The present paper focuses on the issue of translating operatic libretti in the form of surtitles. This is a very specific type of translation, and it becomes even more challenging when operatic productions for which surtitles are created are modernised. In such cases the application of skopos theory proves to be the most useful and effective, even though some of its premises may be regarded as controversial. The data for the present study come from the most reputable opera houses, for example the Metropolitan Opera House or Royal Opera House, as they are known for providing their audiences with high-quality libretti translations.
Opera is undoubtedly a particularly high and traditional genre of art, but recently there have been numerous attempts at breaking this stereotype and presenting opera in a contemporary light. The most popular way of achieving this aim is either staging modernized opera productions, i.e. transferring their plot from their traditional setting to the here and now, or considerably changing their interpretation. Staging modernized productions involves, first of all, the issue of stage design, and an alteration in the traditional interpretation is mostly created by acting, but nowadays it is also the translation shown in the form of surtitles that creates the significance of operatic productions.
Putting Action into Words: Intersemiotic Surtitles in Modernised Opera Productions
Since their debut over operatic stages in the early 1980s, surtitles have become an important part of the audiovisual translation field. It is also, among others, thanks to them that opera is currently regaining its popularity – they make opera productions more accessible and audience-friendly. Surtitles can also considerably shape an opera production, especially when it is modernised. Modernising operatic productions is nowadays one of the most popular trends in major opera houses, though it is not free of many challenges. Libretti are always sung in original, but bringing the action a few centuries ahead may mean that the original text does not correspond to what the viewers can see on the stage. In such cases surtitles may serve as a bridge between the original and stage design. Recently, some opera houses have started treating surtitles as an integral part of their productions and sometimes the whole translation follows the modernised production both semantically and stylistically. The original for such translations is then not just the libretto, but the whole production and surtitles become intersemiotic. This clash between different messages is the source of innovations, and surtitles, which closely follow modernised productions may be considered to be a translational experiment.
Nowadays both intra- and interlingual surtitles are an inherent element of almost all opera productions and, partly thanks to this technology, opera is now going through a renaissance. The trend of staging operas in a modernised fashion is especially popular these days, but it represents a particular challenge for surtitlers. It is argued in this article that while surtitles accompanying traditional opera productions are usually intrasemiotic, as their source text is just the libretto, modernised productions often have intersemiotic surtitles. The article analyses fragments of surtitles prepared for four different operas staged in the Metropolitan Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper and Royal Opera House. The result show that while traditionally surtitles provide the viewers with the meaning of the libretto, the role of intersemiotic surtitles is much more extended, as they provide the audience with more comprehensive information about the whole opera production.
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