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On supertitle translation
Jan. 28th, 2024 10:52 pmSupertitle translation for opera is one of the things I do, and since I've just finished another marathon job (Wagner's Siegfried) I figured I would write about the process a bit. Following these general principles has resulted in supertitles which have been mentioned positively in reviews, as well as compliments from audience members.
For many in the audience, the supertitle is their first point of contact with dialogue, character and story. So your supertitle must:
- convey the emotion of the moment
- convey the 'voice' of the character who is speaking
while also:
- being concise (nothing too wordy-- you want the audience to spend more time watching the singers than reading the titles)
- not getting in the way of the action (nothing too prosaic or too purple)
AND it has to fit on two lines at the font size being used.
Lineation is important: verse dramatists and comics letterers know this. The principle is "one thought, one line." Or musically, if practicable, "one phrase, one line."
Ideally, line breaks should come at an intuitive point in the structure of the music or the sentence. Your audience will read at various speeds, but reading will be quicker and comprehension more intuitive if you follow this rule.
For example: in this last job I was given a set of someone else's titles from 2014 to work from. I ended up making alterations to almost every single slide, many of which involved lineation.
For example, I was given:
Out of the bush came a bear, who
listened to my tune
which I edited to
Out of the brush came a bear
who heard me playing
Just a small change, but it helps the title make intuitive sense when read.
Similarly, if the character is expressing one thought broken up into two short phrases separated by a breath or a rest, the supertitle should also break the thought into two lines.
Thus, Mime's first line could be written as:
Utter torment! Toil without end!
But the singer sings, and the audience hears, two distinct phrases. So the title should be on two lines:
Utter torment!
Toil without end!
Finally, a word about timing. First of all: the titles need to appear at a speed at which they can be easily read. You can get away with slightly faster changes by using less text per slide, but that's still risky: ideally you want titles that someone who reads more slowly can keep up with. I supertitled a Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 2019; the finales of Acts I and II involve large numbers of people all singing different text at high speed. At such times, all you can do is provide a summary, picking the bits of text most important to the scene and the story, and hoping for the best.
There are also certain moments when a change of thought requires a new slide, even if the line could all fit on one. That way, the audience discover the new thought at the same time as the character. In Act II of Meistersinger, when Pogner is wondering whether to go visit Sachs, he says:
Shall I? But what for?
...Better not
It wasn't until the dress rehearsal that I realised "Better not" needed its own slide, which gave a little more feeling to the moment when Pogner realises he's become distanced from his old friend Sachs.
Similarly, in comedy, if there's a joke being told, your slide should line up with the punchline so the audience discovers it as the singer says it. Ideally that title should be short and snappy, for ease of reading and comic impact.
If the original is funny, so should the title be-- but the singer should get the laugh.
Supertitle translation does call for your writerly skill, and will test your ability as a dramatist-- but your writing must always support the story and artists onstage. Beware of the temptation to impress with your cleverness or poetic flair: it's the director's production, not yours.
I write this as someone who's been supertitling for nearly twenty years. It's always someone's first time seeing the opera, and your titles can be pivotal to that person's engagement with the story. That's our greatest reward.
For many in the audience, the supertitle is their first point of contact with dialogue, character and story. So your supertitle must:
- convey the emotion of the moment
- convey the 'voice' of the character who is speaking
while also:
- being concise (nothing too wordy-- you want the audience to spend more time watching the singers than reading the titles)
- not getting in the way of the action (nothing too prosaic or too purple)
AND it has to fit on two lines at the font size being used.
Lineation is important: verse dramatists and comics letterers know this. The principle is "one thought, one line." Or musically, if practicable, "one phrase, one line."
Ideally, line breaks should come at an intuitive point in the structure of the music or the sentence. Your audience will read at various speeds, but reading will be quicker and comprehension more intuitive if you follow this rule.
For example: in this last job I was given a set of someone else's titles from 2014 to work from. I ended up making alterations to almost every single slide, many of which involved lineation.
For example, I was given:
listened to my tune
which I edited to
who heard me playing
Just a small change, but it helps the title make intuitive sense when read.
Similarly, if the character is expressing one thought broken up into two short phrases separated by a breath or a rest, the supertitle should also break the thought into two lines.
Thus, Mime's first line could be written as:
But the singer sings, and the audience hears, two distinct phrases. So the title should be on two lines:
Toil without end!
Finally, a word about timing. First of all: the titles need to appear at a speed at which they can be easily read. You can get away with slightly faster changes by using less text per slide, but that's still risky: ideally you want titles that someone who reads more slowly can keep up with. I supertitled a Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 2019; the finales of Acts I and II involve large numbers of people all singing different text at high speed. At such times, all you can do is provide a summary, picking the bits of text most important to the scene and the story, and hoping for the best.
There are also certain moments when a change of thought requires a new slide, even if the line could all fit on one. That way, the audience discover the new thought at the same time as the character. In Act II of Meistersinger, when Pogner is wondering whether to go visit Sachs, he says:
...Better not
It wasn't until the dress rehearsal that I realised "Better not" needed its own slide, which gave a little more feeling to the moment when Pogner realises he's become distanced from his old friend Sachs.
Similarly, in comedy, if there's a joke being told, your slide should line up with the punchline so the audience discovers it as the singer says it. Ideally that title should be short and snappy, for ease of reading and comic impact.
If the original is funny, so should the title be-- but the singer should get the laugh.
Supertitle translation does call for your writerly skill, and will test your ability as a dramatist-- but your writing must always support the story and artists onstage. Beware of the temptation to impress with your cleverness or poetic flair: it's the director's production, not yours.
I write this as someone who's been supertitling for nearly twenty years. It's always someone's first time seeing the opera, and your titles can be pivotal to that person's engagement with the story. That's our greatest reward.
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