# Translated Surtitles



## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

My wife (Parsival in this forum) and I were discussing some funny translations that we've seen in surtitles. This brought about a question:

Are surtitles done individually in-house by each opera company, or is there a corporation out there where you can buy the surtitles for *Rigoletto* translated into English?

Considering all the possibilities - that there needs to be someone who could translate _Rusalka_ from Czech to say, Latvian, for the Riga opera house, my guess is that the surtitles are done in-house.


----------



## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

I would guess you're right. The recent dvd version of _La Fille du Regiment_ is from the same production and largely the same cast as the Met Live in HD from a couple years back, but the dvd was filmed at the ROH, and the subtitles are quite different between the two.

In general I think the translations are pretty poor and are likely at the bottom of an opera house's priorities, as they tend to be straight glosses and throw out any attempt at maintaining the rhyme or meter. It's the rare opera that even makes a half-hearted attempt; off the top of my head, only a couple portions of the Laurent Pelly _Orphee aux Enfers _ and likewise a few numbers in the 2003 Met _Ariadne auf Naxos_, out of all my dvds, make an effort to keep the rhymes and meter intact.


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I think we had a thread about this not long ago, in which I was saying that hiring top level bilingual poets to do a proper translation is prohibitive so we get whatever the opera houses can afford.


----------



## FragendeFrau (May 30, 2011)

That's interesting because as I think I said in the other thread, I don't expect a sub/surtitle to have meter or rhyme intact (very difficult to manage in a translation anyway). They are limited in space, and all I really want is the gist of what's being said. Of course, if there is a joke, pun, or some other important play on words, there should be an attempt to make that clear, but as long as it isn't an INCORRECT translation, that's all I want--the gist. My concentration is on the performers anyway, the more quickly the subtitle can be read and off the screen, the better for me.

IMHO, of course.


----------



## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

Well....Sometimes I have no choice, it is better than Nothing...Watching Ban Bank in Hungarian...I appreciated having subtitles.
Lately I bought the opera "Volo di Notte" by Dallapiccola in Tokyo, subtitles in Japanese!!!!! Their Italian was Italo-Japanese and the subtitles weren't useful for me!!!! LOL... The choices sometimes are: bad subtitles, subtitles in a language you don't understand or not subtitles at all...Which one do you prefer? French is almost my mother tongue...Carmen in French, I could not understand a word...

Martin


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

I don't even look at them because all the operas I've been to see, I've known exactly what's happening. Wouldn't have been much use anyway when I saw _Lucia_ in Berlin.

But they're a brilliant innovation & make opera so accessible to new fans. At her request I'm taking an 'opera virgin' to see Rigoletto next year. I've given her my Milnes/Pavarotti/Sutherland box set (she doesn't want to watch a DVD) & suggested she does a bit of homework, but if she doesn't, surtitles will be invaluable.

I suppose I could translate in a loud whisper .....


----------



## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Thanks for the help here. My funniest experience with surtitles was at a performance of Aida in Budapest. It was a really good performance, well sung, very dramatically acted, and with a spectacular production with some very impressive sets. This particular production would cause a lot of controversy here in North America, however, since Aida, Amenasro, and all of the Ethiopian captives were portrayed by white singers in blackface. 

But the funniest thing for me was that the surtitles were in Hungarian. That sure helped me a lot. Addio Terra came out something like Viszlát Föld. (I just used Google translate for that). 

You can imagine that I never took much of a look at any of the surtitles throughout the opera.


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

sospiro said:


> I suppose I could translate in a loud whisper .....


 Oh no! Natalie said I shouldn't air conduct during _Les Troyens_ but whispering translations is even worse!


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

waldvogel said:


> Thanks for the help here. My funniest experience with surtitles was at a performance of Aida in Budapest. It was a really good performance, well sung, very dramatically acted, and with a spectacular production with some very impressive sets. This particular production would cause a lot of controversy here in North America, however, since Aida, Amenasro, and all of the Ethiopian captives were portrayed by white singers in blackface.
> 
> But the funniest thing for me was that the surtitles were in Hungarian. That sure helped me a lot. Addio Terra came out something like Viszlát Föld. (I just used Google translate for that).
> 
> You can imagine that I never took much of a look at any of the surtitles throughout the opera.


That's why I'm so proud of our own Metropolitan Opera. They have MetTitles (directly in front of your seat and you can turn them on and off) in English, German, and Spanish. I hope at some point they include French and Italian too.


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

I just watched L'Incoronazione di Poppea on youTube with Catalan subtitles. I think I was using the italian singing to make sense of the subtitles more than the other way round (they have some seriously unusual looking words!). I really wanted to see this production though so it was worth it.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> Oh no! Natalie said I shouldn't air conduct during _Les Troyens_ but whispering translations is even worse!


Really? You don't think I should then?


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

sospiro said:


> Really? You don't think I should then?


Only if he air conducts.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> Only if he air conducts.


Deal :devil:


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

sospiro said:


> Deal :devil:


 OK, I'll air conduct only if Natalie is unwashed and drinks vodka during the performance.
Now I just need to get Mrs. Almaviva to eat lots of beans before the show.
Our group will be the group from hell.
We'll get thrown out.:lol:


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Just a side issue, but probably of relevance here.

In terms of performances of longer song-cycles here in Australia, they are doing them with surtitles as well (in English, of course). Earlier in the year I went to a performance of Schoenberg's _Pierrot Lunaire_, and it had scrolling surtitles. In September, the same thing will happen with Schubert's _Winterreise_, which is longer than _Pierrot_ by more than half. I think this is good, because there is not much to separate these longer song cycles from opera, at least in terms of their complexity & how they tell a story. & another thing is that the _Pierrot_ performance had a choreographed dancer with lighting. So experiencing song-cycles live is becoming much closer to opera than it was before, it's more dramatic and interesting, creative, etc...


----------

