From: dl@indetech.com (David Lieberman)
Subject: Re: Supertitling
Organization: Independence Technologies, Inc. Fremont, CA
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 01:44:25 GMT

>----------------------------[QUOTE BEGINS]
>
>A theatre is a place of communication, and language is a primary means
>of communication.  It is therefore a very strange decision indeed to
>elect to address an audience in a language they do not understand.  It
>is against the very nature of theatre....I therefore assert that as a
>matter of principle, opera as well as theatre of all kinds must be in
>the language of the audience.  From this sound basis we may look at the
>various arguments which are brought to bear on this issue.

Just what is "the language of the audience." Should San Francisco Opera
do every third act in Chinese?  Or one third of the repertory?  Or every
third word?  If you were to poll the audience at a typical performance
as to what their first language is I am sure that well less than half
would answer English.

>
>Another consequence of the prevalent view that Romantic Italian operas
>should be given in the original language is the prejudice that they are
>dramatically less valid works.  Many people for instance consider works
>like Il Trovatore to be dramatically invalid precisely because they have
>not had the experience of following its text through blow by blow....

How many words of Italian does it take to follow Il Trovatore "blow
by blow" assuming one has read the libretto and listened to a
recording in advance?  My guess is 50 at most.  I do not speak Italian
and I do speak English but hearing Il Trovatore in English does not
increase my comprehension (and certainly not my enjoyment).
>
>"We can't hear the words anyway."  A rigorously serious view would
>assert that this objection is entirely irrelevant to the argument.  The
>text should be audible whether it is in English, French, Italian, or any
>other language....

I see.  So if I can't hear the words it has nothing to do with acoustics,
enunciation or my hearing.  The problem is that I'm not "serious."

>
>"We know the story -- we don't need to know what they are saying."  This
>is to deny theatre and music the absolutely vital element of "time" and
>spontaneity.  It is not sufficient in a drama to know that during this
>scene X says he loves Y, but [one must] discover it at the same moment
>that X says he does.  Anything else is drama by tableau....

See my comments on Il Trovatore, above.  I know what they are saying
in Russian, German, French, Czech, Italian... and so do all the other
heavy opera freaks I know.

>"Surtitles (a.k.a. theatrical condoms -- pieces of celluloid interposed
>between the audience and the performers)."  Let us admit at once that
>audiences like them.  The same is apparently true of hanging.  Neither
>would get my vote....

Well, I WAS against hanging...

>
>
>Why not, for instance, have surtitles also describing the nature of the
>music: "This bit is in F major," "This is the cup and saucer motif,"
>"This is an inversion of Wozzeck's madness motif," and so on. 

Not such a crazy idea.  Try Warner's Magic Flute on CD-ROM.  It is not
a great success but it it is a valiant try.  Should we ban this, too?
No, it is certainly not appropriate for the theater but I won't rule
out that something like it might be, someday.

>
>In fact surtitles do strike directly at the integrity of what we do
>because they are an extraneous technical device superimposed on top of
>an extremely delicately poised balance of interaction and participation
>between audience and performer.  Once you have given in to this
>quick-fix solution, the absolutely inevitable long-term deterioration of
>artistic integrity on all sides may be summed up as "why bother?"  Why
>should the singer bother to acquire the discipline of good diction, why
>should the conductor bother to restrain and control the orchestra for
>the sake of balance, why should the audience bother to cooperate on
>listening, why should the Board bother with the desperate acoustic
>problems of our theatre....

This from a man who put on Jonathan Miller's Rigoletto?  Delicately
poised balance?  Come on. Perhaps the popularity of supertitles is
a fad which will die out in a few years.  Will any great harm have
been done?  An art form that survives Peter Sellars is not 
such a delicate flower.

>
>Is it naive to place such a high value on integrity?  Will the cynical
>process of political decisions about the future of our company really be
>affected by such an invisible factor?  I think they will....

The truth at last.  He is fighting a battle with a faction of his
Board of Directors who want to go to supertitles.  Betcha.
>
>--------------------------------
>


-- 
____*_  David Lieberman             dl@indetech.com
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