Arthur Jacobs

For other people named Arthur Jacobs, seeArthur Jacobs (disambiguation).

Arthur David Jacobs(14 June 1922 – 13 December 1996) was an English musicologist, music critic, teacher, librettist and translator. Among his many books, two of the best known are hisPenguin Dictionary of Music,which was reprinted in several editions between 1958 and 1996, and his biography ofArthur Sullivan,which was praised by critics in Britain and America. He was a music critic at newspapers from 1947 to 1975, an editor atOperamagazine from 1961 to 1971, and served onOpera'seditorial board from 1971 until his death. He was also a frequent contributor toThe Musical Timesfor five decades. Jacobs taught at theRoyal Academy of Music,atHuddersfield Polytechnic,and at universities in the US, Canada, and Australia from 1964 to 1985 and translated more than 20 operas into English.

Life and career

Jacobs was born inManchester,England, to Jewish parents, Alexander Susman Jacobs and his wife Estelle (néeIsaacs).He was educated atManchester Grammar SchoolandMerton College, Oxford,taking an honours degree in 1946. In World War II he served in India and Burma with the British Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant.In 1953 he married the writer Betty Upton Hughes. They had two sons, Michael Jacobs and Julian Jacobs.

Jacobs was music critic ofTheDaily Expressfrom 1947 to 1952,The Evening Standard(1956–58),The Sunday Citizen(1959–1965), andTheJewish Chronicle(1963–1975). He reviewed records forHi-Fi News and Record ReviewandThe Sunday Timesand wrote for the arts section ofThe Financial Times.He was deputy editor ofOperamagazine from 1961 to 1971 and served on its editorial board from 1971 until his death.He consideredEdward Dentto have been his greatest influence and encouragement, through both personal contact and his writings.

ForThe Musical Times,between 1949 and 1996, Jacobs wrote on a wide variety of musical topics, including theNew York Philharmonic Orchestra,theThree Choirs Festival,Russian song,The Gypsy Baron,Thespis,theMetropolitan Opera,Leonard Bernstein,Così fan tutte,Trial by Jury,Glyndebourne,Otto Klemperer,and composers fromHandeltoCésar FrancktoElgartoJanáček.The writer of hisOperamagazine obituary commented that he "was an illuminating, often deliberately argumentative writer and speaker. His reviews were trenchant and outspoken at a time when those qualities were less common than they have since become. He loved to challenge received opinions and liked nothing so much as to disconcert a reader or colleague with an outlandish view", adding that "he was also generous to a fault and an absolute fanatic in the matter of giving the young the wherewithal to improve themselves".

From 1964 to 1979, Jacobs was a lecturer at theRoyal Academy of Music,teaching the history of opera. He was head of the music department of Huddersfield Polytechnic (now theUniversity of Huddersfield) 1979–84, where he was appointed to a personal professorship in 1984. Overseas, Jacobs was visiting professor atTemple University(Philadelphia) in 1970 and 1971, atMcMaster University(Hamilton, Ontario) in 1975 and 1983, and at theUniversity of Queensland(Brisbane) in 1985.After the Queensland post ended, he retired toOxford,where he died at the age of 74.

Librettist and translator

Jacobs wrote the libretto forNicholas Maw's 1964 opera,One Man Show,based on a short story bySaki.His colleagueStanley Sadiesaid of him, "Opera was always at the centre of his interests. He was a firm believer that it was meant to be fully understood, and that meant it should be presented in English to English-speaking audiences. He was a good linguist himself and translated more than 20 operas… in a fluent and direct style that sometimes betrayed (though not often inaptly) his early love ofGilbert and Sullivan."His English translations of German, Italian, French and Russian opera libretti includedBerg'sLulu,Berlioz's,Benvenuto Cellini,Donizetti's,L'elisir d'amore,Gluck'sIphigenie en Aulide,Handel'sRiccardo Primo,Monteverdi's,L'Incoronazione di Poppea,Richard Strauss'sDie schweigsame Frau,Rossini'sLa Cenerentola,L'italiana in Algeri,andIl Turco in Italia,Schoenberg'sErwartung,Tchaikovsky'sThe Queen of Spades,andVerdi'sDon Carlos.

Writing forThe Musical Timesin 1961, Jacobs gave examples of stilted translations and contrasted them with vital and natural-sounding ones. He instanced a line fromTosca,"Ah, finalmente! Nel terror mio stolto/ Vedea ceffi di birro in ogni volto!", gave a literal translation ( "Ah! at last! In my stupid terror I saw those ugly police snouts in every face" ) and contrasted it with the original early-20th-century English translation: "Ah! I have baulked them! Dread imagination/ Made me quake with uncalled for perturbation."

Publications

• Music Lover's Anthology,Winchester Publications, 1948
• Gilbert and Sullivan,Parrish, 1951
• A New Dictionary of Music,Penguin, 1958 (reprinted in new editions up to 1996)
• Choral Music,Penguin, 1962
• A Short History of Western Music,Penguin, 1972
• Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician,Oxford University Press, 1984
• The Penguin Dictionary of Musical Performers,1991
• Henry J. Wood: Maker of the Proms,1994
• The Opera Guide(withStanley Sadie), Hamish Hamilton, 1964. Republished asThe Pan Book of Opera,Pan Books, 1966 and asThe Limelight Book of Opera,Limelight Editions, 1984.

Jacobs also contributed to:

• Decca Book of Opera,Laurie, 1956
• Decca Book of Ballet,Muller, 1958
• A History of Song,Hutchinson, 1960
• Twentieth-Century Music,Calder, 1960