jazz music.

Schmidt-Joos (Das Musical) confirms this statement and adds that “if the musical had

only made a mixture of the European and American models, there would be only

a misbegotten child. In fact, jazz which came into the theatrical music, created a new

form of all these elements”.3 Then, Gołębiowski (1989: 9; trans. PM) introduces

a completely different definition of this term. The musical is

a musical-drama performance, characterised by steady, consistent action, full

artistic equality and integration of vocal and dancing elements which are

contributing equally to the development of the plot. Music and vocalism

in musical are kept in popular song style; dialogue is similar to the vocabulary and

rhythm of colloquial speech. It is also characterised by realism of a plot and

a place of the action.

Gołębiowski (1989) divided the musical according to its three main influences

– universal, European and Anglo-American. The first one, called the universal, consists

mostly of music and acting of the vocal utterance; the verbal declamation has a minor

role in it. The European strand was created by some forms of musical theatre like opera

and operetta (see section 1.2.2 and 1.2.3). In the Anglo-American strand there are also

3 Quoted in Marianowicz (1979: 19; trans.PM)

9

forms which have English roots, but became transformed into American reality

(see section 1.2.4)

1.1.1 Etymology of the musical

According to Bielacki (1994), the etymology of the word ‘musical’ had a big influence

on this form. The main function of the musical is to create music. The phonic

component was present in the antiquity as the Greek feature called techne mousike.

It was the first form of art which included poetry, music and dance. A musical element

proved the connection between a melic nature of presenting a text and all antique

theatrical performances. The very beginning of it was an art form called dithyramb

(linked to the cult of Dionysus), which was a kind of dialogue spoken by the leader of

choir and choir itself. Bielacki (1994) also claims that as the art form developed,

the word mousike lost its adjectival nature and became a noun (in Greek mousike,

in Latin musica), which meant the art of sound. A musical was an inheritor of all

the past forms which at the end were included into it. Among them there were not only

entertainment forms, like the operetta, musical comedy, ballad opera, vaudeville, rock

ballet etc. but also more classical and serious ones, for instance the mystery play, aria,

cantata, chorale etc. At last, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley were the main places where

the real form of musical was created.

1.2 A short history of the musical

1.2.1 Antiquity

In the ancient Greece, each year, there were ceremonial Dionysiac processions where

people went to the Eleusis sanctuary. They consisted of musicians, the old, the highest

priests and ordinary people who were singing tragos. Then appeared satyrs who were

dressed-up and began dancing with girls. According to Grun (1974), that event could be

the first form of the musical comedy, maybe it was the predecessor of the operetta.

When the plague depopulated the ancient Romans, authorities invited Etruscan

actors. At the same time in Italy, two primitive forms of performance existed

– the Roman farce and the Greek comedy.

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1.2.2 Opera

Grun (1974) introduces in his work the story of the beginning of the opera which

influenced the American musical theatre in 19th

and 20th

century.

Earl Giovanni Bardi, who lived in Florence, invited to his home scholars,

scientists and musicians and they tried to revive the classical Greek drama. They were

aware of the fact that a new way of singing had to be invented to express passions and

emotions. According to the study conducted by Bielacki (1994), vocal polyphony was

used in passion plays, but it was no longer possible to introduce a musical dialogue and

make it a visible text with an individual style of characters. Choirs were replaced by

a soloist and the chord technique substituted the linear technique. As Grun (1974)

discusses the story of the opera further, Vincenzo Gailei was a composer who for

the first time created pieces for a soloist and instruments narrating the story of biblical

or mythical characters. In fact, Dafne written and performed by Ottavio Rinuccini is

recognized as the first real opera; however, it did not exist as the opera in the present

sense of the term. It was a light version of the common opera and it lasted only half

an hour. The score (usually of two lines of voice and figure bass) was short and

the musical structure consisted only of the few chains of recitative. The whole history

of the opera can be summed up as a constant struggle between poets, composers and

stage designers.

According to Gołębiowski (1989), the opera can be divided into two kinds

– opera comique (see section 1.2.2.1) and opera seria. If we take the musical into

account, we will base only on the comic opera. In the opera, the voice projection

reaches the point at which it is impossible to raise it further, what can be a challenge

not only for the artist, but also for the audience. The opera is considered by many

the most romantic form of all theatrical ones. Its melody is based in the convention

of classical music. A part which is performed by a highly trained opera singer is

distinctly separated from the colloquial speech. The opera is known as a form where

there are no dialogues. The melody in the opera and the musical is appropriate to

the characters and emotions of protagonists. By contrast, the operetta concentrates

mainly on the beauty of the melody (more about operetta in section 1.2.3).

11

1.2.2.1 Comic opera

Bielacki (1994) introduces the comic opera as a genre created in England; another name

for it was the Savoy Opera. This name was also the name of the theatre in London

where most of these operas were performed. The comic opera included all elements

needed in comedies and it was very similar to the operetta and ballad opera.

The comedy of the opera comique is not the most important feature, the thing which

draws attention is spoken dialogue and happy ending.

Grun (1974) explains the fall of the opera comique by attributing it to Adolphe

Adam who during his whole life wrote a lot of operas. One day he became interested in

a new genre introduced by Offenbach and when he was nearing the end of his day,

he wrote the operetta Les Pantins de Violette which had its premiere four days before

his death in 1856.

1.2.2.2 Ballad opera

According to Marianowicz (1979), the musical derives from the English ballad opera.

It was a popular form of the musical drama where there were no opera’s recitatives and

arias. Instead of them, the ballad opera offered dialogues and folk songs.

Gołębiowski (1989) completes this task, introducing the main feature

of the ballad opera whose aim is an interlacement of action and songs which were

a comment to the plot. There were no longer classical pieces of music, but songs

of ordinary people. The typical feature of the ballad opera is to alternate the plot with

songs which determine individual comments to the schemes.

Bielacki (1994) also discusses this topic mentioning another features which rate

the ballad opera as a genre of the opera. It consists of a three-act performance divided

into scenes and beginning with an overture to an opera. However, arias were substituted

by songs which often were paraphrases of pieces from popular operas. The ending was

similar to the contemporary operettas and musicals, there was a general dance with

choral song. Protagonists were no longer divine citizens of Mount Olympus, but

ordinary people, mostly representatives of the underworld.

12

The prototype of a new musical genre is the most known piece of the ballad

opera The Beggar’s Opera written in 1728 by Gay and Pepusch. According to Doctor

Johnson4, The Beggar’s Opera was “a decline of all morality”; however, people showed

interest in unconventional performances. Music consisted of sixty-nine arias and

ballads, created by various well-known composers, which functioned as parodies

of famous operas. Żuławski (1959) confirms that Gay introduced his own stagecraft,

breaking theatrical conventions and above all, he called it the opera, in which way

he openly ridiculed the aristocracy. In spite of this fact his work was successful and

in 1751 The Beggar’s Opera was shown in New York. It was the beginning of

the expansion of the European theatrical forms in America.

1.2.3 Operetta

According to Bielacki (1994), the etymology of the operetta derivers from the word

‘opera’ and it is described as a small opera. The first use of this word was introduced

by French author Jacques Offenbach in 19th

c. His operettas were one-acts and were

based on the popular dance – cancan. As it was shown in the burlesque, the operetta was

a parody of mythological and antic themes. Another famous author was Johnann

Strauss II. His operettas based mainly on the German waltz in triple time, however they

were not as much popular as the English comic opera in America.

Bielacki (1994) also presents the operetta was an evolution of the opera buffa.

The operetta was divided into acts, scenes, episodes preceded by the overture and filled

up by arias, songs, musical dialogues and instrumental parts. The libretto was recited

mainly without music in a form of monologue or dialogue. Dance was just an ornament

in the operetta and functioned as a setting. The operetta was included among comic

genres, its plot referred to ancient myths and fairy tales presenting in this way a satiric

picture of political and historical events.

4 Mentioned in Grun (1974:52; trans. PM)

13

1.2.4 Minstrel show, jazz and rock

Gołębiowski (1989) discusses forms which contributed to the development

of the musical and they were purely the American ones.

The minstrel show was an American form which developed in 19th

century.

It started when Afro-Americans were admitted to participate in shows. In keeping with

tradition, they had to paint their faces black and they were singing songs to

the accompaniment of banjos and drums which were marked by the indigenous

American folk. These type of songs were called coon songs and they became popular,

especially during the Civil War. The humour in the minstrel show was based on quick

questions and immediate witty ripostes of black workers from plantations or domestic

services. It created a rhythm and comic dialogue in the future musical.

Gołębiowski (1989) introduces the native style of music which derived from

emigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland. It was connected with the lack of

syncopation and major key and nowadays this trend is used in country music.

Gołębiowski (1989) presents also the other style where minor keys were imported to

America from East Europe, especially from Jews.

A combination of all of these trends was used by Gershwin to create jazz.

Classical jazz comes from the famous district in New Orleans where musicians wanted

to earn money in clubs by playing background music. New York apart from its great

tradition of musical theatre was also a place where jazz musicians moved from

New Orleans.

The most important place where the musical achieved its definitive form,

according to Bielacki (1994), was Broadway. After that, the musical quickly spread

throughout other American cities and also in Europe, which indicates that the structure

of the musical became more dynamic and joined various artistic styles.

David Ewen, an outstanding expert on the musical theatre, presents also

Tin Pan Alley as an important place for development of the musical and he claims that

“it is rather a notion describing relations in American, popular music thanks to which

14

it became a huge industry […], in a word, it is a way to write songs according to

established patterns and ways of their commercial spreading.”5

To sum up, as Marianowicz (1979) observes, Tin Pan Alley and Broadway were

influenced by jazz music and from this time, jazz was used more often in musical

theatres, but it had to develop and became American dance music which was the most

basic element of the musical’s score.

1.2.5 Musical comedy and musical play

The musical has also another etymology then the one presented in section 1.1.1. Some

experts consider that the name comes from the abbreviation of two basic concepts

– the musical comedy and the musical play.

According to Grun (1974), the musical comedy was a sign of an early stage

of development of the musical or the first form of the American operetta. It was not

really a pure American form of the musical theatre and it owes a lot to the European

forms, like the Italian opera buffa, the French musiquette, the English pantomime and

Vienna’s musical farce. It was no longer meant to treat the spectator as someone

not able to watch an artistically mature work as it was seen earlier.

A well-known person in England whose musical comedies were famous was

Noel Coward. Because of the fact that England tried to have separate style from

the American one, John Littlewood created the Workshop Theatre in 1945. This kind

of ‘musical’ was more serious than the American one and it based mainly on English

works. English musicals were different from American ones in the sense of seriousness

of shows and basing them on outstanding, literary works.

Then, the musical comedy turned into the musical play. People were avid for

more sophisticated conventions, so there were less and less boundaries in authenticity

and directors were very demanding towards writers and composers. The mutual

influence of different art forms and relation between music and dance created a final

term – musical as a coherent form of the musical theatre. As Marianowicz (1979)

5 Quoted in Marianowicz (1979: 18; trans. PM)

15

claims, in this case, it is hard to say where the musical appeared first, in America or

in England. It is also unclear what was the first, real musical.

1.3 The first musicals

The first musicals come from the second half of 19th

century. The main representatives

of this kind of entertainment are: C. Porter, R. Rodgers, G. Gershwin, I. Berlin,

L. Bernstein, A. Lloyd Webber.

My Fair Lady was the first, real musical which was played all over the world.

Although, this musical is treated as American, Marianowicz (1979) considers that

the libretto was based on the classical comedy written by Irish Shaw and the music was

created by Loewe from Austria. The story of this musical is set in England. Then

the history of Romeo and Juliet was retold in West Side Story.

West Side Story was composed by Jerome Robbins and his aim was to reproduce

the real life of young people in New York which were members of two, hostile clans.

The music was composed by Bernstein and after a huge success, this musical was

adapted for the screen. This kind of adaptation quickly became a common form around

the world and was associated with musicals. West Side Story, according to

Gołębiowski (1989), was different from previous musicals, because the plot was not

lyrical. There was a tragic ending and the role of ballet was emphasised.

Hair was a different kind of the musical. There was no libretto and it was

composed of scenes, songs and dances. The music was created by Galt MacDermot.

The theme told a story about the life of hippies and their ideology. The whole musical

was topical and its music was based on rock music. Gołębiowski (1989) marks that

there was also an element scandal which was the nudity of actors and actress.

A Chorus Line, is the concept musical from 1976 with music by Marvin

Hamlisch according to Gołębiowski (1989). The author presented a casual scene from

Broadway. Actors in their songs sing about their motivations connected with the casting

they participate in. The melody and words of these songs are appropriate to characters

of separate protagonists.

16

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical based on the Victorian

melodrama with music by Stephen Sondheim. Gołębiowski (1989) introduces the main

theme of this musical. The plot shows a story of a barber who was craving for revenge

on a system which put him into prison.

1.4 Characteristics of the musicals

It is difficult to discuss the features of the musicals without referring to George M.

Cohan who was a comprehensive author and he, for the first time, changed the thinking

of the operetta. Songs from his musicals were kept in style of popular music.

In his musicals, he presented the life of ordinary Americans what flattered American

middle-classes.

In 1940-1965, to which Gołębiowski (1989) refers were golden ages

of the musical and the dominating form of the musical was called the book musical,

from a word ‘book’ which meant the libretto. The function of it was to stress the role

of the plot. After 1965, more and more popular becomes the concept musical. This form

of the musical separates libretto from music. Some scenes are kept in convention

of variétiés from 20s and the main theme is a real, usually unpleasant life of ordinary

people.

1.4.1 Structure

The great number of authors who wrote musical comedies were born and brought up

in New York which was a place of cultural and theatrical centre of American life.

Gołębiowski (1989) describes the structure of common musical.

Musicals are distinguished by two-acts structure, where the first act is longer

than the second one. In that case, Gołębiowski (1989) explains that it is necessary

to plan accents and arrange the plot in an appropriate way. The function of the first act

is to introduce a conflict, usually between two main characters, and at the end this

misunderstanding should be still unsolved, which will cause an interest among

spectators. At the end of the whole musical, there is a huge performance of all artists

who participated in this show and all conflicts are solved and end with happy ending.

17

1.4.2 Music

According to Bielacki (1994), the principal feature of the musical is the role of music.

This function is not only considered as the main element of the etymology of the name,

but also as the meaning of all changes seen in musical-drama forms throughout

the ages. Themes of songs were simplified, there were no longer arias and they were

more often ornamented by chromatic tones and dissonances. Apart from popular music,

the musical was incorporated symphonic music, Gregorian chant, concrete music,

electronic music, folk of different nations (Greek, Spanish, Jewish, Polish) and melodies

from anthems, electric instruments and drums accompanied symphonic orchestra,

and the classical style of singing was supplemented with the jazz and rock ones.

Gołębiowski (1989) claims that the main difference between the musical and

other musical-drama forms was the music. While the music of older genres is mostly

classical and nowadays it belongs to elites, the music of musicals is based on popular

music and it is relegated to pop culture. Gołębiowski (1989) makes a division of music

in musicals and mentions four different forms: overture, ballet music, song and

background music. The first one, the overture, is usually treated as an introduction

to the second act and also the music which is played when the audience leaves after

the end of the performance (it is called the walkout music). The primary functions of all

forms is to create emotional frames of the performance, relations between characters,

emotions accompanying them and the way of communication. Gołębiowski (1989)

confirms that musical, like the opera and operetta, gives an opportunity to show

character’s emotions by means of music.

1.4.3 Draft

The main function of the draft is to create a situation in which singing of all characters

will be natural and in that case, a lot of authors set musicals’ story in clubs or cabarets.

According to Gołębiowski (1989), the other idea to avoid unnatural scenes is to use

the backstage musical convention. This phenomenon presents two parallel stories

in which one shows a real life and the other one is a form of theatrical performance.

Before the song, there should be a dialogue which introduces this song and the most

18

popular form of this solution is a question asked in dialogue and a quick answer put into

lyrics of the song.

1.4.4 Libretto and lyrics

Marianowicz (1979) claims that the musical is based on a logical libretto. It has its own

strategy to show a main content and a sense of art in the same way. It is interested in

a daily life of ordinary people talking in colloquial language. There are no longer happy

endings and victory of good above evil. Now, the musical is a form of art whose aim is

to affect, amuse and talk about humanity.

According to Gołębiowski (1989), the melody theme should consist of concise

phrase comprised in eight tact and the same requirement refers to lyrics which should be

short and understandable for most of spectators. The song, within lyrics and melody, is

a link between script and music.

1.4.5 Dance

Bielacki (1994) observes that dance in musicals became more important and was

no longer an interlude, but a full element which created the plot.

According to experts connected with the musical scene, dance is a form which

can describe a situation better than dialogues or songs, as Gołębiowski (1989) claims

in his book. Sometimes, there are scenes which cannot be told by words and dance

substitutes them and makes a visible picture of the story. Although dance is a movement

and it is a constant source of direct and sense experiences, it is also an art directly

connected with spiritual life.

As it was in the case of musical (see section 1.1), Gołębiowski (1989) divides

dances into the European strand and the American one. The American dance comes

from Black tradition, where dancers where dancing barefoot and the most characteristic

steps were slide and sweeping ones. The African dance was an imitation of animal

movements and names of these dances were often based on it, as it is in the case of

19

foxtrot. The European dance, mainly the Irish one, was based on dancing with hard

footwear on hard ground (nowadays this dance is called tap dancing).

Finally, there are five different types of dance in musicals. The first one,

soft shoe is the least demanding dance, destined mainly to actors and singers.

Another dance is tap dancing; it is also less demanding than ballet or modern dance,

because its function is not to move the action but express feelings. It is used in musicals

connected with the past. Ballroom dance which was an inspiration for musical ballet

and it functioned as a kind of decoration. Acrobatic dance was used mainly

for expressing strong emotions. Dancers perform acrobatics which sometimes looked

threateningly. Modern dance is the newest style which become popular when ragtime

and jazz were introduced to the theatres. The last three dances where mainly performed

by professional dancers.

1.4.6 Title

There is a great number of reasons for naming musicals in a way there are named.

Gołębiowski (1989) introduces a few examples.

The first kind of naming is use of the word ‘music’ and indeed a lot of musicals

have this word in the title, for instance The Sound of Music or The Music Man.

Some others do not use the word ‘music’, but another word which can be associated

with light forms of music or music art: Cabaret or Cancan. Another type of title makes

reference to romantic love where the stress in put on human relationships as it is seen

in Guys and Dolls or Me and Juliet or in titles which have the form of sentences,

such as She Loves Me or I Do! I Do!. Sometimes in musicals, the lyric mood is

emphasised and in titles elements of fantasy are seen, as in Finian’s Rainbow or Kismet.

1.5 The term megamusical

According to Sternfeld (2006), megamusical may have synonyms like spectacle show,

blockbuster musical or extravaganza. This term describes the musical theatre as

a phenomenon which was all-important in the 1970s and 1980s and is very influential

in Broadway nowadays. The first use of this word or rather prefix appeared

20

in the New York Times in the 1980s. Stempel (2010: 618) introduces a notion

of megamusicals as shows which

often resembled rock operas in the underlying earnestness with which they took

up sweeping tales of lofty import and grand emotions – or those that at least

aspired to such [...] They still featured ambitious scores in a variety of styles in

which the characters sang almost everything, including dialogue, and the orchestra

seldom stopped playing. Where such shows most differed from their predecessors,

however, was in their approach to staging. Eye-popping scenic spectacle,

elaborate sets and lighting schemes, high-tech wizardry, an architectural use of

theater space, sheer grandeur of scale – all these together helped to justify the new

prefix and to turn “megamusical” into an acceptable Broadway buzzword by

the end of the 1980s.

All great megamusicals came from England. This expansion of Broadway started with

British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and then was followed by the French who

arrived on Broadway after staying in London. For the first time, the strong European

influence created a dominant style in the modern American musical theatre. Andrew

Lloyd Webber was the first non-American composer who achieved success in writing

musicals in America.

1.5.1 The characteristics of the megamusicals

1.5.1.1 Plot, emotions and setting

The main theme of megamusicals plot are epic tales of “romance, war, religion,

redemption, life and death, or some combination of these and other lofty

sentiments”(Sternfeld, 2006: 2). They are not telling a story of ordinary, American

people. Another important role is connected with emotions, not only presented on stage,

but also evoked in the audience. It provides much more drama than comedy.

The setting is specific and located in the distant past. The more impressive,

complicated and expensive sets are, the more successful a musical is. The first musicals

based more on an enormous and high-cost settings then the story or music.

With the passing of time, this physical hugeness appeared also in the plot,

emotions and music. In this case, Sternfeld (2006) compares megamusicals

to the Italian opera of the seventeenth century or French grand opéra

of the mid-nineteenth century.

21

1.5.1.2 Music

Another important feature of megamusicals according to Sternfeld (2006), is music.

A megamusical does not have spoken dialogues or has very few ones. It is typically

sung in composition of set songs which are linked together and create a complete

material. Characters sing throughout presenting not only successive songs, like in

the musical comedy tradition, but also singing dialogues. The role of orchestra is very

important, because it introduces fluidity and ties everything together by constant music.

Again, some may consider megamusicals to be operas, and indeed they can be right,

because in fact, megamusicals are much more similar to operas than other forms

of Broadway musicals.

1.5.1.3 Marketing and critics

Sternfeld (2006) claims that in 1980s. Cameron Mackintosh, who was a British

producer, introduced megamusialsas a product for sale, which has its own

advertisements in newspapers, radio and television. Such big marketing campaigns

released whole music tracks or single songs from musicals to the audience before shows

were opened. The media were interested in backstage gossips and all undertakings

connected with musicals. The first time in history of the theatre megamusicals became

a money-making machine and were financially successful. Musicals like Cats,

Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera are prime examples in this respect.

Musicals quickly spread not just in New York or London, but all over the world.

The role of theatre critics changed a lot during the era of megamusicals.

Critics hated megamusicals and treated them as low, almost popular shows, but they

were helpless. Although the reviews of megamusicals were poor, these shows became

the longest-running and the most financially successful musicals of all time.

22

Chapter 2: Translation and/or adaptation?

2.1 The notion of translation

There is a difference between the oral interpretations and the written translations in

all languages, but in English, the difference lies also in terminology – interpreting

(meaning oral) and translating (meaning written). The author of this work bases on

the written translation, mainly on the audio-visual one.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition (2013),

“a continuous concomitant of contact between two mutually incomprehensible tongues

and one that does not lead either to suppression or extension of either is translation.

As soon as two speakers of different languages need to converse, translation is

necessary, either through a third party or directly”. Tomaszkiewicz (2006) introduces

a term translation as an operation which overlaps two messages.

2.1.1 Audio-visual translation as intersemiotic one

According to Jakobson (1959: 233), there are three forms of translation:

1 Intralingual translation or rewording is an interpretation of verbal signs

by means of other signs of the same language.

2 Interlingual translation or translation proper is an interpretation of verbal signs

by means of some other language.

3 Intersemiotic translation or transmutation is an interpretation of verbal signs

by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems.

Tomaszkiewicz (2006) claims that audio-visual translation is a form of intersemiotic.

In her book, she discusses the notion and use of the audio-visual translation and she

claims that this kind of translation consists of out of language elements as picture, sound

and music which are mixed and in that case, they create a sense of translation.

Luyken (1991) in his work redefines language transfer as a replacement of spoken text,

however the new text has to create connection to the other elements which language

23

transfer cannot modify which is seen in audio-visual translation where only

the mentioned above language transfer is changed and needs translation.

2.1.2 Audio-visual translation

According to Tomaszkiewicz (2006), the audio-visual translation may be also called

the screen translation.

In audio-visual translations, there are three main techniques of translating a text:

dubbing, subtitles and voice-over. In this work, the author will discuss only two

of them, namely subtitles and voice-over. The first one is the most common solution for

translating musicals. The second one, in author’s opinion, is not the best kind of

translation in this case, but it turned out to be used by television.

The basic problem of this subtitles is the reading pace of the spectator.

In that case, as Tomaszkiewicz (2006) claims, the text of dialogues should be shorten

and condensed. The role of the translator is to decide which information in dialogues is

more and which less important. It is said that the standard length of a text should have

two lines (about 150-180 words per minute) and should occupy two third of the screen

wide. The time of the displayed text is dependent on the speed of reading and the time

of spoken dialogues. On the other hand, Belczyk (2007) observes that subtitles do not

upset the structure of the work, because the voice of actors is still audible.

What is more, the spectator hears the original language, which may help him to

understand daily speech of native speakers.

Although the voice-over is the most popular kind of translation in television,

mainly in Eastern Europe, according to Tomaszkiewicz (2006), the use of it in case of

musicals where most of the scenes are sung is not a good solution which will be

discussed by the author in section 3.3.2.3. The whole text is read by the one person

whoever is speaking and whatever happens. According to Luyken (1991), voice-over is

characterised by the faithful translation of the original text, but it differs from dubbing,

because of hearing an original voices ‘behind’ the reader. As Ivarsson (1998) observes,

the voice-over is a method of translation used in Eastern Europe on account

of economic reasons.

24

2.1.3 Poetry translation

According to Pieńkos (1993), poetry translation is not the same as a poetic translation.

A poetic translation’s aim is to create a poetic work whose value is equivalent to

the original work, while poetry translation may be written as, for instance, prose.

There are three types of poetic translation: the typical poetic translation, poetic-

philological translation and philological translation. The first type of poetic translation

has a crucial aim which assures longevity to the translated text in literature.

The second one, poetic-philological translation mainly bases on semantics and style and

the pragmatic meaning is not really important there. The last translation,

the philological one is not the replacement of the original, but it gives information about

the original. Frost (1969) presents poetry translation as a process which cannot separate

form from content.

2.1.4 Theatrical translation

A theatrical translation, known also as grosso modo is based mainly on its speakability,

which makes actor’s speech more natural and convincing. Johnston (1996) observes that

“rather than giving new form to an already known meaning, translation for the stage is

concerned with re-constructing meaning both as text and as theatre through process […]

which is no less dramaturgical than it is linguistic”6. Theatrical translation is one of

the translations where culture is treated as the main component. Johnston (1996) claims

that

The translator as dramaturge must provide, in the sense of making explicit, in the

target language text (and, in an ideal world, subsequently through active

participation in rehearsal) an array of information which is encoded in the culture-

specific frame of reference or the paraverbal elements of the original, so that the

final process of reconstitution can take place onstage in as complete a way as

possible.7

Pound (1954) observes that a translator of this kind of text does not have to be

a professional translator and does not have to know the original, source language to

translate a text. The most important thing in this case is to find key words and put them

in the exact context in respect with people’s experience which may be compared to

6 Quoted in Landers (2001: 104-105)

7 Ibid. p. 105

25

translating poetry (see section 2.1.3). According to Hirsch (1977), interpretation

(in other words subtilitas explicandi) may appear in its pure form only in paraphrases

or translations which confirms that the most important thing is to find key words and

put them into translation.

2.2 Adaptation versus translation

As it was seen in section 2.1.4, artistic translations are often called interpretations

or even adaptations, because they are not a direct, literal translations. In that case,

musical sometimes occurs as an interpretation or adaptation and it is more important to

understand and find key words than to translate it literally. In other words, as proposed

by Wawrzyniak (1991: 129), “translation has to have the same stylistic sense and

to present an analogous depicted world”.

Adaptation in light dramas and comedies appears more often than common

translation. In that case, the work is modernized and suitable to the concrete cultural

region. The most important thing in adaptations, according to Landers (2001: 105),

is to “retain the humour, suspense, satire, or any other preponderant effect of the play,

however much it may entail textual modifications”. According to Newmark (1988: 46),

adaptation is nothing else than

the 'freest' form of translation. It is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry;

the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture converted to

the TL culture and the text rewritten. The deplorable practice of having a play

or poem literally translated and then rewritten by an established dramatist or poet

has produced many poor adaptations, but other adaptations have 'rescued' period

plays.

2.3 Musical as an intersemiotic translation

The opera and musical translations are a kind of intersemiotic translations, but they

differ from other intersemiotic translations, because both of them are syncretic arts

which connect various elements and their words and music create an entirety,

as Gorleé (1997: 243) claims in her work:

this [intermedial transcodification] is one variety of intersemiotic translation, and

one by which the sound elements are sound effects in the opera lyrics become

susceptible of being translated (“transmuted”, borrowing the signifier from

26

Jakobson) by the composer into a variety of musical forms which […] are

interpretant-signs in sound […]. Since music is ideally equipped to express and

elicit feeling, the connotative aspect of the meaning of the words […] can

effectively expand into a musical tone, intonation, a melodic line or harmony,

expressing an equivalent emotion […] . while the dramatic power of words thus

receives a musical intensification, what necessarily remains untranslated […] is

the referential, or denotative, meaning aspect of the verbal text […]. It enters into

vocal music as an aesthetic component in its own right.

Lyrics of musicals are often composed before the music. According to

McKelvey (2001), it is the consequence of composers’ examination of stresses and

burdens8 and then, the music is created and more important words are placed on

stronger beats. The basic problem of translating musicals is that music cannot be

changed and that is the main constraint for a translator. Mayoral, Kelly and Gallardo

(1988: 357) claim that “the translation of song has one of the highest degrees of

constraint among the different types of communication acts. What is more, in a musical,

songs are dramatized. This adds a further compilation to the translation process”.

There are also some technical problems which Nida (1964: 177) describes in his work:

the translator of poetry without musical accompaniment is relatively free in

comparison with one who must translate a song-poetry set to music. Under such

circumstances the translator must concern himself with a number of severe

restrictions: (1) a fixed length for each phrase, with precisely the right number of

syllables, (2) the observance of syllabic prominence (the accented vowels or long

syllables must much correspondingly emphasized notes in the music), (3) thyme

where required, and (4) vowels with appropriate quality for certain emphatic

or greatly lengthened notes.

Although musicals are different from operas (see section 1.2.2 and 1.4), the problem of

translation their librettos is still the same, as Apter (1989: 27) observes in her work:

[…] opera translators must be concerned with overall style, dramatic pacing, and

characterization through diction. But opera translators must also operate under

another stringent set of constraints: the physical limitations of the vocal apparatus,

the metrical patterns of a pre-set prosody, and the need to much verbal sense to

musical color.

To be more precise, as McKelvey (2001) suggests, the highest sounds should be

attributed to the vowels /a/ and /i/ and low notes to the vowels /o/ and /u/, which is

in conformity with the anatomy of oral cavity and makes the singer feel more

comfortable while singing. Another problem for translators is prosody.

8 Apter (1985: 316) explains burden as follows: „Burden refers to the time it takes to say a syllable in

normal speech. The longer a syllable takes to say, the longer or heavier its burden is said to be”

27

According to Apter and Herman (1999), rhymes in text should be different than original

ones to avoid comic effect or they should create assonance or alliteration, as it is

in the case of English language. The most difficult constraint is a foreign rhythm which

is always different from target language and consists of stress and burden.

According to Sierosławska (2008), in the opera, but also in musicals, the main

role is attributed to harmony, text and rhythm. In this context, harmony means

the consonance of voices, the text should be understandable for spectators and

the rhythm consists of regular melody. In spoken or singing expressions the most

important thing is not a word, but the whole phrase which uttered properly by reduction,

pitch, tone, sound, stress and intonation expresses emotions and invisible, logical sense

of piece. Schopenhauer (1995) considers music as a thing which can express emotions,

but complements of music are words which give reasons and motives for these

emotions. He compares music to spiritual world without matter (the matter is

understood as a text).

2.4 The Phantom of the Opera as a megamusical

Sternfeld (2006) describes briefly some features of megamusicals that was shown

in above sections:

In short, it features a grand plot from historical era, high emotions, singing and

music throughout, and impressive sets. It opens with massive publicity, which

usually leads to millions of dollars in advance sales. Marketing strategies provide

a recognizable logo or image, theme song, and catch phrase. Successful

(re-)productions spring up all over the world. Audiences rave; critics are less

thrilled. It runs for years, perhaps decades, becoming a fixture of our cultural

landscape.

The Phantom of the Opera may be a genre balancing between the opera and

the musical, but there is no doubt that it is a megamusical. Scherer (1988: 32) explains it

in the following way,

Lloyd Webber’s emotional, well-orchestrated score is his most satisfying to date,

and his richest. He has absorbed the electric nineteenth-century opera idiom and

built upon it a personal one that is at once fresh and appropriate to the period

setting, supporting drama on a stream of melodic inspiration that Broadway and

the opera would have thirsted for… Lloyd Webber unabashedly follows his lyrical

impulse and develops his thematic material with artistic integrity and

craftsmanship along traditional lines of serious composition.

28

As The Phantom of the Opera is a musical which mainly consists of songs it is

important to emphasize the role of music one more time, because it is the main problem

which occurs while translating and this is the issue which will be presented and

analysed in the next chapter.

29

Chapter 3: The analysis

3.1 Background to the analysis

In this chapter, the author will analyse two different sets of lyrics. The first one will be

in the film, English adaptation of a musical which mainly includes changes in its form.

The second one will be a Polish translation of selected songs from both the musical and

the movie The Phantom of the Opera which may look the same at first glance; however,

it is not really true.

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical which was created in 1986 by Andrew

Lloyd Webber (music), Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe (libretto). The plot is based on

Gaston Leroux’s novel from 1911, Le Fantôme de L'Opéra. It tells a story of a young

soprano, Christine Daaé, who became the victim of phantoms’ obsession.

He is a mysterious music genius.

It is obvious that this performance is a musical; however, there are some features

which it shares with the musical and the opera. As Andrew Lloyd Webber said,

it is a "rock n' roll merely masquerading as opera".9 Despite some recitatives

of supporting characters, most of the songs are sung in a modern way.

In the prologue, there is an auction on which a crystal chandelier is sold and

when the music begins the whole plot is moved backwards.

The first act starts with a new play in its rehearsal. When a piece of decoration

falls on the prima donna, Carlotta, she feels offended and she leaves the opera. Christine

Daaé is one of the dancers and she starts singing Carlotta’s part. After the premiere of

this performance, Christine goes to her dressing room and she sees her Angel of Music

for the first time, who is the Phantom of the Opera himself. He kidnaps her to his

underground lair and then the song The Phantom of the Opera begins. At the end of

the first act, the phantom finds out that Raoul loves Christine and he wants to protect

her. Phantom is hurt and when the curtains falls, the chandelier of the opera crashes.

The second act presents events after six months. There is a masquerade ball and

Christine is engaged with Raoul. She has to perform in a new play created by

the Phantom. During the performance, the Opera’s Ghost kills the tenor who is singing

9 http://www.mowiawieki.pl/index.php?page=film_tv&show=film&id=7

30

with Christine and replaces him. At the end, he takes her to his underground kingdom

again, but Raoul chases them. Christine has to choose between them. Finally, she and

her fiancé are free and the Phantom sits on his chair. The musical ends when Meg

uncovers his coat and there is only a mask.

3.2 Analysis of the main song from the musical

The first part of the author’s analysis discusses the most well-known song from

The Phantom of the Opera in the original, English version and then it will focus on its

Polish translations. This song is recognizable not only for people who have seen it, but

also for those who have not. This song is treated as a main theme and it has the same

title as the whole musical – The Phantom of the Opera.

The author chose this excerpt from the musical for several reasons. The first one

is the fact that it is probably known to everyone. The second one is more pragmatic,

because this song is completely the same in theatre’s version and movie’s one which

may be surprising for those who think that musicals’ adaptations are treated equally to

books’ adaptations. There are some subtle differences, which will be discussed further.

Probably the most interesting reason is the Polish translation. It should be borne

in mind that both translations of the libretto and subtitles to the movie were made by

the same translator, Daniel Wyszogrodzki. Here comes the questions which the author

asks herself. Are these translations entirely different? Or is the film’s translation just

a re-translation of the musical version?

Finally, there is the third type of translation which the author would like to focus

on. As it will be said further, it has become a new, interesting issue whether voice over

is a possible type of translation in musicals. The author is not convinced whether his

kind of translation preserves primary values of this kind of art. This time, a Polish

translation was prepared by the another person, namely by Zuzanna Naczyńska and

it was made for Canal Plus.

31

3.3 The song The Phantom of the Opera

This song appears in its instrumental version at the beginning of both the film and

the musical performance. The second time, when this song is introduced to the plot, is

when Phantom visits Christine in her dressing room after her performance and he takes

her to his underground lair. In the musical, it is the third scene in the first act.

The Phantom of the Opera is sung by two characters – Christine and

the Phantom. It is important to emphasize that Christine is a soprano while Phantom is

her master and sings tenor parts, often in falsetto. In music, these two voices reach

similar scales and both sing mainly in high registers. Christine’s parts are extremely

hard to sing, because the vocalist has to be able to sing lyrics, coloratura and dramatic

soprano in different parts of the aria. There is often at least one understudy who replaces

the main soprano and some songs are recorded and played instead of live singing.

As the most common example, during the song The Phantom of the Opera it happens

rarely that a soloist sings the last note in this piece which is E3. It is not caused by

the fact that she is not able to do it, but the vocal cords may be strained.

ENGLISH LYRICS POLISH LYRICS

BOTH MUSICAL

AND MOVIE

MUSICAL

MOVIE (SUBTITLES)

MOVIE

(VOICE-OVER)

In sleep he sang to me, Ten głos nawiedzał

mnie

Ten głos nawiedzał

mnie

W marzeniach

śpiewał mi

In dreams he came… Przybywał w snach Przybywał w snach Przyszedł we śnie

That voice which calls to

me Wymawiał imię me Wymawiał imię me On moje imię zna

And speaks my name… Aż nastał brzask po biały brzask I woła mnie

And do I dream again? I chyba dalej śnię I chyba dalej śnię Czy znów mi mąci

myśl

For now I find Lecz razem z nim tym razem z nim Iluzji dym

The Phantom of the

Opera is there -

To on – to Upiór tej

Opery ma

To on – Upiór Opery

tej ma

Bo Upiór Opery jest

tu

Inside my mind… We władzy sny w mocy moje sny W umyśle mym

Sing once again with me Niezwykły duet nasz Niech dziwny duet

nasz

Zaśpiewaj ze mną

znów

Our strange duet… Usłyszy noc Usłyszy noc Na głosy dwa

My power over you Bo mam nad tobą już Bo wciąż nad tobą

mam

Silniejsza z każdym

dniem

32

Grows stronger yet… Nadludzką moc Nadludzką moc Jest władza ma

And through you turn

from me, A choć odwracasz się A choć odwracasz się

I choć spoglądasz

wstecz

To glance behind, Spoglądasz w tył I zerkasz w tył… Z uporem złym

The Phantom of the

Opera is there -

To ja – to Upiór tej

Opery mam

To ja – Upiór Opery

tej mam

Bo Upiór Opery jest

tu

Inside your mind… We władzy sny… w mocy twoje sny! W umyśle twym

Those who have seen

your face

Kto widział twoją

twarz

Kto poznał twoją

twarz Ten, kto raz ujrzał cię

Draw back in fear… Ten poznał strach Ten poznał strach Już cofa się

I am the mask you

wear…

Dla świata maskę

masz

Dla świata maskę

masz Ja jestem maską twą

It’s me they hear… Świat głos mój zna A głos mój znasz… I słyszą mnie

Your/my spirit and

your/my voice, W harmonii splata się

Lecz głos mój z myślą

twą Jej dusza, jego głos

In one combined: I głos I myśl w harmonii drży Połączą się

The Phantom of the

Opera is there -

O tak – to Upiór tej

Opery ma

I tak – Upiór Opery

tej

Bo Upiór Opery jest

tu

Inside your/my mind… We władzy sny ogarnia nasze sny! W umyśle jej

He’s there, the Phantom

of the Opera

To on, to Upiór tej

Opery

To on, to Upiór tej

Opery

To on, to Upiór

Opery

Beware, the Phantom of

the Opera

Ten duch, to Upiór tej

Opery!

In all your fantasies, Fantazji odrzuć dziś

You always knew Nieostry kształt

That man and mystery… Bo czas, by miała już

… were both in you… Twój głos i twarz

And in his labyrinth, Noc labiryntem jest

Where night is blind, Zabłądźmy w nim

The Phantom of the Opera

is there/here -

O tak – to Upiór tej

Opery ma

Inside your/my mind… We władzy sny

Sing, my Angel of

Music!

Śpiewaj, Aniele

Muzyki!

Śpiewaj, Aniele

Muzyki!

Śpiewaj, mój Aniele

Muzyki!

Sing for me! Śpiewaj dla mnie! Śpiewaj dla mnie! Śpiewaj dla mnie!

Sing, my Angel of

Music!

Śpiewaj, Aniele

Muzyki!

Jestem Aniołem

Muzyki Śpiewaj Aniele!

Sing for me! Śpiewaj dla mnie! Śpiewaj dla mnie! Śpiewaj dla mnie!

Tab.1 Lyrics of The Phantom of the Opera

33

The table presented above shows lyrics from The Phantom of the Opera in its original,

English version and in the Polish translation of the original. It is important to explain

why some lines are not bolded. The whole table shows both versions of the musical,

however, the non-bolded part is only included in the theatrical version of it.

3.3.1 English versions

The author of this research paper observes a noticeable change which probably has

its origins in the manner the movie was created. Joel Schumacher is the director of

the movie and, at the same time, he is also the screenwriter with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The movie is shorter than the whole musical and some scenes were cut

or shortened, as it was also in the case of songs. The Phantom of the Opera song is

a good example of such operations; the last stanza was completely removed, but there

were not any difficulties with the music and nobody had to change it. This short excerpt

does not have any significant role in the whole performance. In that case, it is a natural

omission and it is imperceptible for the audience who have not seen a theatrical version.

Moreover, this little excerpt describes a journey to the phantom’s kingdom and it is

done by the depiction of a labyrinth. Furthermore, the omitted chorus does not

contribute anything new to the plot.

3.3.2 Polish translations

There were several problems which the author of this work had to cope with. They are

connected with a Polish translation made by Daniel Wyszogrodzki to both,

the performance and the movie and also a voice-over translation by Zuzanna

Naczyńska. As it was shown in chapter two, in the analysis of musical translation,

music plays the crucial role, so it is a very difficult task for a translator. It is important

not to disturb the structure of a melody and keep rhythm from the original without

changing the number of syllables and notes.

34

3.3.2.1 Polish adaptation of the musical

Daniel Wyszogrodzki is a translator of musicals in Roma Theatre. He translated

The Phantom of the Opera for the theatrical performance and also for the movie which

was realized in 2004. In the Polish version of the musical a great number of differences

occurs in the selection of words, but as it was discussed in the previous chapter,

musicals cannot be translated literally, and they are translated freely paying attention to

key words and melody.

As it is seen in the original version, the crucial element is the distribution of

vowels, mainly because of the presence of long notes. It would be impossible to sing

consonants on longer notes, because only vowels do not block air flow and that is why

we can produce them on any pitch and with any volume. Singing is mainly based on

vowels and middle vowels are the most suitable for it. In other words, consonants make

singing more uncomfortable. Polish language, in the case of singing vowels, is much

more difficult than English, because the quality of Polish vowels is different from

English.

Pic. 1 Christine’s part

The stave above shows the first four measures of Christine’s part. It can be observed

that one syllable consisting of a vowel belongs to each note. In the case of English,

there are seven /i/ vowels which occur in this short part. As opposed to English,

in the Polish version vowels are different. The highest notes in each measure have

/i/ or /a/ sounds, as it is seen in sleep, sang, dreams. In Polish, sounds are theoretically

different, but actually the place of articulation of these vowels is similar to English

ones, like in głos, wie-, by-. These sounds like /i/, /y/, /e/ and /a/ are classified as front

and central vowels. However, in this example notes are not so much separate from each

other, so it is easier to keep them in the same position while singing.

In English, words have usually one or two syllables unlike with Polish where

words often have more than one syllable. The stave above shows that one Polish word

35

falls on three different notes of various time values (na-wie-dzał) while in English there

are three separate words for each note (he sang to). However, it can be observed that

in another example the situation is completely opposite.

Pic. 2 Refrain

In this part of Christine’s score, the whole name of the phantom in English, which is

The Phantom of the Opera (eight syllables), has more syllables than the Polish version

– Upiór Opery (five syllables), because of articles which are absent in the Polish

language and a different manner of creating possession. The translator had to invent

a way to preserve the original melody so that he used Polish demonstrative pronouns,

like to on, tej and he not only does not disturb the music, but he also determines exactly

which person or place is being referred to.

Again, this example presents that the highest note is put on the word phantom

(or in Polish on), which emphasizes that it is a key word. Other indicators of

the importance of a given word in the stave above is a lengthening of quotient expressed

by semibreve in ligature and this note has also the first place in measure.

Another important feature which looks a little bit different in both languages is

the accent.

Given a particular language system, word accent may be fixed, or predictable

(e.g., in French, where it occurs regularly at the end of words, or in Czech, where

it occurs initially), or it may be movable, as in English, which then leaves accent

free to function to distinguish one word from another that is identical segmentally

(e.g., the noun permit versus the verb permit).10

(Encyclopaedia Britannica Online

Academic Edition: 2013).

The accent is an inherent element of human’s speech and it is also present in singing.

Word stress should be in accordance with music stress, otherwise there will be

a displaced accent which is an artificial and inconvenient stress for speaking and

singing.

10

Polish language has a fixed stress

36

The accent is probably the reason why the translator had to change the word

order or sometimes words themselves. He had to prevent accent displacement and

the proper accent falls on the highest notes in measure, as it is seen below:

In SLEEP he SANG to me

Ten GŁOS naWIEdzał mnie

In this example, words written with capital letters are stressed. As it was earlier said,

in English, words are usually monosyllabic and the stress is put on them, except from

weak forms. In Polish, there are not only monosyllabic words, but there are also

multisyllabic words in which stress is marked on the penultimate syllable.

If the translator had made a literal translation, there would have appeared a problem

of the displaced accent. It would look like the following example:

W śnie ZAśpieWAŁ do mnie

Theoretically, the number of syllables is the same and there are same words as

in the English version, but it is plainly incorrect and it is impossible that one word

in Polish has two stresses in this way.

If we examine the case of rhymes in this song, we will see a little difference

between English and Polish versions. First of all, it is crucial to mention that both lyrics

have four stanzas with short refrains which differ slightly. The first stanza is sung only

by Christine while the second one by Phantom. Other stanzas present alternating singing

by both characters. In stanzas we have six lines and the so called chorus has two lines

and the second one is the rhyme of the last line in the stanza. The syllables in stanzas

are divided into two groups – these that have six syllables and those that have only four.

It is worth noticing, because only shorter ones have rhymes, as it is seen in the example

below:

In dreams he came – And speaks my name

For now I find – Inside my mind

In the Polish version, this phenomenon can be seen in the second stanza:

Usłyszy noc – Nadludzką moc

37

In opposition to these phenomena, in the Polish translation, it is observed that the third

stanza has different rhymes and they fall on longer lines while in English they are still

the same:

Kto widział twoją twarz – Dla świata maskę masz

Draw back in fear – It’s me they hear

All of these examples show that it was difficult to find any equivalent rhymes for

the Polish translation and in the whole song they appear irregularly and only twice

while in English they are placed systematically. It probably means that it is hard to find

the same rhymes in two different languages, especially when they have to match

the melody.

Additionally, in the Polish version, the translator replaced lines where two

people were singing with different words connected with the person with by placing

common words there. It is seen, for example, in the third stanza:

Your/my spirit and your/my voice, in one combined

W harmonii splata się I głos I myśl

It means that the first and the second person in English were substituted for the third

person in Polish. The translator was probably aware of the fact that he cannot use Polish

pronouns, because the pronoun moja has two syllables and it does not corresponds with

the pronoun twój which has only one syllable. In this case, there would be a problem of

consonance while singing, because as it was said earlier, each note has its own syllable.

The same situation may be seen in the following example:

Inside your/my mind

We władzy sny

Here, the same problem occurs with Polish pronouns as it was presented above.

Moreover, it is hard to find any equivalent for the English word mind which does not

have more than one syllable as for example Polish words umysł, głowa.

Finally, in the English version, one question appears And do I dream again?

which does not have its Polish translation in the interrogative and it occurs as a simple,

38

indicative sentence I chyba dalej śnię. It is hard to decide why the translator translated

it in a given way, but the most probable reason is that he wanted to keep the correct

intonation. In this example, the last syllables are put on notes of the same sound while

in the Polish interrogative, at the end of questions, there it is seen a rising intonation.

3.3.2.2 Polish subtitles in movie

As it was mentioned in section 3.3.2.1, Daniel Wyszogrodzki is the translator of

subtitles for the movie which was realized in 2004. The table shows that the translation

of subtitles and the Polish adaptation are quite similar.

In the case of subtitles, there is no need to worry about the distribution of vowels

and other things which were discussed in the previous section, because subtitles do not

goes with the melody and the only important thing is to keep pace of the heard original.

The main advantage of translating musicals’ songs is the fact that the length of lines is

short and there are not any problems with the pace of reading and condensing texts.

However, there are other problems which probably occurred to the translator.

The author of this work observed that the translator probably based mainly on

his previous translation for the musical performance which may be seen below:

Po biały brzask (subtitles)

Aż nastał brzask (adaptation)

And speaks my name (original)

The example above shows that the translator did not translate subtitles from

the original, which in Polish should more or less look like I wypowiadał moje imię.

It is probably caused by the fact that the line before he translated Wymawiał imię me

and he had to omit similar phrase at the next line, so he substituted it at the same way as

he did it in the adaptation.

There is also another problem which occurs in the case of the singing duet.

The translator could not write both parts, so he substituted them by leaving only one

person which in Polish language does not mean that only one person could have said it:

39

Lecz głos mój z myślą twą

Your/my spirit and your/my voice

The reader, at the same time, may interpret this line as Christine’s or Phantom’s part.

Furthermore, subtitles do not drown the original lyrics out, so it is audible that both

characters had sung it and it does not have to be translated literally.

If there are slight changes in terms of disturbing melody, the author of this

research paper will focus on the problem with the standard length of a text which was

mentioned in section 2.1.2. According to Tomaszkiewicz (2006), the perfect number of

words should range between 150 to 180 per one minute. The question which

the author asked herself was: How is it possible to count the number of words when

their distribution is determined by the music?

This phenomenon shows that it is easier to subtitle the movie where there are

songs, because it is obvious that lyrics of songs do not have a lot of signs in one line. It

is said that one line should consist of 32 to 40 signs, and here we have an example that

two lines in this song have appropriate number of signs, however, there are lines where

this number is lower.

In this research paper, the author totalled the number of signs in each stanza to

prove that they are, in fact, the same and their structure is similar. The pie chart below

presents the number of signs in total (370), excluding the lines which do not belong to

any stanzas.

40

It can be observed that subtitles’ structure has not changed from the original and lines

are dived in the same way, as the lines of the song. However, it is seen that the 3rd

stanza

has ten signs more than the previous ones. It is probably caused by the fact that the third

stanza is sung by two people and the translator had to mark it somehow.

In case of the third stanza, there are some differences of used pronouns.

Your/my spirit and your/my voice

Lecz głos mój z myślą twą

English pronouns sung by Christine and Phantom were substituted by single mój and

twój. The translator probably omitted one character’s line, because it would be so long

and illegible for the reader. At the same time subtitles do not disrupt the original so that

the spectator is able to hear that two characters are singing to each other.

There is also another example of substituting pronoun. It this case, it is more

noticeable and it slightly changes the meaning.

Inside your/my mind

Ogarnia nasze sny

Pronouns your and my do not occur in Polish subtitles, instead, there is a pronoun nasze

which may be a little bit misunderstood, because it means that it also includes

the Phantom which is not incorrect. However, it may be also treated as addressing

spectators directly.

As it was seen in the adaptation, subtitles do not have the question

And do I dream again?. Probably, the reason for it was that the translator left the same

version of translation or he knew that someone who do not know English will not hear

that there was a question, because the intonation is different in both languages.

Finally, the last thing is the translation of Sing, my Angel of Music.

When it appears for the first time, the translation is literal, as Śpiewaj, Aniele Muzyki.

Then, the second time, it is translated as Jestem Aniołem Muzyki which is not a direct

translation of the original and it was not put in Polish adaptation. The only reason which

seems to be reliable is the fact that these two lines occur one after another and it would

41

be problematic to decide if it should be left till the second line or if it should appear

twice.

3.3.2.3 Voice-over in movie

The last type of translation which will be discussed here is the voice-over. This time,

the translation is made be different person, by Zuzanna Naczyńska. It is worth noticing

that voice-over in musical movies is rare and it is probably the less beneficial

translation, because it somehow disturbs the original version, however, it is the cheapest

way of translating films and it is probably the most comfortable version for non-

speakers of English language.

The first thing which should be noticed at the beginning of this section is the fact

that this translation is completely different from the previous one made by Daniel

Wyszogrodzki. Generally, this version is closer to the original in case of words, but

it does not have to base on the melody.

Using voice-over is rare in musicals, because while the reader is reading

individual lines, the spectator has difficulties with hearing music and the dialogues

spoken between characters. If we think about casual movie, this translation will be

accepted, but in case of musicals, it is rather annoying.

The first thing which distinguishes this translation from the previous one is

the word order in the sentence. Although Polish language is flexible in the word order,

it is more natural to use the structure of SVO or SOV then VSO. The example below

shows both Polish translations:

Wymawiał imię me

On moje imię zna

The first sentence presents Polish adaptation where it was important to change the order

which is still correct, but it would be more natural to say Wymawiał moje imię

or Moje imię wymawiał. The second sentence is taken from Polish translation of

voice-over and the word order is different, however it could be more natural,

as On zna moje imię.

42

Then, there is another problem which the translator had to cope with.

The original version is covered by the voice of the reader and it is known that the reader

cannot sing. Probably because of this fact, the translator decided to leave all rhymes

which appeared in the original to make the spoken text more melodious.

English rhymes Polish rhymes

Came – name

Śnie – mnie

Find – mind Dym – mym

Behind – mind Złym – twym

Fear – hear Się – mnie

Combined – mind Się – jej

Tab. 2 Rhymes in both English and Polish versions

The table above presents rhymes in both versions and it may be observed that these

rhymes occur at the same lines in both lyrics in opposition to Polish translation made by

Wyszogrodzki where rhymes were put in other places, because of the melody. This

operation had to be done for the spectator who knows that he or she is watching

a musical and lyrics of the songs should be distinctive from the usual dialogues.

Moreover, this translation seems to be more poetical not only in case of rhymes, but

also the choice of words had a significant role here.

It can be observed that in this translation there is a question Czy znów mi mąci myśli

luzji dym? which is completely different from the original and the previous translations.

Although this translation does not render the meaning of the original words literally,

the question is constructed in a way which maintains the unreal situation which occurs

in this musical.

As it was seen in previous translations, the third stanza is also problematic

in the voice-over. In the original, both characters are singing at the same time and

the reader substitutes it by introducing a kind of narration which is seen in the example

below:

Your/my spirit and your/my voice

Jej dusza, jego głos

43

This case presents that the translator probably wanted to omit the problematic division

of male and female parts, so she translated it, as there was the third person who

described the ensuing situation. This translation helps the spectator to understand that

the dialogue is between Christine and Phantom, because it may be inaudible.

44

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, there is a lot of evidence to support author’s thesis that the translation

of the musicals is certainly not as simple as other translations and problems arose in all

types of the particular translations.

First of all, when it comes to the adaptation, the major problem which occurs is

music. The translator has to be careful about the melody and it is impossible to change

anything which concerns music. It was hard to translate a given song literally, because

the distribution of vowels in English and Polish is different. This example proves that

the most important thing is to provide singers conditions which allow them to sing

easily and because of this fact, it is not necessary to use the same words as they were

in the original, but to use key words which retain the sense while keeping

the music undisturbed. Moreover, the number of syllables has to be in accordance to

the number of notes. The same situation occurs in the case of music and word stress.

The previous examples and the case of rhymes in both languages show differences

between these languages. The conclusion which comes to the author’s mind is that

the music is not the only problem which can be found while translating.

Various grammatical structures in both languages present certain dilemmas which

the translator has to cope with.

Secondly, in the case of subtitles, the most important thing is to make the

spectator feel comfortable while reading them, which is not a problem in the case of

a musical’s song which has a small number of words. The problem occurs when it

comes to a part where two people are singing and their parts differ. For example,

the translator has to decide what to do with the pronouns in translation. Furthermore, the

translator has to use some omissions when lyrics are repeatable, which sometimes

introduces phrases which were not present in the original.

Finally, voice-over does not have to agree with music, but there occurs the

problem with replacing the characteristic feature of the song which is the melody. In

this case, the translator decided to substitute it with rhymes and poetical words to give

an impression of melodiousness.

To sum up, the author of this work asks a question which translation is the most

suitable for musicals. Adaptation reflects the features of the musical in all possible

45

manners; however, the meaning of lyrics may be changed slightly. In the author’s

opinion, this kind of translation is the best one, because it also briefly outlines cultural

specific items which in other translations may be not visible. Subtitles do not disturb the

melody, but the spectator has to follow them, which may distract him or her from

watching. Voice-over does not render the real atmosphere of the musical and makes it a

kind of casual movie. Although both subtitles and voice-over may have their strong

points, it seems that in the case of musical translation they impoverish the reception.

46

STRESZCZENIE PRACY

Niniejsza praca jest połączeniem dwóch zainteresowań autorki – tłumaczeń i muzyki.

Autorka postanowiła skupić się na problemie przekładu na język polski, który bardzo

różni się od języka oryginału, języka angielskiego. W pracy poruszono kwestie różnych

tłumaczeń, które zostały dogłębnie zanalizowane na przykładzie piosenki

„Upiór w operze”. Autorka zadaje sobie pytanie jakie problemy pojawiają się przy

różnych tłumaczeniach i które z nich jest najbardziej odpowiednie do tego gatunku

i dlaczego. Autorka na podstawie zdobytego doświadczenia próbuje również dokonać

wyboru najodpowiedniejszego rodzaju przekładu dla gatunku musicalu.

W pierwszym rozdziale autorka w sposób możliwie jak najbardziej zrozumiały

i zwięzły przybliża historię musicalu. Świadomość, że praca jest głównie związana

z językiem i przekładem sprawia, że autorka stara się nie wdrążać w szczegółową

historię i przedstawia tylko te zagadnienia, które przedstawiają czytelnikowi pojęcie

musicalu oraz jego odnajdywanie się wśród innych, podobnych gatunków.

Rozdział drugi poświęcony został tematyce tłumaczenia oraz jego rodzajów,

które mniej lub bardziej zostały wykorzystane do przetłumaczenia omawianego

musicalu. Autorka, oprócz wprowadzenia do ogólnego pojęcia przekładu, wybrała

rodzaje przekładów, które zostały wykorzystane przy tłumaczeniu musicalu.

W rozdziale trzecim autorka skupia się na części praktycznej swojej pracy tj. analizie

tłumaczenia konkretnej piosenki z musicalu „Upiór w operze”. Autorka porównuje trzy

rodzaje tłumaczeń zastosowane do przetłumaczenia angielskiego musicalu na język

polski, czyli adaptację, napisy oraz lektora. Poprzez dogłębną analizę każdego

tłumaczenia, autorka przedstawia problemy związane z poszczególnym rodzajem

przekładu, a także stara się wyjaśnić jakie zabiegi zostały wykorzystane do tłumaczenia

i dlaczego.

We wnioskach autorka podsumowuje główne problemy poszczególnych przekładów,

a także próbuje ukazać ich mocne strony. Ponadto autorka wyraża swoją własną opinię

na temat najodpowiedniejszego tłumaczenia, zaznaczając przy tym, że jest to jej

osobista refleksja.

47

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