Access to the Inaccessible: How Translation Can be a Driver for Social Change in the Performing Arts

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A joint public lecture between the School of Welsh and the Translation Adaptation and Performance research theme at the School of Modern Languages, with guest speaker Patrick Young (OPRA Cymru).

Abstract

The world’s only Welsh-language opera company OPRA Cymru was founded ten years ago. The brief was simple: to create Welsh-language performance editions of classics from the operatic repertoire. The vision was equally simple, if slightly more challenging: to create a new audience for opera amongst Welsh speakers. Since then the company has grown, and it now boasts a considerable public following.

This talk is a reflection on the valuable cultural contribution that performance in translation makes both to the works that are translated and, especially in the case of Welsh, to the language itself. Taking the experience of OPRA Cymru as a test case, the talk will also look at the unforeseen benefits of such a vision for performance in translation, and examine the extent to which those benefits may outstrip the primary objectives, and encourage social as well as cultural (ex)change.

Biography

Patrick Young is an experienced and innovative opera director. He began his career as an assistant director with the touring company Kent Opera, then worked with Glyndebourne and Scottish Opera, before joining the Royal Opera House in London. He was at the Royal Opera House from 1991 to 1998, directing revivals and new stagings of a wide variety of works. He opted for a freelance career following his own production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro there in 1998, and has since directed productions across the world from Sydney to Los Angeles. He is as at home working on a small-scale as he is on full-scale productions.

In his 2005 address to the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, he articulated a vision of opera as a dynamic and economical live theatre medium. In pursuit of this vision, he set up the Welsh-language opera company OPRA Cymru. The company now enjoys the full support of the Arts Council of Wales and has to date produced and toured six unique Welsh language versions of classics from the operatic canon.

The company’s first première production from last year won the Award for Best Production in the Welsh Language at the Wales Theatre Awards in January 2018. While it continues to produce and tour new Welsh-language versions of existing operas, the company is currently at work on an operatic version of Wales’ greatest novel Un Nos Ola Leuad, by author and poet Caradog Prichard.

Simultaneous Translation

The event will be delivered in the medium of English. You are welcome to ask questions in the medium of Welsh during the Q and A session. If you intend to do this, please contact mlang-events@cardiff.ac.uk by Wednesday 26 September to request simultaneous translation. Please note that 10% or more of those planning to attend will need to request this provision in order for it to be sourced and will be subject to resource availability.

Registration

We apologise that the entire registration page is not available in the medium of Welsh, unfortunately, the platform we use does not offer this service.