original language

In literature , film and opera, the term original language refers to the language in which the work was originally written.

In order to be able to understand the plot of a performance in the original language, subtitles were introduced in the film and surtitles in the opera . Since the beginning of the 21st century, surtitles have also been used increasingly in foreign-language drama productions, such as guest performances . The most important argument for the original language on an artistic level is the authenticity of the work of art , which is why, since the 1970s, the focus has increasingly shifted to original texts , original versions and the director's cut .

The effort to ensure that the film is presented in the original language is based on the obvious discrepancy between image and sound; H. non-lip-synchronous language. Also on cinephiles criticism that the foreign-language dubbing spoken normally by other actors. Romy Schneider was one of the rare exceptions who dubbed her films made in France in German. In opera, the international trend towards the original language stems on the one hand from the difficulty of creating singable translations , and on the other from the internationality of the cast. This is why renowned opera houses switched to performances in the original language at an early stage so that they could quickly fly in an available singer in the event of illness.

Abbreviations

OF stands for original version
UT stands for subtitles