After a recent concert in New York, this is what the artistic director of the Opera company wrote to all of us performers in regards to singing arias in English rather than their original language:


"Nothing but praise from everyone. Your audience was thrilled […]

Everyone to whom we spoke, loved the operatic performances that were in English. They were thrilled that they could understand what was being sung by one singer to the other, particularly in the scenes from the Magic Flute. You could not have had anywhere near that impact if you had sung your scenes in German. It simply would have been over your audience's head. By the same token, we would not have had the same impact in […] if we had sung Il Tabarro [an Italian opera by Puccini] in any other language but English. Traditionally, orchestra players and singers have maintained a certain distance, but in [...], several of the instrumentalists came out of their way to tell me that your Il Tabarro was a wonderful experience for them. They would not have said that, if we had sung it in Italian.

[...] In my student days, it was compulsory at the […] Conservatorium to learn everything in 4 languages. There was no permanent opera house then, so it was taken for granted, that if you had a voice, you would pursue a career in Europe which made Italian, German, French, and English the 4 essential study languages.
[...] Because of the reaction of Mr. and Mrs. Public to your English performances last Thursday, I believe we should try to master ALL ROLES in both the original and English languages. Your audiences are American and it is clear that you completely win them over to opera if they can understand your lines."


I’m afraid to say that I couldn’t disagree more with the point of view expressed above: in other words, that it is the masterwork’s duty to adapt itself to the audience’s taste and not vice versa. The full understanding of an artistic form of expression has always been (and for many centuries) the combined result of passion, study, curiosity and desire to enrich our cultural background. For this reason, there is no doubt that operas should be sung in their original language. There should not be any doubt about the fact that Shakespeare should be read and studied in English, Dante in Italian and Goethe in German…just to make an example.

If the point is trying to reach a larger audience otherwise indifferent to a dying art form, then isn’t it quite misleading to attract a new audience presenting them a product in a severely modified way, making them become interested in a surrogate, whose essence is very distant from the original layout? Would you introduce a friend of yours to American Cuisine by bringing them to McDonalds? If yes, I wouldn’t want to be your friend!

Subtitles, on the other hand, are a good compromise in order to respect the integrity of the original masterwork while allowing the audience to achieve a better understanding of the opera they are watching. They serve as a metaphorical ‘walking cane,’ for those who lack the linguistic key for accessing an art form from another era.

The argument against subtitles is a valid one: they split your attention from the actions on the stage and the textual explanations. After all, one shouldn’t forget that opera is a visual art as well and that sometimes it is quite necessary to look at the stageplay to understand what is going on. I wonder, though, whether the same people read carefully the whole synopsis of a ballet piece instead of looking at dancers on the stage and try to get the most out of their visual experience...

As anything else in life, we are met with a set of priorities in art: first should be to honor the piece in its most authentic form (original language). An understanding of the material comes next, which we believe is aided with subtitles. In considering the pro’s and con’s of said subtitles, we think opera is more accessible with them, rather than without, and purer, of course! What do you think?

Luigi Boccia