Talk:The Fair at Sorochyntsi

Article Name
I support naming this article "Sorochintsï Fair". This translation closely resembles the Russian name, and is no more awkward than any other English translation. Ivan Velikii 01:32, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Sorochyntsi/ Sorochintsï
We need to rationalise the spelling of this word. In the articles on the place and the traditional fair, it’s spelled "Sorochyntsi". But in the articles on Gogol's short story and Mussorgsky's opera, it’s "Sorochintsï".

I don’t support "Sorochintsï", on 2 grounds:
 * it’s inconsistent with the other spellings; the spelling of the name of a place should govern the spelling of the names of things named after the place
 * an umlauted "i" (ï) is not a recognised character in English, and this is, after all, English Wikipedia.

Now, we should generally leave opera and book titles alone, no matter if they’re misspelled by their authors. But in this case, Gogol and Mussorgsky used a correctly-spelled Russian title "Сорочинская ярмарка". This can have a variety of translations, but they should all be correctly spelled.

Traditionally, it was "Sorochinsky Fair", but these days that’s not supported as it’s using a Russian adjective rather than an English one (it would be like calling Moscow University, "Moskovsky University"). So, we’re down to either " Fair" or "The Fair at ". The latter seems to have prevailed in the literature, although the former is also seen. For the reasons stated above, the best option would seem to be "The Fair at Sorochyntsi", and that’s what I propose we move the short story and opera articles to. -- JackofOz (talk) 01:14, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I would prefer "Sorochintsy Fair", as used by David Brown in his book Musorgsky: His Life and Works, and also similar to Taruskin's usual usage of "Sorochintsï Fair" (can't remember which i he places the diacritic on). The Ukrainian name of the town is Сорочинці, which would be transliterated "Sorochyntsi", but the Russian name – which Musorgsky presumably wrote – is Соро́чинцы "Soróchintsy". Double sharp (talk) 05:39, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Shebalin's orchestration
I find it surprising that Shebalin's orchestration is not mentioned. Shebalin completed and orchestrated the opera in 1930, and since then this is the most performed version of the opera. It was also recorded several times, for example in 1996 by the soloists, chorus and orchestra of Yekaterinburg State Academic Opera Theatre of Russia. I think it must be mentioned somewhere. Actually I'm going to add this right now. AdamChapman (talk) 16:02, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Format of Recordings table / changed to format estab. by WP Opera consensus
The format was changed to reflect these guidelines found in all other opera articles. The arbitrary revert has been re-reverted. Do not make any further changes without discussing your reasons here.Viva-Verdi (talk) 00:39, 7 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Editor User talk:50.39.178.94 objects to the reverting of his preferred format. The section has been returned to its original form.  This is the place (not my "talk" page) where he/she needs to justify his/her opinion of how a "recordings" table should be set up.  Then discussion can follow.


 * Meanwhile, he/she should be aware of the fact that a group of editors involved with the WikiProject Opera have agreed on guidelines for what a recordings table should look like:
 * WikiProject_Opera/Article_styles_and_formats


 * Every other opera article uses this format.


 * Any further reverting on his/her part without further discussion and consensus may be regarded as vandalism. Viva-Verdi (talk) 20:42, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

rationally justified melody
Especially in the scenes written in 1880, there's a marked lack of recitative, even in contexts when almost anyone else would have used it, in favour of Mussorgsky's "rationally justified melody", creating lots of cavatinas. What a change from the realist of The Marriage! Taruskin's Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue (p.375) gives this example from Act 1, no. 3:



Double sharp (talk) 13:33, 26 March 2015 (UTC)