SURTITLE

noun and verb (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Music) noun: A caption which is projected on to a screen above the stage during the performance of an opera, giving a translation of the libretto or some other explanation of the action. transitive verb: To provide (a stage production) with surtitles. Etymology: Formed by adding the prefix sur- in the sense 'above' to title; consciously altering subtitle (as used in films etc.) to put across the idea that these captions appear above rather than below the action. History and Usage: Opera surtitles were first so called by the Canadian Opera Company in 1983, when they were used to provide an English translation of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's German libretto to Richard Strauss's Elektra; the company went on to register the name Surtitles as a trade mark in Canada in July 1983. Within three years they had spread to opera productions all over the English-speaking world, although some producers chose to call them subtitles despite the fact that they appear above the stage. By the end of the eighties the term surtitle had become established and had been applied to stage productions of foreign plays as well as opera. Among opera buffs the provision of these captions caused some controversy, both because some people found them intrusive and because it was claimed that the word was badly formed and should actually have been supertitle (the name in fact used by US opera companies). The verbal noun used to describe the practice is surtitling; the adjective to describe productions in which it is used is surtitled. The Australian Opera will use surtitles at all performances in languages other than English in 1985. Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 12 Dec. 1984, p. 24 Glyndebourne...faced an angry response when it surtitled a touring production in 1984. The Times 23 June 1986, p. 3