John McWhorter makes an argument for translated operas in this New York Sun article. Personally, I don’t particularly like supertitles either, especially ones in English for operas in English, but I do like hearing operas in the original language. To be fair, I do have the advantage of having studied German, Latin, and Spanish, though sometimes this does mean I become distracted by exactly how words have been rendered into English. There are also times when the titles are funny when the libretto is not, or when the ordering of the punchline in the titles is paced such that the audience laughs before the line has been sung. On the other hand, there is something appealing about operas translated into English, for instance, Pocket Opera does a fine job of this.

I recently learned that the Met titles are sometimes in languages other than English, since they are individual screens one can change the language option. I’ve never used the titles before, which was probably very foolish for something like War and Peace. Just the thought of Doctor Atomic in German makes me giddy, too bad this production overlaps with the San Francisco Opera season.

NY Sun Article | John McWhorter at the Manhattan Institute | Met Titles

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3 responses to “Supertitles as Warm Beer”

  1. Notckley Avatar
    Notckley

    I like supertitles. It’s nice to have the option to look up and see context sometimes.

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  2. Niki Avatar
    Niki

    I think we should keep supertitles. One can ignore them.
    The biggest reason for keeping opera in its original language is that the songs were written with that language in mind, so that the vocal arcs and pacing fit that language. But it is nice to know what’s going on and often I find the supertitle translations to be poorly done. Not because I’m such a language genius but because the few vocab words I know don’t come up, or I already know the song and I know they’ve left a part out. I don’t know what the reasoning is behind the translators… wish I did.
    I think more attention needs to be paid to good translation. Your point about the punch line of the jokes drives this home.
    In my perfect world, I would completely redo the program. I would get rid of the stupid “biographies/resumes” and maybe condense the a lot of the boring stuff and print short translations of the songs. Leave the recitatives out, but if we had non-repeating librettos in the program it would be awesome.

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  3. The Opera Tattler Avatar

    Notckley: I suppose so but the music (and sometimes even the production) do also give context.
    Niki: Titles are certainly here to stay, indeed. I can sympathize with translators, it’s a difficult task, but yes, often things are left out.
    The problem with translations in programs is that this creates a lot of noise, people flip through and so forth. Speaking of which, the programs at SF Opera really have gotten worse, no photos of the production (because Encore is in Seattle, they have to get them done early) and all that repeated content
    (the same article in different programs).

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