Reason for Trouble

Regarding Chris Pasles’ article on supertitles “Giving Opera a Whole New Meaning,” Riffs, Calendar Weekend, Nov. 26). I want to make a small correction. Mr. Pasles states that Butterfly’s line “Oggi il mio nome e Dolore . . . che il giorno del suo ritorno Gioia mi chiamero” is always mistranslated as “my name is Trouble . . . but the day my father returns, my name will be Joy.”

While Mr. Pasles is correct in stating the line is mistranslated, he is wrong in assuming it is we who are doing the mistranslating. The line is translated that way because in the original story on which “Madama Butterfly” is based, the child is named “Trouble.” It is the Italians, having no equivalent for “trouble” in this particular sense, who translated it as “Dolore,” which as Mr. Pasles correctly states, means “sorrow.”

The child was also called “Trouble” in the stage version of the story by David Belasco, which Puccini saw in London in 1900. The story goes that Puccini demanded the rights from Belasco the very night he saw it. This is doubtful, since he was still considering other subjects at the time. However, Belasco’s play moved him deeply, especially the long vigil in which Butterfly waits for Pinkerton to return to her. This became the famous “Humming Chorus” and has no equivalent in the story.

DAVID CRAMER

Anaheim