Word: cendrillon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Last month the New York City Opera became the first major company in the U.S. to subtitle a live opera performance. For the experiment, General Director Sills chose Jules Massenet's Cendrillon, a rarely performed, exquisitely frothy turn-of-the-century version of the Cinderella tale. The English subtitles, selectively translated from the French libretto, were projected on a dark, 6-ft. by 47-ft. screen unobtrusively suspended below the theater's proscenium arch. Members of the audience could either ignore the running titles or read along as the action unfolded onstage...
...Cendrillon's star, Soprano Faith Esham, found that captions made the audience more responsive to her singing. "Listeners get both the jokes and the sentiment," she observed. "For example, in the first act, when Cinderella's father, stepmother and stepsisters leave her to go to the ball, the audience understands with the translation that Cinderella is not just feeling sorry for herself: it is a poignant and reflective moment for her." Esham is not afraid the subtitles will draw attention away from her artistry: "I just sing louder...
Members of the audience who answered a New York City Opera questionnaire were overwhelmingly in favor of the subtitles. A sampling of operagoers interviewed by TIME during the first two weeks of Cendrillon performances had scarcely any complaints. Opera Buff Milicent Auerbach conceded that continually looking up at the titles and down at the stage could give someone seated in the orchestra a pain in the neck. "The words being sung and the subtitles didn't always coincide," noted Brooklyn College Professor Carolyn Richmond. "But the captions were very helpful. Even though I understand French, I wouldn...
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