Subtitling a fairy tale at the New York City Opera
In May 1982, Beverly Sills was the honored guest at the Peking Opera. She found the music entrancing, the setting beguiling—and the opera incomprehensible. So did many Chinese in the audience. Therein lay the seeds of a revolution: the libretto was flashed on a screen at the side of the stage for the benefit of those in the audience who might not grasp every nuance of archaic Mandarin. Sills resolved to take a cue from what she witnessed. The idea was reinforced when the Canadian...