Ukrainian stress

[William Ryan]

Chew G wrote:
> Possibly this discussion is already boring many list members (though not me!)
Boring? What - more than phonetics? Auden's Notes are very relevant for 
those interested in poetry and language. But to redirect the thread back 
to Russia - Geoff asks if there are foreign translations of Gilbert and 
Sullivan. Yes, there were, and are, and not only 'The Mikado' - a quick 
random internet search shows that it was performed in German in Berlin 
in 1888 and Stuttgart in 1889, and remained popular thereafter. There is 
a video of a Swiss television production made in 1984; a French 
translation of the Mikado was broadcast in 1965. El Mikado was performed 
in Palma de Mallorca in 1986.

For Russia see a fascinating and informative article by Jana 
Polianovskaia, 'English Operetta and Musical Comedy in Russian 
Translations and Adaptations' on a German website 
<http://www.sullivan-forschung.de/russia.htm> lists at least nine 
separate Russian translations (!) of the The Mikado, and also versions 
of The Gondoliers and Yeomen of the Guard. Gilbert and Sullivan appear 
to have had a significant influence in Russian operetta in the late 
Imperial and early Soviet periods - Polianovskaia mentions over a 
thousand performances at venues as varied as the Imperial Mikhailovskii 
Theatre and the Harkov Theatre Berezil (a proletarian version in 1929, 
in Ukrainian, according to another source - which brings us back to the 
beginning of this thread). She also discusses, all too briefly, the ways 
in which the texts were adapted for a Russian audience (for example the 
jokey names in the Mikado, or the people 'who never would be missed').

And if it isn't impertinent to point it out, Ruddigore appears to have 
had its premiere in Czech translation last year in - Brno (Komorní opera)!

Will Ryan



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