# Are you supposed to understand what's being sung?



## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Well, the title pretty much says it. I mean, if you speak the language, that is, of course. But I've been wondering. As I was recently watching The Magic Flute, Parsifal and Moses und Aron, I had to do so with subtitles on, since I couldn't, for the most part, make out what was being sung. Now, I had read the synopses beforehand, but I still like to know what the dialogue is at any point.

And what do you do with foreign language operas? I mean, when you go see them in concert. You've read the synopsis, alright, but then? Do you take the libretto and its translation to the concert? Or do you read it before? Do you read it at all? Or is none of this of any importance?


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Opera houses have surtitles.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

It seems to me singers have become more and more unintelligible A few weeks ago I was listening to Britten's recording of his own *The Turn of the Screw*, recorded in 1955, and I noticed how much easier it was to understand what was being sung, how much more natural their projection of the words.

Maybe surtitles have made singers lazy.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Well, that depends a lot on the singers, true. Also on the orchestration, the conductor, the acoustics of the opera house, ... However, I was recently attending, for instance, a performance of _Moses und Aron_, and was able to follow up the singing without any problem at all.

In any case, most opera huses use surtitles, that you can follow both in the language of the opera, and the language of the opera house (and even English, if not already one of the two languages before).


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I would not go to see a totally unfamiliar opera in concert for the first time without getting to know it first, surtitles or no surtitles. I would listen to it on CD/YouTube first, read the synopsis and the libretto several times, until I can at least have an idea of what is going on in an opera at any moment and wheter I am going to enjoy it live or not.


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

L'elisir d'amore was performed here in hungarian. there weren't any subtitles. sopranos are the hardest to understand.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

SiegendesLicht said:


> I would not go to see a totally unfamiliar opera in concert for the first time without getting to know it first, surtitles or no surtitles. I would listen to it on CD/YouTube first, read the synopsis and the libretto several times, until I can at least have an idea of what is going on in an opera at any moment and wheter I am going to enjoy it live or not.


But how did they do it in earlier times? Did programme notes provides a synopsis? Could you buy the libretto in a store? Did they have introductions before the concert?

Or did they rely on telling the story visually? I watched a video of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, and I think one could have followed the plot even with the sound off, it was all acted out. But I doubt that's always the case.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

I've often seen people - especially at recitals when there are usually no surtitles - with their noses buried in the lyrics, hardly paying attention to the singers at all. I always read the synopsis beforehand and being in possession of an excellent memory rarely lose my way in an opera. Besides, my operatic Italian has got good enough so that I understand pretty well even when I'm not so familiar with the libretto. With German I'm a lot more at sea, except for the operas I know very well. Operatic English is usually easy to follow but some singers are more intelligible than others.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

In most cases the Opera will have been written in the language of the country of the composers birth or where it was commissioned and debuted .The audience would obviously have no problem following the story.
Also originally intended for the affluent intelligentsia, who may well have been multi-lingual anyway. 
Opera was composed in classic themes not intended for the Hoi Polloi. 

It's in relatively modern times when Opera gains mass appeal and when artists became international performers that language becomes an issue. Opera stars singing in languages they may not speak. Audiences who speak only their native tongue. Before attending and Opera it would be normal practice to have prior knowledge of the story line or at least buy a program. Or attend a pre-event lecture.

When Recorded music became available, printed Libretti usually accompanied the recordings. I will still usually follow the libretto of an opera I havnt heard before, following the language it is sung in with a quick sideways glance to the translation. 
Most opera houses nowdays offer Surtitles for the audience to follow. Opera is a vast international affair now. Its not unusual To be in say the UK watching an Italian opera, with no Italian singers in the cast. 

It can create problems true. But mostly it works because its a live visual media too, and if the director has done his work well the story should be told clearly as possible. Having said that, it does seem sometimes events conspire to produce otherwise!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I would think that if you are interested enough in an opera to buy tickets for it, that you would want to, at least, read a synopsis of it as well as maybe even listen to a CD or view a video, so that you can get an idea of what is going on.
From there, pay your ticket, sit in your seat, check the surtitles from time to time, then sit back and plain out enjoy the show without dwelling on every single word or meaning.


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## Divasin (Aug 8, 2014)

From there, pay your ticket, sit in your seat, check the surtitles from time to time, then sit back and plain out enjoy the show without dwelling on every single word or meaning.[/QUOTE]

Absolutely agree...if the singers, conductor, orchestra are any good you should be able to follow the emotional journey through their interpretation..... so just go with the flow....
See the thread on Una Furtiva Lacrima - Domingo's masterclass...he emphasizes the importance of the singer projecting to the back of the theatre.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Andreas said:


> But how did they do it in earlier times? Did programme notes provides a synopsis? Could you buy the libretto in a store? Did they have introductions before the concert?
> 
> Or did they rely on telling the story visually? I watched a video of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, and I think one could have followed the plot even with the sound off, it was all acted out. But I doubt that's always the case.


Keep in mind that a lot of 19th century opera would've been performed for an audience that was already familiar with the major European languages....but yes, people had programme notes and would take the libretto with them. You still see people with their little libretto books but it's not as common since surtitles were introduced.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Couac Addict said:


> Keep in mind that a lot of 19th century opera would've been performed for an audience that was already familiar with the major European languages....but yes, people had programme notes and would take the libretto with them. You still see people with their little libretto books but it's not as common since surtitles were introduced.


It was usually performed in the vernacular. Covent Garden was unusual in that operas were in Italian- I don't know if that was always the case but it usually was at least. I have heard of multi-language opera stagings where different singers sang in different languages- I think that was at the old Met in New York.


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

Andreas said:


> Well, the title pretty much says it. I mean, if you speak the language, that is, of course. But I've been wondering. As I was recently watching The Magic Flute, Parsifal and Moses und Aron, I had to do so with subtitles on, since I couldn't, for the most part, make out what was being sung. Now, I had read the synopses beforehand, but I still like to know what the dialogue is at any point.
> 
> And what do you do with foreign language operas? I mean, when you go see them in concert. You've read the synopsis, alright, but then? Do you take the libretto and its translation to the concert? Or do you read it before? Do you read it at all? Or is none of this of any importance?


I don't feel the need to usually know the exact lines, just the general idea of what s being said is usually fine. It depends on how much I like the music. When it's great music I just concentrate on that. When it's just 'fill in' music I read the supertitles.


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## Divasin (Aug 8, 2014)

The Dangers of Translation

Soprano has her song 'translated'


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Other than English, I can't speak any of the major operatic languages with anything approaching fluency; most of the French, German, Russian, and a good amount of the Italian I know comes from operas themselves. So I don't think I'm in an ideal position to be judging singers' diction in those languages. However, I will admit that at a recent performance of ARIADNE AUF NAXOS I attended in which the Prologue was sung and spoken in English, I was a bit relieved because there was so little need for me to consult the surtitles, and the singers' diction was good. I agree strongly with what some of the above posters are getting at, which is that opera is not so much about literal comprehension of words as about allowing various stimuli -- orchestral music, the sound of the human voice, visuals, _and_ words -- to reach you on an emotional level all at once. It's also pretty obvious to me that in certain vocal registers (e.g. the higher register of the soprano voice) the words do tend to get distorted (because it's impossible to sing, for example, a _pure_ "ee" sound on a very high note -- you have to shade it toward "ah," and "oh" has to be shaded toward "oo,"), and there are times when the singer has to sacrifice words to tone. I even sense that in certain repertoire -- e.g. Richard Strauss -- it's often not so much the individual words as the sheer_ sound _of, say, the soprano voice soaring over the orchestra that makes such a powerful dramatic effect (hence the famous "Strauss soprano"). So I think that in singing, as in so many things, it's all about balance, and there are times when one quality has to be sacrificed to another. As for my personal preparation rituals, I wouldn't dream of going to an opera without having at least read a detailed plot synopsis, and I consider this the bare minimum in preparation! Ideally, I listen to a complete recording while following along in the libretto.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

When my mother was growing up in Germany ('30s and '40s), it was common practice to perform operas with original librettos in Italian, French, or one of the Slavic languages (or English, in the case of Weber's _Oberon_) in German translation -- a practice that continued into the 1960s when Fritz Wunderlich was singing. So I do think it was intended for the audience to be able to understand most of what the soloists were singing. When I first started attending opera performances, the use of surtitles wasn't yet widespread, so I'd familiarize myself with the libretto beforehand so that I would at least have a general idea what the cast was singing about. But even after most opera houses had acquired projected translations, I almost never have looked at them. I understand German, and can pick up enough key words in Italian or French to figure out what the people onstage are singing about (having studied Latin for a few years helps). Even with the Slavic languages, I ignore the surtitles. I only use them when I'm attending a modern opera in English for which I couldn't track down a recording or libretto.


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