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From: jeb@eisx.UUCP (Jim Beckman)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Technology goes to the opera
Message-ID: <755@eisx.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Jul-84 17:05:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: eisx.755
Posted: Wed Jul 11 17:05:43 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Jul-84 01:18:08 EDT
Organization: AT&T Info. Sys. Labs, South Plainfield NJ
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>>>

I saw the NYCO production of Cendrillon (with supertitles) last
season.  There were people handing out survey forms beforehand to
get audience reaction, but I didn't turn mine in, because I
couldn't really decide whether I liked the idea or not.  All in
all, I suppose I'm in favor.  Since the text is at the top of
the proscenium, it is relatively easy to ignore it (unless you
are in the far upper reaches of the balconies).  However, I
found that I couldn't really ignore the text, because I 
WANTED TO KNOW what was really being said.  My impression was
that the supertitles weren't a literal translation, and
sometimes paraphrased.  I think this is a better approach than
translating an opera into English because (1) the opera sounds
better in the original language (2) even when it's sung in
English, you can't understand a lot of it unless you know it
already.

The performance I attended had some technical problems with
the projection - occasionally the projector would be cycled
with no slide, producing a bright bar of white above the stage -
very irritating.  For the near future, at least, all NYCO 
shows done in other than English will have the supertitles.

Jim Beckman   ATTISL, South Plainfield, NJ   eisx!jeb

Aside:  was anyone else on the net present several years ago
at NYCO when a major part of the scenery collapsed during the
Sarah Caldwell production of the Barber?