To: "VOCALIST" <vocalist>
Subject: English Subtitles
Date sent: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 22:53:09 +0300
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

>"Last night on PBS they showed the performance of Central Park, a new opera
>triptych - I missed most of it because I was teaching, but my toddlers were
>watching it.
>What cracked me up was that whoever produced this for television felt that
>a contemporary opera, sung in English REQUIRED SUBTITLES!!!!!!! English
>subtitles! Did I mention that the opera was written and sung in English?<

I think the reason why television companies like to use subtitles for
English operas is that the diction of many singers is not clear enough to
follow what they're singing about. I can't speak about this particular
example (although the BBC sometimes do the same), but I have found that bad
diction can seriously detract from vocal performances of all sorts. Perhaps
the television company simply wanted to make it a bit easier to understand
what was going on? Yes, english singers singing in english *can* obscure the
words even to an english audience. Especially at the extreme ends of the
vocal register.

Incidentally, my feeling is that it's easier for those of us with "trained"
or "experienced" ears to pick out the words of a singer than it is for those
who do not listen to a lot of music. Particularly for those of us who sing
ourselves.

An analogy: I speak good french. But I find when watching a film in french,
it is easier to understand everything if there are also subtitles in french;
just because my ears are not *as* tuned in to the spoken words as they might
be. If there's a chance that the spoken/sung word might be difficult to
follow, then every little bit of help must be useful.

Daniel Sumner


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