Ralph Moore
| 10/01/2008 (5 out of 5 stars) I have never been fully convinced of the necessity of translating operas and performing them English, especially if the original is in French, which, owing to its stress patterns and vowels, is a particularly intractable and problematic language both to fit successfully to music and even more so to translate into English. I do speak French, but even if I didn t I would prefer to have a libretto to hand and hear Oui, c est elle; c est la deesse launching the famous tune in the duet rather than Yes, a goddess; truly a goddess (here without the inauthentic repeat of that same celebrated melody) and there are too many syllabically clumsy renderings (such as Nadir s opening arioso where the word jungle is crushed into the melodic line). An English libretto is generously supplied, so this performance could just as easily have been in French, but there s no point in complaining; this is, after all, part of the Chandos Operas in Engl