We've recently been finishing the translation of The Italian Girl, just about in time for the singers to learn! Translation of opera is like a very complex crossword puzzle and is a fascinating but extraordinarily longwinded process - words have to be fitted to the notes and stresses, rhyming schemes need to be observed, the quality of the consonants and vowels have to be appropriate to the voice and the shape of the music - and of course, it has to make sense and relate to the original language. Undoubtedly we will make adjustments in rehearsal, but at the moment it all seems fairly robust and workable. In the case of The Italian Girl, the libretto is by Giuseppe Petrosellini, one of the liveliest Italian librettists of the late 18th century - he also (probably) wrote the original libretto to Il barbiere di Siviglia, set by Paiseillo in 1782 (and performed by Bampton in 2005). Even the process of copying out the fair copy is of course quite a slow business - and we get through a great deal of Tippex!