Walter Meyer wrote in response to John Deacon:

>John G. Deacon wrote a carefully prepared post cogently presenting his case
>against surtitles in opera...

Agreed.  Pretty persuasive too, though not quite convincing.

>>I concede that for Czech & Russian operas they are a help as the language
>>gap is total.
>
>It's not just the language gap.  Many's the time I can't understand words
>sung in English or German, both languages I've spoken since childhood.
>(Interestingly, I often have less trouble following a text in Italian, a
>language I never studied!)

Might this have to do with the what-you-see-is-what-you-get character of
Italian (and Spanish), and the way germanic languages are enunciated?

>>A most crass example (of (d) above) for a most inappropriate surtitle might
>>be the magnificent opening, in Philip II's bedchamber in Don Carlos, where,
>>after the beautiful cello introduction, you hear enunciated as no surtitle
>>can illustrate "Ella giammai m'amo ..." To read the surtitle "She never
>>loved me..." is flat and cold and too ludicrous to contemplate.
>
>I would disagree.  One is a perfect translation of the other.  Both, IMO,
>a vast improvement over the French original ("Elle ne m'aime pas....") of
>which the Italian itself is a translation.

I'd have to side with John Deacon here.  While it may be a perfect
translation, it's a damned unpoetic utterance.  There's only so much
that can be done with that matter-of-fact English to bring out any poetic
'juice' that the meaning requires.  Unlike it, the Italian "Ella giammai
m'amo...", much like the Spanish "Ella jamas me amo..." lend themselves
perfectly to being wailed with anguish.

Even the rhythms in French can make for highly dramatic enunciation, and
the phrase lends itself beautifully to exploding on that final, punctuating
"PA." That English phrase is a clunker -- or, at best, an accurate
description of her feelings.

>I must admit to having been left cold reading the surtitles to Gounod's
>*Romeo et Juliette* knowing as I did the "real" English texts from
>Shakespeare.

Yes, but consider the looong stretch from Will Shakespeare to current
English -- especially its North American variant, where consonants play
a comparatively inconsequential role (to name just one feature).

I mean, translate that line as WS would: "Never did she love me" -- a line
with far more garment-rending possibilities.  Then, for just a moment in
your mental theater, get yourself a Gielgud or a Burton to articulate it
with dramatic flair.  Only that treatment, IMO, can approach the expression
that's achieved in the romance languages even when ordering a round of
beer.

Bert Bailey, in Ottawa