My first encounter of opera in English was when I sang (chorus) in my first opera as a freshman at Cal State Long Beach – Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love.” My second was probably the Met recording of Così fan tutte with Steber, Theobom, Tucker, etc… However, the greatest use of translation came late when the Met mounted Poulenc’s “Dialogues des Carmélites” in the magnificent John Dexter production in ENGLISH as “Dialogues of the Carmelites.”

I did not know that the composer had specified that the opera should be performed in the language of the audience — as it was in the world premiere in 1957 in Milan with Zeani, Gencer, and Cossotto. Later fine revivals of the Dexter production have been done in French with subtitles, but it is just not the same. The music is so recitative-like and the text so important (like a play) that it needs the immediacy of a text that the audience can understand.

Next to the early Dexter production, my favorite is the 1957 NBC Opera Theater version (despite some cuts and the “grainy” picture). Perhaps it was the freshness of the work as this was the same year as the world premiere and only months after the US premier at San Francisco Opera with Leontyne Price making her professional opera debut. The cast is a standout one with many who had experience with both contemporary opera and musical theater (giving them good diction and excellent natural acting) – Leontyne repeating her SFO Lindoine, Robert Rounseville, Patricia Neway, Judith Raskin, and Rosemary Kuhlmann (the original Amahl’s mother). Elaine Malbin in the lead of Blanche may be little known now, but at the time she had a BIG career in both opera and musical theater. She was particularly popular in opera on TV with many productions starting with La traviata (opposite Lawrence Tibbett) when she was only 19!