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From:  ODivaTina@a...
Date:  Thu Jan 24, 2002  11:02 pm
Subject:  Projected Titles for Song Recitals?

Hi. I thought a lot of you would find this article from today's NY Times of
interest:
TinaO

Audience Connection Gets Lost in Translation

January 23, 2002

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Over the last 20 years, the use of projected English
supertitles has "given a shot in the arm to opera, for
sure," the mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne said to an audience
that filled the Juilliard Theater on Friday night for the
ninth annual Marilyn Horne Foundation recital. Since
promoting the song recital is the purpose of her
foundation, Ms. Horne continued, she decided to try an
experiment in the first half of the evening's program and
use supertitles to provide simultaneous English translation
of the German texts to 18 songs by Mozart, Korngold, Brahms
and Strauss.

The main goal of the event was to present four promising
young singers, all recent winners of foundation awards, who
are being sponsored in various recital appearances around
the United States. The theme of the program, "Vienna to
Broadway," was the influence of 19th-century Viennese song
on 20th-century American operetta and musical theater. But
Ms. Horne's experiment with supertitles, which has not been
tried much in recital format, is likely to generate the
most debate.

Opera has indeed benefited overall from the development of
titling systems. They have helped audiences understand that
opera is theater, that you should sit back and enjoy the
show. But, as the evening proved, using supertitles for
song recitals is a more complicated matter.

In opera, singers mostly adhere to the theatrical
convention of the invisible fourth wall. Other than for
those moments when someone breaks character and addresses
the audience directly, a drama is being enacted onstage. So
most people find that taking your eyes off the singers for
a moment in order to read a line of dialogue does not
significantly impair the experience.

But in recitals, singers mostly do address listeners
directly. Glancing away from the singer disrupts that
connection, which can be so intense that many audience
members feel compelled to watch and listen carefully as a
song is being sung, even in a language they do not
understand, rather than sit there, head bowed, reading
translations.

In theory, the use of supertitles might foster
comprehension. But when the first performer on this
occasion, Lawrence Brownlee, an ardent young lyric tenor,
accompanied by Howard Watkins at the piano, began a group
of Mozart songs with the familiar "Das Veilchen" ("The
Violet"), I found it distracting to have to keep looking at
the screen above him for the English translation. It seemed
almost discourteous.

Then there is the problem of translating poetry. Most opera
librettos are like play scripts, thick with dialogue, just
as some song texts relate conversation and tell little
stories. But many poetic texts are metaphorical and
elusive, like those in Korngold's "Unvergänglichkeit"
cycle, sung by Liesel Fedkenheuer, a bright mezzo-soprano,
with Miah Im accompanying, and several of the Strauss songs
sung by Monique McDonald, a soprano with a rich, large,
though insecure voice, accompanied by Brian Zeger. As the
songs were sung, the isolated poetic lines were projected
one by one on the screen. This made it hard to glean the
continuity and imagery of the poems, something accomplished
with little difficulty in recital formats by quickly
reading an entire printed text before a singer begins a
song.

When Keith Phares, a robust baritone, sang a Brahms group
with Thomas Bagwell accompanying, the paradox of the song
recital was evident. His singing was so vivid and
expressive, the German words so crisp, that the specifics
of the texts almost didn't matter.

Of course song texts do matter, crucially, which is why the
supertitle experiment is worth trying. But a more
successful experiment took place at a few years back at
another Horne Foundation recital when several young singers
performed European songs in English translation. All of a
sudden, audience members hearing Schubert's popular "Die
Forelle" ("The Trout") sung in English sat up in their
seats. You sensed everyone saying to themselves, "So that's
what the song is about." This staple of the lieder
repertory never seemed fresher.

The value of hearing songs sung in your native tongue was
reinforced during the second half of the program, a
selection of waltzing operetta arias and songs by, among
others, Sigmund Romberg, Oscar Straus, Franz Lehar, Rodgers
and Hart, and Lerner and Loewe, accompanied by the guest
artist Marvin Hamlisch, no less. When Mr. Phares broke into
a jaunty account in good old English of "The Most Beautiful
Girl in the World" from the Rodgers and Hart musical
"Jumbo," every snappy line and witty rhyme was an utter
pleasure.

No one would suggest that translating song texts into
English is the best solution to this nettlesome problem.
But based on this experience, using supertitles is not
ideal either. Still, Ms. Horne deserves credit for trying
it out. Supertitles in the recital hall may catch on
anyway. As in the opera house, dissenters will have to get
used to it.






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