AMONG THE VARIOUS HORRORS of the recent Carmen at Covent Garden, one of the more commonplace was observing the alphabetti spaghetti of international singers (Bashkir, Polish, Russian, Congolese …) bellowing out approximate French phonemes at the blank-faced English audience.
This baffling set-up is considered quite the thing in opera; and there was even more fun to be had back in the nineteenth century, when they translated everything, including Wagner, into for performance in London and elsewhere. That’s right! , Sigfrido, horrid , you name it, with extra
