Izgubljen u prijevodu: baletna adaptacija romana Opasne veze
Lost in translation: a ballet adaptation of the novel Dangerous Liaisons

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses the relationship of the epistolary novel Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos and its ballet adaptation, which premiered on 4 March 2019 in Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, with the choreography and directing done by Giorgio Madia. With a comparative analysis of key substantial and stylistic determinants of the textual template and their scenic materialisations (choreographic, costume design, scenographic, musical and lightning) a congruence of novelistic and scenic moulding – within theatrical semiotics and adaptation theory – is questioned. A conclusion is made that the author transposed the linguistic sign set mostly deficiently into a theatrical one, primarily because he did not find adequate counterparts for the letters as the conduits of the plot and a mode of characterisation. A translation of active, affective, reflexive and other substantial levels of the novel, as well as the stylistic determination of the dance segment, remained mainly on the literal level, i.e. a symbolic one: letters, crinolines, wigs, the construction of the castle and other things associate to the novel, but not to the distinctive key substantial points of the novel and character traits, while the connection to the ballet are the ballet shoes, but not the optimally chosen ballet vocabulary.

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