Eric Kisch <[log in to unmask]> wrote most interestingly about
sub/sur-titles.  Whilst agreeing with him totally with regard to cinema
I have to take an entirely opposing view in the opera house.

One of the most interesting differences between cinema and opera is that
of sync.  where the dubbing in cinema is always out of sync., in opera, it
is the surtitle that is out of time with the text especially a joke, or
whatever is happening on stage, resulting in laughter from the audience
when the joke has been (or, worse, hasn't yet come).  Artists hate this.

Imagine, if you will, jokes being out of sync.  with a feisty mezzo
like the lovely Jennifer Larmore who has great stage presence and acting
ability!  I've suffered them with her a-top "L'Italiana" and "Barbiere"
with Dutch surtitles!  Does one expect to see Italian surtitles above
Rheingold at La Scala!  Spare us, please.

Yes, it probably has produced an increased interest but I suggest it is
a shallow one and - in so far as Covent Garden is concerned - this appears
to have come from those for whom opera has become a yuppie type of social
event.  A likely scenario would be where at about 5 pm in the afternoon a
secretary is asked "Oh!  By the way, what am I seeing tonight?".  These
people come totally unprepared for the opera whereas, pre-surtitle, even
the dumbest of us had to look something up in a book or arrive early enough
to read the programme.  I had not noticed the young audiences as tickets
are far too expensive for them.

Luckily the opera houses that have a serious claim to being really
*international* (Scala, Munich, Berlin, Bayreuth) do not (yet, I believe)
have surtitles.  The Met consigned them, very cleverly, to the backs of
seats in such a way as not to disturb others either from the side or from
above (it doesn't stop the Met audience frequently clapping in all the
wrong places but that could be the subject of another mail!).  I expect
that this seat-back facility is excellent but is a very costly solution to
the disturbance of sur-titles.  I concede that for Czech & Russian operas
they are a help as the language gap is total.  I also agree, and a good
example was given, that their use in *concert* ("L'Heure espagnole") would
have been a success.

This subject can be discussed ad infinitum so please allow me simply to
precis the views expressed *against* surtitles by ENO director David
Pountney in the April issue of Opera:

a) Opera is a synthesis of music, text, acton and image.  Surtitles
   removes one of these elements.

b) The surtitle grossly distorts the text it purports to convey.  It
   conveys sense but no rhyme/rhythm.

c) Opera text comes "hot" from the mouth of the singer.  The surtitle
   is delivered "cold".

d) The "cold" delivery removes all sense of articulation of how a word
   is being used.

e) It is ironic that those operas where titles are most necessary (with
   a lot of text or the setting of a good play) are the ones where the
   surtitles disturb the most.

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.  Pountney's
example was Noel Coward's "Englishmen detest a siesta" likely to be
rendered as "Englishmen do not like afternoon naps".

And no, I do not call myself an aural purist, nor a linguistic one!
I just have to try harder and for this reason support, very strongly,
subtitles on opera videos.

The final question posed by Eric Kisch:

>Does anyone know of any audience research about supertitles?

I can only answer no. I have never seen any statistics.  Surtitles
arrived one day, in UK at least, and we were all told that everybody
wanted them and that those that disapproved or complained that we had
never been asked were told to shut up as it was the will of the majority!
They came by stealth, therefore, and sadly they'll not be going away.

As for a suggested comparison between Lloyd-Webber and Gounod ...  I think
that's very unkind to Gounod.  Is Eric Kisch alone in this? He might be.
I do not think that L-W ever wrote anything that compares to any part of
Faust.

And I too must add "Thanks for getting this far in my diatribe!"

John G. Deacon     http://www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon