Photo: NZ Opera
Let's face it, Italian opera sounds best sung in Italian, but it makes more sense if you can follow it in your own language.
In its latest production, Verdi's Rigoletto, New Zealand Opera has added another language - 'Simplified Chinese' - to the lexicons available for music lovers wanting follow the narrative.
That's on top of the live translation to English already provided on a big screen by the stage, and in Braille which visually impaired patrons can access from their own tactile tablet screens.
Joanne Cole, the opera company's Director of Artistic Planning and Participation, told Bryan Crump that making opera more accessible to the many classical music lovers in New Zealand's Chinese community made sense.
She also explained how New Zealand Opera's translation services worked, and what languages it might translate opera libretti to next.
Joanne Cole Photo: ©Michael Bradley
