Turn stage surtitles into subtitles for an opera recording

Start with the night you are releasing

A small opera company films Friday and Saturday, then chooses Saturday’s performance for its archive. Both nights use the same translation. On Saturday the singer repeats a farewell after a longer orchestral break. The operator can follow that entrance live. Friday’s rehearsal times would put the farewell on screen while the singer is still listening.

Ask for the locked release cut, the title list for that cast and the translation approved for video. Check permission for the performance recording, libretto and translated wording for the intended release. A translation licensed for projection in the theatre can have a different grant for streaming. If the grant is unclear, keep the draft internal while the producer confirms it.

Recover the words and decisions from the show file

The Canadian Opera Company describes surtitles as a translation projected above the stage. If your operator worked in QLab, ask them for the approved audience-facing wording in performance order and notes on holds, repeats, blanks and skipped titles. QLab Text cues render styled text to a video output. A cue number such as 42 identifies an entry in that workspace. It gives the video editor no start time on Saturday’s cut.

Keep operator instructions in a separate column. In a fictional cue list, “42 · hold for entrance” tells the operator what to watch for. Only “I will return” belongs in the viewer’s track. If an entire verse was cut on Saturday, retain the reason in the handoff notes and leave its text out of the release file.

Spot the first entrance, the silence and the repeat

Use the final video’s playback clock. Find the singer’s first entrance, mark when the phrase finishes and listen through the orchestral break. When the singer repeats the line, give it its own interval. Ask the translator where a phrase can break without disclosing the second half of a thought early. Use the approved libretto and a fluent reviewer for sung words or overlapping ensembles.

Here is a fictional excerpt from an English translation track. The first line clears before the interlude, then returns for the second entrance. Scrub into the middle of the break to check what someone arriving there will see.

Time in seconds
12.4–14.8  I will return.
14.8–19.2  [clear screen]
19.2–21.6  I will return.

Review the timed translation on Mac

If you only have slides or untimed text, first create a timed SRT against the final video in a subtitle editor. Make one cue per intended display interval. Leave gaps empty. The bracketed clear-screen instruction above is a review note. Adding it as a subtitle would put those words on screen.

Open the SRT in Polyglot on an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14.4 or later and attach the matching video for review. Play both entrances, edit the text or adjust individual boundaries, then export SRT or WebVTT as requested by the archive. Keep the approved translation intact in its own file if a second language is commissioned. Have its reviewer check entrances and phrasing separately. The stage workspace stays with the projection operator.

Check the wide shot with the track switched off

On the release player, turn subtitles off during a wide shot. If the theatre’s projected words are legible in the picture, they will still be there when a viewer selects another language. Flag the exact shot and the competing text to the picture editor. If the edit changes, check the revised cut before approving the track.

With the intended language selected, jump directly into the orchestral break, play through the reprise, then seek backwards across the first entrance. Check for an empty break and two correctly timed appearances. Finally check a duet with the translator for attribution and reading time. Deliver the sidecar with the cut ID, performance date and language.

Label a translation-only track accordingly. If the archive promises captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, commission a separate review for speaker identification and meaningful non-speech audio. A knock that makes both singers turn toward the door may need a cue of its own.

Keep exploring.