Surtitles
From surtitles one speaks in the theater or the opera , they are the subtitles comparable in film and television. In the case of foreign language productions in particular, they are faded in above the stage by a projector or a ticker display and show the spoken or sung language - translated in advance - in the national language. This technological innovation took place since the mid-1990s and now affects all major opera stages in the world and many festivals in which drama productions from other language areas are shown.
Technical solutions
In order to project the surtitles with a beamer, specially modified video projectors are often used, which actually only project the upper part of the screen content. In the lower area of the screen, the surtitling is controlled via a control monitor, in the upper area the projected image appears.
In the meantime, however, there are also solutions that can do without an additional special projector and at the same time, for example, can still output videos via the projector. The projector, which is usually available anyway, is used here. In terms of position, size, font, etc., ticker displays are not as flexible as projection by a beamer, but a permanently installed ticker display is often easier to read and easy to use with high brightness.
subtitle
In the meantime, as an alternative to surtitles, solutions integrated into seats are also being offered, which, however, mean more technical effort and higher costs. The Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York have opted for this solution: Most visitors have their subtitles displayed on the seat in front of them, but there are also small tablets - some of which can be swiveled or mobile - for boxes, standing areas and foot-free rows. The Musiktheater Linz has both surtitles and subtitles, which are integrated in the front seats and allow the choice of two languages.
Multilingual versions
Many opera companies - such as the Vienna State Opera , Israeli Opera or the Salzburg Festival - now display the subtitles and subtitles both in the national language and in English, a concession to an increasingly international audience. In Salzburg, English and French surtitles are used in German-language operas.
Consequences for performance practice
Since the 1960s, opera performances in the original language have become increasingly common, because on the one hand many translations seem outrageous and on the other hand, performances in the original language facilitate the engagement of international singing stars. Even houses that have stuck to German-language productions for a long time, such as the Komische Oper Berlin or the Vienna Volksoper , are now gradually switching to the original language, as the sung text is now even easier to understand than in a German sung performance thanks to the surtitles.
The availability of surtitles has a significant influence on the programming of drama festivals, which can now invite productions worldwide because the language barrier is eliminated thanks to the surtitles. This is clearly visible in the Young Directors Project of the Salzburg Festival (2002 to 2014) and the programs of the Wiener Festwochen , which in the years of the drama directorate of Stefanie Carp (2008 to 2013) and Frie Leysen (2014) numerous troops from Latin America and the Balkans , the Far East or Africa.