Opera and translation: tradaptation in Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore

This article will study in some detail, and try to decipher, the great challenges that drama or scenic translation in general, and more specifically opera translation, involve. It will do it by means of a number of relevant examples taken from the Spanish reception of the popular Italian opera Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi. First of all, there is always a real danger of focusing all the attention on some aspects, both linguistic or semiotic ones, and neglecting the rest and the composition as a whole. Consequently, the following pages will use and give examples of terms such as 'interlingual translation', 'intersemiotic translation', 'adaptation', and above all, the novel concept of tradaptation. All of them will let us conclude that much talent and an artistic gift are very necessary when modernizing and staging again such a classic text as Il Trovatore. Translating the libretto is only one of the many factors to take into account. (Author abstract)