Language
Hofmannsthal's libretto is a combination of different forms of the German language. Members of the nobility speak in very refined language, often archaic (set to the time of the opera) and very courteous. In more intimate circles they use a more familiar style of speech (du). For instance, the conversations between Octavian and the Marschallin in the first act use the familiar "you" but switch back and forth between more formal speech (Sie) and the familiar "du".
The language used by Baron Ochs is flamboyant at best and, although refined, makes use of non-German words such as his expression Corpo di Bacco ("Bacchus' Body"). Some programmes even have a glossary section. The language used by Octavian when impersonating "Mariandel", and by other non-noble characters, is basically Austrian dialect, impossible to understand by a non-German speaker. The German used by the Italians, Valzacchi and Annina, is also very broken and mixed with an Italian accent, something planned by the authors for these characters.
In English translations of the opera, these dialects have been accounted for with varying degrees of rigor; the Chandos highlights version, for example, uses only standard British English.
Read more about this topic: Der Rosenkavalier
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“This is an approach to that universal language which men have sought in vain.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Surrealism is not a school of poetry but a movement of liberation.... A way of rediscovering the language of innocence, a renewal of the primordial pact, poetry is the basic text, the foundation of the human order. Surrealism is revolutionary because it is a return to the beginning of all beginnings.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.”
—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)