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He chose Elektra, with its great literary value, for the trial run of supertitles. “Hofmannsthal’s libretto is so brilliant you could do it without Strauss’s music.” The Canadian audience connected to the drama in a way they never had before, and the use of supertitles spread rapidly to other houses, often to the chagrin of opera old-schoolers. A London writer called supertitles “The Plague from Canada.” Others accused Mansouri of “vulgarizing opera.” But supertitles don't diminish the art, they raise its audience. And if any critics remain, Mansouri’s reply to them is his life’s work. He is fond of saying “Opera is for everyone.”

The phrase "Opera is for everyone" may be truer in Europe than in North America. Here, Mansouri says, “just the word ‘opera’ is foreign.” The difference is due in part to how the art is funded, he says. A European opera company will be funded publicly, with the government often picking up 80% or more of its annual budget. On this side of the Atlantic there's often the attitude “if rich people want opera, let them pay for it.” When Mansouri became general director at Canadian Opera Company he met his first marketing department. “Before that, I thought marketing was when you went shopping.” His prior employer, Geneva Opera, had no marketing department. “The only thing we did was put a small announcement in the newspapers that tonight’s performance is Rigoletto and that it starts at 7:30. There usually were about 2,000 people on the waiting list for subscriptions.” But in Toronto, a full house was not guaranteed and, unlike in Geneva, ticket sales were vital to the operational budget. So Mansouri was forced to innovate, and supertitles were an innovation that grew audiences by “breaking down the mystique” of opera.

Supertitles have allowed once-obscure works to emerge. One of the more apropos examples, says Mansouri, is Capriccio, a dialogue-intense opera that Strauss subtitled A Conversation Piece for Music. “Cappriccio was hardly on the radar but now it's a success. Audiences appreciate its dramatization of the eternal argument regarding what’s more important — words or music.”

Another opera that got a boost from supertitles — as well as from Mansouri’s revision of it — is La Rondine. “People will love La Rondine for the collaboration of its wonderful elements; the staging, costumes, lighting, and titles balance one another. I wanted the audience to say ‘wait a minute — this is a lovely piece’.” [continued...]

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