From: chrisi@lloyd.Camex.COM (Chris Ischay)
Subject: Re: Supertitling
Organization: Camex Inc., Boston MA
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 12:29:52 EDT

In article <Btp9nG.MuI@news.udel.edu> conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
writes:

>In article <1992Aug27.215817.13690@fid.morgan.com> steve@fid.morgan.com
(Steve Apter) writes:

>>One of the reasons I enjoy NY City Opera is their use of supertitles.
>>Sorry, my Italian** is just not good enough to follow the story line
>>of an unfamiliar opera.  Any opinions on the use of this technology?
>
>I have an opinion, an unpopular one.  I hate them.  I think they wreck
>the live experience of an opera, and turn it into television (I don't
>despise television, but a live theatrical experience is something else).
>This gives us a reading-medium and a visual-medium that our eyes can
>flip back and forth between, to keep us from being bored.  But it wrecks
>the involvement that I go to the opera for.  (No, I can't "just ignore
>them."  They're rather conspicuous.)

I have two opinions about surtitles.  For myself, I'd rather either prepare
enough to enjoy the opera in its original language or hear it in my own
language.

However, I love to drag my friends along with me, and they get less out of
the experience when they don't have surtitles.  They just don't have the
same level of interest I do in opera.  When we go to NYCO they read along.
When we go to the Met, I wind up reading them Milton Cross in the car on
the way.  They don't even want to take the time to read it themselves.  I
agree with everything that Jon says above.  Nevertheless, surtitles are
probably here to stay.  I read recently that the Met experimented with
surtitles for the Kirov, and the Kirov loved them but someone at the Met
nixed them.  (The Kirov was the first group I've seen perform without a
prompter, by the way.)

But when it comes to English, there can still be a problem.  I heard
Cunning Little Vixen at NYCO in English, and I really needed the surtitles
because of poor diction.  And what about the Chicago broadcast of Anthony &
CLeopatra?  I couldn't really understand Catherine Malfitano at all.  I've
never heard Dame Joan sing in English, but that might be a little tough to
understand.

>  I really think that the
>prevalence of supertitles will kill opera in the next few decades,
>because the medium will become nothing more than an idle evening's
>time-killer, just like 3 hours of prime time.  

Ooh, I hope not.  I guess it's possible that it will just become something
else, but still be a worthwhile art form.  It's already not what it used to
be, as has been mentioned in other contexts recently.  Wasn't opera in its
early days close to a idle evening's entertainment for many, after all?

>As an alternative:  Why has everybody given up on performing opera in
>translation?  THAT is a live, compelling experience.  When I was a music
>student at Indiana U, I saw 6-8 operas a year in English.  The
>productions were not always wonderful (though often surprisingly good),
>but boy that was a wonderful way to wake up to what opera can be.

I agree wholeheartedly.  I heard the New England Conservatory put on
Dialoges of the Carmelites last year in English and I loved it.  The
production was done on the cheap, the costumes were nothing fancy, and the
talent was at a level quite lower than in the top halls.  But there was an
immediacy and a commitment that revealed the music and the drama that was
very special.  If some great diva fluffs a few notes in a night we all
think it ruins the performance.  When it's students we cut them a break and
have a great time.  I suppose they could have also sung in French, but I'm
glad they didn't.  It taught me something.  I'll be going back again this
year.

>Don't bother to write attacking me as an "elitist" (meaningless word
>anyway) -- I've been called worse.  All I am is an opera lover who
>doesn't want his favorite medium to fizzle away to nothing.

I suppose some might call any opera enthusiast an elitist.
Just like the ones who use "museum" as a pejorative.

Chris Ischay
chrisi@camex.com
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical