Part of
Opera in Translation: Unity and diversityEdited by Adriana Şerban and Kelly Kar Yue Chan
[Benjamins Translation Library 153] 2020
► pp. 35–51
Edited by Adriana Şerban and Kelly Kar Yue Chan
[Benjamins Translation Library 153] 2020
► pp. 35–51
Surtitles and the multi-semiotic balance
Can over-information kill opera?
When surtitles were first introduced, in 1982, they were intended to make opera accessible to a larger audience. They fulfilled the basic requirement of maximum comprehension, minimum distraction. In the intervening years, however, there has been an increase in the quantity of displayed text so that the titles have become distracting and intrusive. In my contribution, I explore the reasons for this and discuss why I believe there is a need to put surtitles into their perspective, within the multi-semiotic balance of lyric theatre performances.
Keywords: surtitles, lyric theatre, semiotic balance, libretto
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: From concise to verbose in thirty years
- 2.A flexible approach to surtitling with reference to additional semiotic information
- 3.Audience surtitle reading habits and expectations: The tendency to use language as a first point of reference
- 4.Considering semiotic complements when composing a surtitle script
- 5.Reducing the quantity of surtitle text to improve audience engagement with the action on stage
- 6.Considerations to be taken into account when displaying text
- 7.Examples of operatic scenes
- 8.Conclusion
-
References
References
Burton, Jonathan
n.d. “The Joy of Opera. The Art and Craft of Opera Subtitling and Surtitling,” [URL], last accessed 23 March 2020.
Coren, Stanley
2000 How to Speak Dog. Free Press.
Lorenz, Konrad
1953 So kam der Mensch auf den Hund. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.
Page, Jacqueline
2013 “Surtitling Opera: A Translator’s Perspective.” In Music, Text and Translation, ed. by Helen Julia Minors, 35–48. London: Bloomsbury.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Ożarowska, Aleksandra
2021. Od czynów do słów: intersemiotyczne nadpisy w uwspółcześnionych spektaklach operowych. Przekładaniec :43 ► pp. 162 ff. 
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.