Talk:La Wally

Manon Lescaut and Otello
I have removed the section referring to their premieres. The dates were wrong. Verdi's Otello premiered in 1887, and Manon Lescaut in 1893, not 1892. AlbertSM (talk) 00:29, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

The vulture Wally
This won't do as a translation of the German book title, for it implies Wally herself was a vulture ('Wally the vulture' would be a more natural way to say that in English, but 'The vulture Wally' could not mean anything else). Leaving out 'The' would be better, and adding a hyphen would help ('Vulture-Wally') - likewise, in German only the hyphen prevents her from being considered a vulture, just as in the cartoon title 'Die Biene Maja' ('Maja the Bee') - whereas 'Biene-Maja' would mean 'Bee-Maja', a person called Maja who has some connection with bees. 'Vulture-egg Wally' is perhaps what someone with such a bizarre hobby would have been called. But the whole premise is weird, not to mention the idea of basing an opera on it!213.127.210.95 (talk) 17:25, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

The name Wally in English
In British English 'wally' is a colloquial way to describe someone stupid or inept ('he looked a complete wally'). It is also a common, folksy abbreviation of male names such as Walter and Wallace, so the combination with female 'La' in the name of an opera inevitably looks comical - as if the opera were called 'La Fred' or 'La Mike'. Both the German and the Italian pronunciations are like English 'valley', which of course sounds more elegant and opera-like - but most English-speakers will be unaware of this. Perhaps this should be mentioned somewhere, if only as trivia.213.127.210.95 (talk) 17:25, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

Ebben
I couldn't understand who Ebben was in the aria "Ne andrò lontana" to whom she appears to be speaking. Every lyric site and YouTube channel lists "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana". All that was available for 'Ebben' was a Nederlander name... Until I found a site with better lyrics which listed the word as "ebbene" which translates in the Italian as "Well?" ("I will go far" after her father orders her to marry an oaf or leave). Could someone smarter than me investigate if I misunderstand, or if every website listing this aria has somehow got it wrong... e.g is ebben Italian slang? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.39.177.30 (talk) 10:02, 24 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The overleaf article translates "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" as "Well, then? I'll go far away", which is what you found, too. Ebben is shortened for ebbene which is a contraction of e bene, meaning "(and) well". Examples (from Italian Wiktionary): "Hai fame, ebbene, andiamo a mangiare!" -> "You're hungry, well, let's go eat!"; "Mi han detto che hai dato un pugno a un tuo compagno, Gabriel. Ebbene?" -> "They told me you punched one of your mates, Gabriel. Well?" HTH -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 04:03, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Heimatroman
It would be nice to have "Heimatroman" explained in English. Was it a recognized genre? Was it a novel? Zaslav (talk) 23:21, 30 April 2022 (UTC)
 * It's a low-brow genre, now extinct, specific to German literature, related to Heimatfilm; see de:Heimatroman. The phrase in the article could of course omit the term, but its use may enhance the understanding of some readers. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 05:18, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD
Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Wally (soprano), figurino di Adolf Hohenstein per La Wally (1892) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON004639 - Restoration.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for March 10, 2023. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2023-03-10. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 16:44, 16 February 2023 (UTC)