English Captions at Every Performance

Although opera is usually performed in its original language—generally Italian, German, or French—you don't need to speak a foreign language to understand it. Seattle Opera projects English captions, a simultaneous translation of the sung words, above the stage during every opera performance. These captions are visible from every seat in McCaw Hall.

Think of English captions as the subtitles in foreign movies.

(Even the operas sung in English are usually captioned. Why? In singing, vowels are held longer, and this distortion sometimes makes it difficult to understand every word.)