Challenges and Rewards of Surtitling as an Audiovisual Translation Mode : A Case Study of the Contemporary Opera Have a Good Day !

The goal of surtitling as a mode of audiovisual translation (AVT) is to help the opera-goers to overcome language barriers faced in opera production. Modern technologies have made opera production more audience-friendly introducing new languages and works in opera houses worldwide. However, this relatively new field of research has not been investigated in Lithuania. Hence, this study aims at the analysis of surtitling as a new field of research highlighting technical and translation issues as well as complexity and obstacles that are encountered when producing this kind of translation. Even though subtitling and surtitling hold a number of similarities as two modes of language transfer when translating different types of audiovisual media, there are differences in their production process likewise technical difficulties to be dealt with. As illustration of multiple nature of opera surtitling, a contemporary opera performance Have a Good Day! is chosen. The modern opera, revealing inner lives, secret thoughts and wishes of cashiers in a shopping centre, includes a number of culture-specific items that are grouped according to Davies’s classification of translation strategies. Not only culture-specific items are studied, but also particular means like entries for different parts of chorus and vocal lines that interlace at the same time preserving syllabic number and rhyme pattern in libretto translation are thoroughly considered in the research. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.26.12422

The goal of surtitling as a mode of audiovisual translation (AVT) is to help the opera-goers to overcome language barriers faced in opera production.Modern technologies have made opera production more audience-friendly introducing new languages and works in opera houses worldwide.However, this relatively new field of research has not been investigated in Lithuania.Hence, this study aims at the analysis of surtitling as a new field of research highlighting technical and translation issues as well as complexity and obstacles that are encountered when producing this kind of translation.Even though subtitling and surtitling hold a number of similarities as two modes of language transfer when translating different types of audiovisual media, there are differences in their production process likewise technical difficulties to be dealt with.As illustration of multiple nature of opera surtitling, a contemporary opera performance Have a Good Day! is chosen.The modern opera, revealing inner lives, secret thoughts and wishes of cashiers in a shopping centre, includes a number of culture-specific items that are grouped according to Davies's classification of translation strategies.Not only culture-specific items are studied, but also particular means like entries for different parts of chorus and vocal lines that interlace at the same time preserving syllabic number and rhyme pattern in libretto translation are thoroughly considered in the research.

Introduction
teo, 2004; Orero and Matamala, 2007;Borg, 2008;Burton, 2009).Although surtitling has been widely researched by a number of foreign scholars, no attention was drawn to this particular mode of AVT in Lithuania.
The aim of the present research is to analyse the surtitles as a fairly new mode of AVT taking into consideration technical and linguistic aspects of their production with a particular focus on translation strategies employed to deal with culture-specific items in the translation of the opera Have a Good Day!.
The scientific methods applied in the research are the analysis of theoretical material, contrastive, descriptive and statistical methods.
Born during the Renaissance in Italy, opera was considered with regard to accessibility to the wider audience and comprehension of the sung text.Since this type of entertainment became more popular across Europe and the Italian language remained the principal language of opera the need for comprehension necessitated translation.The attempts to overcome language barrier resulted in libretto translation and later the translation intended for singing.
Fairly recently, only in the 20th century, the latter two ways of dealing with linguistic barrier have been supplemented by subtitles and surtitles.Nisato (1999, p.26) summarized the current possibilities in opera performance, which in his opinion can utterly coexist: performing the opera in its original language and provide the listener with either a synopsis or translated libretto, to perform in the original language and make use of surtitles, or to perform a sung translation of the work.
Although the demand for better opera accessibility to the audience has increased with the introduction of modern sung performances, libretto translation and the choice of AVT mode to overcome the linguistic barriers depend on fashion, taste and socio-cultural issues (Orero and Matamala, 2007).
The way selected by the opera house to deal with libretto, i.e. translate it literally, prepare a translation to be sung, or produce a rhymed translation (Orero, Matamala, 2007) is not as important as the means for its demonstration to the audience.Since the words being sung on the stage are not always easy to understand (Fenton, 2003), surtitling has become increasingly popular means of presenting the libretto translation in the opera houses as the surtitles provide the audience with the possibility to read the translation and follow the words sung in a foreign language.

Surtitling vs Subtitling
Orero and Matamala (2007) and Burton (2009) point out that subtitling and surtitling are similar in their nature; however, a number of differences between them such as position on the screen, translation of libretto as well as technological issues are observed.
Opera subtitles as translated text displayed below the image, as on a cinema or television screen" have been on film since the early 20th century and on television since the early 1970s (Burton, 2009, p.58).
Later the subtitles were included in VHS or DVD editions and produced by such means as automated electric typewriters, and teletext which was used on La-serDisc format.On television the first subtitles for opera consisted of a series of caption boards placed in front of a camera and superimposed on the tele-Fig.1.

Surtitles above the
Stage.
vision picture.Subtitles for video and DVD are arranged according to the timecode of a single frame (1/ 25 of a second).Moreover, such information as speed of a subtitle appearance can be found in software.The speed frame is important in opera, as the pace of libretto can vary greatly from very fast to quite slow, i.e. it differs from the speed of normal conversation.However, the principal requirement for the subtitles is legibility.They should be credible, clear and accurate.The subtitles should not outstand and should become an integral part of the whole.The same could be said about the principles of theatre surtitles.
Opera surtitles (see Fig. 1) can be considered as inspired by the opera subtitling on TV.Surtitling is defined as a kind of caption displayed above the stage during a live performance, giving a written translation of the audible wordsthough not all of them -which are being sung at any given moment.The display is in white letters on black, or pale coloured letters on a dark background (Low, 2002, p.97) and like many other types of audiovisual translation, "[s]urtitling opera is about seeing and hearing, reading and writing" (Virkkunen, 2004, p.96).
"Surtitles" are used interchangeably with the terms "overtitles" (Orero and Matamala, 2007, p.264) or "supertitles" (Burton, 2009, p.58) and are demonstrated by new technological means, i.e. a special screen above the stage, on screens installed in seatbacks of the individual spectators or even send into mobile phones before the performance.The first surtitles are considered to be used in Hong Kong in the early 1980s; however, they were displayed vertically at the side of the stage due to vertical writing of certain East Asian script.The surtitles that are widely used today were firstly introduced in Canada in 1983 (Burton, 2009) and according to Dewolf, are "a technical device to make opera more user-friendly" (Dewolf, 2001, p.180).
According to Mateo (2004), surtitles can be projected by means of two systems; the main difference between them is the cost.Orero and Matamala (2007, p.265) indicate that format computer operated LED displays or computer controlled video projection on a screen suspended above the proscenium arch or at the back of the stage.Overhead projectors are sometimes used in small theatres with the addition of a computer controlled projection pad.
In all instances surtitles are projected live.That is a distinct feature if compared to opera subtitles on TV that are recorded in advance.Low (2002) points out that subtitles and surtitles aim at the production of legible verbal material.Although both of them are size and time restricted, easy to read, without ambiguities and following basic punctuation, their functions differ.While subtitles are defined as "condensed written translations of original dialogue which appear as lines of text, usually positioned towards the foot of the screen" and aim at rendering translation of the original dialogue (Luyken, 1991, p.31), surtitles, according to Virkkunen are used for communicating with other symbolic modes used in the performance for creating meanings.In practice this means that surtitles mostly not only serve as a medium for the verbal content but also help to comprehend music and acting (2004, p.93).
Every opera surtitling company has its own style when producing surtitles technically.However, there are several points that are agreed upon while dealing with the sung text constrains.

Conventions and Symbols Explanation
Character Hence, the above mentioned points can be used next to other freely selectable options of dealing with clarity and visibility of surtitles, i.e. colours, brightness.
In addition to that, five major requirements related to the way the audience perceive surtitles should be considered as well.
1. Repetitions and secondary details are not translated in order not to distract the attention from what is happening on the stage.
2. Surtitles, which are based on the libretto, have to be easily understood and stay as close as possible to the original text and style.
3. Minimum sense blocks or logical unity should be preserved in surtitles.
4. Surtitles should always flash out simultaneously with the entry of the singer or chorus.
5. The most important requirement is that "surtitles may never give the impression of nervousness" (Dewolf, 2001, p.181).
According to Low (2002, p.99), the ideal surtitles/ subtitles meet the following requirements: the translation helps the audience follow the plot, it helps the audience understand the emotions of the characters, it fits in with the concept of each particular production, and remains relatively unobtrusive.
As rhythm, duration and timing are crucial, every single word while translating should be considered carefully.Therefore, the closer the translator works with the director of the opera, the better final outcome may be expected.During the stage-orchestra rehearsals, the translation of libretto may be tested and adjusted as modern surtitling systems allow to make changes in the layout (that is complicated to do with slide presentations) and other parameters of the text.
The term libretto meaning "small book" was coined soon after the emergence of the opera.Originally it referred to a printed or manuscript book giving the literary text, both sung and spoken, of an opera (or other musical piece), the word has also come to mean the text itself (Macnutt, 2007, p.9).
Nowadays two types of libretto translation are identified: word-by-word libretto translation (Orero and Matamala, 2007, pp.262-263) intended for singers to read only for general understanding of the opera and literal or straight libretto translation (Burton, 2007) where every word has to be translated for the audience.

Libretto Translation
As the contemporary opera differs highly from the classical one, there are differences between librettos as well.
Researchers recognize opera translation that started approximately two decades ago (Burton, 2009;Dewolf, 2001) as a specialized translating task (Low, 2002) and consider it to be an art and a craft (Burton, 2009) imposing various requirements on the translators.This is due to the interrelation between words and music as well as culture that requires certain types of translation especially in the case of contemporary opera libretto.
Culture-specific items are words and phrases determined by the cultural diversity.They are defined as textually actualised items whose function and connotations in a source text involve a translation problem in their transference to a target text, whenever this problem is a product of the non-existence of the referred item or of its different intertextual status in the cultural system of the readers of the target text (Aixela, 2007, p.52).
Due to variety of cultures in the world some concepts such as time, space, and reality can be found in many cultures, but the notions of these concepts differ from culture to culture (Lewis, 2006, p.4).Thus, various culture-specific items appear when two or more cultures are in contact with each other.The translator's task, as Bell points out, next to a good command of the source and target languages, which embodies vocabulary, word formation, grammar, spelling and pronunciation, is to possess the so-called socio-linguistic competence, i.e. to be able to interpret the social meaning of the choice of linguistic varieties and to use language with the appropriate social meaning for the communication situation (Bell, 1991).
Translation itself is an activity requiring a great number of decisions.It is even more complicated when dealing with cultural issues.Various attempts to pro-

Translation strategy Explanation
Preservation An entity does not have any close equivalent in the target language and target culture.

Addition
A translator decides to keep the original item but supplements the text by whatever information is judged to be necessary.

Omission
A problematic culture-specific item is left out in the translation.

Globalization
Culture-specific items are replaced with ones which are more neutral or general.

Localization
A translator tries to anchor a reference firmly in the culture of the target audience.

Transformation
An alternation or distortion of the original text.

Creation
A translator actually creates culture-specific items not present in the original text.
vide solutions for the translation of culture-specific items resulted in a number of terms in translation studies that are used interchangeably: cultural foreign words (Nida, 1945), cultural words (Newmark, 1988), culture-specific concepts (Baker, 1992), realia (Robinson, 1997), cultural concepts (Davies, 2003), culture-specific items (Aixela, 2007).In this article principles and translation procedures proposed by Davies are used when dealing with culture-specific items.

Aspects of the Opera
Have a Good Day!As far back as 1919, the American opera historian Gustav Kobbé wrote: Any speaker before an English-speaking audience can always elicit prolonged applause by maintaining that in English-speaking countries, opera should be sung in English.But, in point of fact, and even disregarding the atrocities that masquerade as translations of opera into English, opera should be sung in the language in which it is written.For language unconsciously affects, I might even say determines, the structure of the melody (Kobbé, 1933, p.2).
Thus, the idea of opera performance in the original language and its adequate perception by the foreign audience is still relevant.
As an illustration of a contemporary opera performance, Have a Good Day! is chosen for the research.This opera, premiered at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius in 2011, is a compatible example of the modern opera which toured the world as a winner of various festivals: Globe Teana-Theatre Observation Award, the Baltic Theatre Festival, etc.The recognition of the opera would not be possible without the translation of libretto and its demonstration by means of surtitles.
The opera Have a Good Day! is said to be an ode for capitalism picturing the fatality of consumerism.The cashiers meeting every day and being anonymous embody universal archetypes and convey predominant social landscape.The opera does not follow the classical mode of singing as arias of the cashiers sound more like repetitive, trite melodies revealing mosaic of spoken, literary language and documentary, evoking a sense of the endless, restless movement of goods on the conveyer.
The plot of the opera reveals the inner life of ten cashiers in a shopping centre.The continuous mechanical tirade Good afternoon.Thank you.Have a good day! and fake smiles are endless.The personality features, education and even daily problems at home are revealed via inner monologues of each cashier who find oneself trapped in a cycle of earning and spending.
The surtitles for this worldwide recognized Lithuanian contemporary opera performance were produced in English, Russian, Dutch, Chinese and French.They were flashed up manually as a video projection on the wall behind the singers above the stage.Five hundred and sixteen slides were prepared in advance for a 60-minute live opera performance.
The experience of seeing an opera includes several communicative means.Literal comprehension of every word in the libretto of Have a Good Day! is no less essential than music, scenery, lighting, costumes and choreography.The main challenge for the spectators is to understand what is sung on the stage when solo vocal lines and chorus overlap.Various means are employed to differentiate one line from another and make the libretto translation accessible for the audience.Most of them are thoroughly discussed and Fig. 2.
A Surtitle Projected on the Wall Above the Singers.listed by Burton (2009) who considered the main rules commonly followed by major surtitle production companies and opera houses worldwide.
The analysis of the opera Have a Good Day! reveals that no LED screens were used for demonstration and the surtitles were projected on the wall behind the singers.Due to the poor quality and colour of wall surface the bold text was chosen to increase the quality of legibility.It should be noted that in some theatre houses a white cloth was used to cover the wall behind, e.g. in La Havre (AUTOMNE EN NORMANDIE festival).
The CAPS LOCK or capitalized text (example 1) was used to indicate the text sung by the chorus.Furthermore, Italics (example 2) was employed for the emphasis and to distinguish the chorus from the vocal, e.g."Well yeah, I'm kind of married, but I really like you..."., Arial Narrow (example 3) was applied to distinguish cashier III, who is an ecstatic optimist, leading a healthy life and sharing practical tips from her own experience.Finally, the absence of spaces between the words (example 4) inevitably attracts the attention of spectators.The spatial position functions as additional means of expression which compliments and enhances the semantic message of the text.In this case the absence of spaces between the words reinforces the meaning of the patter sung by cashier I and cashier X and results in the intensified feeling of "twisting […] foot".All in all, such a wide range of technical means confirms that the production of surtitles is a complex process and requires creative solutions.
It is important to note that in the context of this opera colours in surtitles were used only while demonstrating surtitles in two languages, namely French and Dutch, for bilingual opera-goers in Lille, France, whereas this way of distinguishing between solo vocal lines and chorus is practiced in two-line surtitles worldwide.
Another issue to focus on is the use of a blank slide.As Mateo (2004) points out, the insertion of a blank slide, particularly when it takes less time to read a specific caption than for the singer to sing it, or in repetitions, is usually a choice of the director to keep or withdraw.However, the audience normally welcomes that short time with no text since they can concentrate on the stage.In the surtitles for Have a Good Day! forty-four blank slides appear to keep the pace of a sung libretto.
Punctuation is not uniform in surtitling and is usually very simple.Each opera house follows its own practice.As it can be seen in the extracts from Have a Good Day!, basic punctuation is kept but the common convention of not using full stops at the end of the sentences is also followed; dots mark the continuation of a sentence in the next slide.However, the absence of punctuation in Have a Good Day! does not indicate the lack of space for the text but rather implies the idea of general opera performance mood, namely capitalist entrapment and consumerist obsession.
In fact, by comparing the list provided by Burton (2009) and libretto surtitles of the opera Have a Good Day! it is evident that translation norms adopted by the surtitling production for Have a Good Day! coincide.The usage of different title distribution and punctuation is influenced by the choice between clarity, content and the pellucidity of libretto as it inevitably affects audience reception.
Translators are always under pressure to produce the exact meaning of the original in the translated text especially when translating culture-specific items.
The translator has to find the best solution of making the target text applicable to the target audience.Translation strategies suggested by Davies help to specify strategies for rendering culture-specific items.
The choice of a translation strategy when dealing with libretto is determined by suitability for the stage and mood.The translated song should be suitable for the stage, i.e. make sense in the context of the staging and interpretation and reflect the mood of what is being expressed.Moreover, the selected strategies should help to produce the text understandable for the target audience.
The largest number of culture-specific items is translated employing the strategy of localization.The second most frequent translation strategy is omission while the strategies of addition and preservation as well as globalization are not very common.Furthermore, the strategy of transformation due to its obscurity and the blur distinction between this strategy and some of the others is not considered.Moreover, the strategy of creation has not been found at all.

Translation Issues
The very first translation strategy adopted by Davies is the strategy of preservation which is further subdivided into two types: "preservation of form when a translator may simply decide to maintain the source text term in the translation" and preservation of content when the actual English words are not preserved, but where a cultural reference receives a literal translation, with no further explanation (Davies, 2003, pp.72-73).
According to the scholar, the strategy is used when there is no equivalent in the target language so the translators have "to maintain the source text term in the translation" (Davies, 2003, p.73).Therefore, preservation can be said to be a procedure when a source language word is transferred into the target text in its original form or only maintaining the content.
I wrote to "Art Echoes".
(2) Tiesiog sakysiu: "No, no, no, go!" I'll just say "No, no, no, go!" In Example 1 the proper name of the periodical, originally "Muzikos, teatro ir meno aidas" (since 1885), the abbreviated literal translation, is distinguished by quotation marks in the target text aiming to mark it.In the English language quotation marks are not used for proper name, mostly they are italicized or each word is capitalized.Moreover, this example illustrates preservation of content.
Example 2 can only be understood in the context as the use of English in the Lithuanian libretto emphasizes cashier's poor knowledge of a foreign language.When this kind of culture-specific items is preserved literally in translations the meaning of culture-specific item can be understood only within the context.
Davies' second translation strategy is the strategy of addition used when semantic components in the source language do not have formal equivalents in the target language.The research suggests that one or more words can be supplemented in the target language if the translator assumes it to be necessary.Moreover, the strategy of addition may appear together with other translation strategies, particularly with the strategy of preservation.The following example illustrates the strategy of addition: (3) Aš neprašyta prekes sudėjau į maišelį.
Not have been asked, I put the products in a plastic bag.Addition of the word "plastic" reveals the different understanding of the bag, particularly the material it is made of, in two cultures.In Lithuania it is commonly understood as plastic while in the USA or England it may be thought to be made of paper.
The third translation strategy -omission -can be considered as the opposite of addition.As evidenced by Dimitriu (2004), the strategy of omission is used to ensure linguistic accuracy and stylistic acceptability when levelling differences in grammatical structures of languages in order to avoid text redundancy.Moreover, the strategy of omission helps to present the information in a more concise manner as well as to concentrate on essential information and avoid unnecessary culture, time and space bumps.Also words may be omitted to observe editorial norms or to avoid cultural taboos.The following example demonstrates the strategy of omission: (4) Su galva, nuo mažens buvo apsukrus...

He always was resourceful…
A large number of idioms cause translation difficulties as they have a flavour of national culture and should be regarded as culture specific (Strakšienė, 2009;Yang, 2012, Shojaei, 2012).Therefore, the above presented Example 4 is looked upon as a culture specific item illustrating the omission of the Lithuanian idiom "su galva" meaning "intelligence, knowledge, thought" (DLKŽ, 2011) instead of selecting an English equivalent, this expression is replaced by a word "resourceful".It means "able to deal well with new or difficult situations and to find solutions to problems" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2015).However, when dealing with libretto translation the omission can occur due to rhyme.
The next strategy introduced by Davies is the strategy of globalization.It is defined as the process when culture-specific items are replaced with more neutral or general ones, in order to make them accessible to a wider range of audience with different cultural background (Davies, 2003).The following examples illustrate the strategy of globalization: (5) Batus pirkau "Išpardavime" prekybos centre.
I bought my shoes at a sale at the mall.
Before, when I worked as a seamstress.
I bought myself some fancy tights, and the rest I spent on wine and calming tea.
In Examples 5, 6, 7 proper names indicating particular objects, i.e. a shop, a garment factory and a specialized tea are replaced by more general ones, exactly, any shop you can buy shoes, a seamstress and calming tea with no particular reference.
One more strategy opposed to globalization is the strategy of localization.According to Davies, it is used "to avoid loss of effect" and "instead of aiming for "culture-free" descriptions, they (translators) may try to anchor a reference firmly in the culture of the target audience" (Davies, 2003, p.84).The Examples 8 and 9 are instances of the strategy of localization: (8) Poilsiauja lentynoje lyg Palangoj.
Resting on shelves as in Miami beach.
The strategy of localization is widely used while translating proper nouns.In the Lithuanian context Palanga is known as a famous resort, but for the English speaking audience Miami is more familiar and clear, therefore, Example 8 could serve as an example of cultural substitution.In Example 9 proper names of white and wheat bread are substituted by more comprehensible ones for the target reader and fall under the same category.
The sixth strategy distinguished by Davies is the strategy of transformation.This particular strategy occurs where the modification of a culture-specific item seems to go beyond globalization or localization, and could be seen as an alteration or distortion of the original (Davies, 2003, p.86).
Moreover, it is pointed out that "the distinction between this category and some of the others is not clear" (Davies, 2003, p.86).For this reason, stated by Davies, the strategy of transformation is not discussed in a more detailed way since the examples of localization and globalization strategies can also be treated as transformations.
The last strategy of translation introduced by Davies is the strategy of creation "where translators have actually created culture specific items not present in the original text" (Davies, 2003, p.88).This strategy will not be discussed here as no examples were found in the libretto translation of Have a Good Day!All in all, the selection of a translation strategy depends on the translator and is mostly determined by pace, rhyme and rhythm of the text where every single word should be considered carefully since duration and timing are essential in libretto.

Conclusions
It can be argued that the development of new media has encouraged a wider usage of subtitles and surtitles worldwide.Both subtitling and surtitling bear a strong resemblance to each other.They do not only help listeners to overcome language barriers, but also employ similar means of demonstration.However, the major difference is embodied in the complexity of the surtitle production as rhythm, duration, timing as well as other peculiarities of live, usually manual, demonstration for every performance should be taken into consideration.Interrelation between words and music plays a key role in libretto translation.
Operas are multi-layered works combining acoustic and visual elements and opera demonstration for foreign audience involves various transfer modes which alter the original opera.Furthermore, translated libretto and/ or surtitles should make it more comprehensible to a wider audience especially in the case of contemporary opera performances.Surtitling enables cultural exchange, so when producing surtitles for the opera several points should be considered, particularly, transparency, closeness to the original text and style.What is more, surtitles have to appear simultaneously with the entry of the singer or chorus.
The surtitle analysis of the contemporary Lithuanian opera performance Have a Good Day! reveals the application possibilities of the modern technologies and generally applied means of the libretto presentation that help foreign opera-goers to become competent spectators.
The study of Have a Good Day! libretto translation in the context of translation strategies introduced by Davies revealed that the prevailing translation strategy is the strategy of localisation.The second most frequent translation strategy is omission while the strategies of addition and preservation are tertiary.It is worth mentioning that the strategy of transformation can be interchanged with the strategies of globalization and localization.The strategy of creation was not found when analysing the libretto.
If the technical issues of showing surtitles above the stage can be solved quite easily, the translation of modern opera libretto needs individual consideration.The words used by composers for music creation bear not only the expression of the meaning of what is sung, but of the dramatic action, and not only the words, but syllables, inflections, accents, rise and fall, emphasis(Dewolf, 2001, p.182).

Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Distribution of Davies' Translation Strategies in the English Version of Have a Good Day!

Table 1 .
ItalicsSignify that the voice is offstage, used for emphasisQuotation marks Indicate reported speech Brackets Signify an "aside", i.e. a line that is not intended to be heard by other characters on stage