Les Grandes Espérances [Insert Translation Here]

In the course of any given week, I don’t usually think about supertitles. However, in the course of the last week, the topic has come up twice. First, in a post by Fred Plotkin about opera supertitles on the WQXR website and then today I see one on The Telegraph website about Parisian theaters adding them to their shows.

Plotkin wonders aloud whether the use of supertitles in opera is degrading the experience by distracting people from the power of the music. In his mind, audiences should be focused on the emotion being communicated by the music and the singing rather than worrying overly much about understanding the plot.

The Telegraph piece says the motivation behind Parisian venues adding supertitles to their performances is to accommodate the growing number of English speaking tourists who are attending performances.

I haven’t been to enough operas to really have any sort of investment in whether supertitles are undermining the point of attending an opera. One of the commenters to Plotkin’s piece suggests that without the supertitles, most opera companies outside of the Metropolitan Opera would not be able to fill half their seats.

That’s what I wanted to address, the basic idea that there are growing expectations from audiences.

It is often a daunting proposition for most non-profits who wonder if they have the resources to address those expectations. It is easy to forget that the need to meet these expectations may reflect a growing interest from people who want to participate rather than something required to retain the audiences you still have.

The Parisian theaters are adding the supertitles because they have found,

“There is a whole trend in tourism to seek ‘experiences’ rather than visits. Tourists want to go beyond being stuck together in the Eiffel Tower, a cabaret or Versailles, to have more local experiences,” said Carl de Poncins, founder of Theatre in Paris, the company that came up with the surtitle idea”

A desire to find experiences off the beat tourist path is potentially a good sign for arts organizations in large and mid-size cities with relatively good tourist business.

Even if you aren’t in a high tourism area, there is potential for an indirect benefit to you.

When I made my post last week about the economics of Broadway productions, a colleague pointed out that even though Broadway had had the best year ever, increasingly most of the attendance comes from tourism rather than residents of Metro-NY.

If that continues to be true, like the theaters in Paris, New York City based theaters may find it necessary to provide foreign language translations for shows. I don’t think single language translation of supertitles would be suitable given the high number of international tourists visiting the city.

An attempt to provide information to attendees at performing arts events on personal devices was first made about a decade ago with Concert Companion, so the idea is not new. In that time the technology to deliver the information has improved greatly and the appearance of those devices in performance halls is becoming more frequent, (though perhaps unwelcomed).

The downsides to this situation are similar to the ones Plotkin identifies. Yet, the benefit of commercial and larger arts entities recognizing a need to accommodate speakers of foreign languages is that the technology to deliver on demand and in real time has a good chance of being developed.

Even if foreign tourists don’t play into Broadway marketing plans, it probably won’t be long before playbills and all the enhanced information about shows that Concert Companion set out to to deliver will be regularly available at performances on personal devices.

Heck, theaters may stop handing out playbills altogether and go the route of airlines who require you to bring a wifi capable device if you want to watch in-flight movies. After a good system for organization and delivery of the content is in place, then the real hurdle will be about the etiquette for using personal devices at live performances.

About Joe Patti

I have been writing Butts in the Seats (BitS) on topics of arts and cultural administration since 2004 (yikes!). Given the ever evolving concerns facing the sector, I have yet to exhaust the available subject matter. In addition to BitS, I am a founding contributor to the ArtsHacker (artshacker.com) website where I focus on topics related to boards, law, governance, policy and practice.

I am also an evangelist for the effort to Build Public Will For Arts and Culture being helmed by Arts Midwest and the Metropolitan Group. (http://www.creatingconnection.org/about/)

My most recent role was as Executive Director of the Grand Opera House in Macon, GA.

Among the things I am most proud are having produced an opera in the Hawaiian language and a dance drama about Hawaii's snow goddess Poli'ahu while working as a Theater Manager in Hawaii. Though there are many more highlights than there is space here to list.

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8 thoughts on “Les Grandes Espérances [Insert Translation Here]”

  1. Two points of note. 1) The Metropolitan Opera is not, currently, coming close to selling out their seats. 2) The Metropolitan Opera offers titles in multiple languages that appear on a small screen on the back of the seat in the next row. You, the audience member, can choose which you prefer, or you can turn them off completely.

    Reply
    • Brooke-

      Sorry I wasn’t clearer, when I talked about the Met selling out, I was referencing something a commenter said in the Plotkin piece. I also believe Plotkin pointed alluded to the seatback screens and that one could turn them off. I wasn’t aware you could choose different languages. That being said, that option is pretty much out of reach for just about everyone else in the country and in all likelihood any solution is probably going to take the form of mobile devices.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if the Met’s process and technology doesn’t serve as at least prototype for what might be coming. Speaking from experience, people severely underestimate just how much time and effort it takes to do supertitles well. It takes a lot of effort to even do them poorly.

      Reply
  2. I think that supertitles make it easier to concentrate on the music, as you are not spending all your effort trying to figure out what is being said (or misinterpreting it—look at the “gopher tuna” video of “O Fortuna”). The supertitles make the music more accessible, which may offend a few opera snobs, but is generally a good thing.

    Reply
  3. Plotkin writes from the false assumption that “the most important and extraordinary element in opera…[is] the music”. It may be for him, but that’s certainly not universal. If that were the case, we could all stay home and listen to recordings. Lots of people who enjoy opera go for the same reasons we go to movies–the story, delivered in multiple sensory ways. Is he suggesting we all watch foreign films without translation and just enjoy the soundtrack?

    Reply
    • Yes I certainly agree the music isn’t the most important part, otherwise opera wouldn’t need to be anything but a number of singers standing downstage at microphones a la the Les Miserables anniversary dream cast performances.

      Reply

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