The first opera librettos to be translated and performed by the State Opera during the early republican period in Turkey were selected by of Carl Ebert, a professional musician of Judeo-German origin, appointed by the Turkish government as part of its cultural planning policies. Filling in a blank space in the intersection of translation, music and history. The pre-sent study demonstrates how song translation assumed a formative role in introducing the opera genre into the Turkish cultural repertoire during a period of intensive state-controlled westernization.