How will I know what’s going on?

No matter what language they’re singing in on stage, every mainstage opera performances will have English captioning visible to all patrons. That being said, as opposed to movies and TV, it’s actually better to know the entire plot of the opera before you get there. When you have a sense of the plot, you’ll spend less time trying to understand what’s happening, and have more time to enjoy watching how the drama unfolds and hear how the music conveys that drama. Ahead of every production, we post a blog with the plot and characters of each opera.

Sometimes, you may notice that the captioning stops while a character is singing. This is not a malfunction—it means that the character is repeating text they’ve already sung in the piece. It often happens during an aria, which often has a lot of repeated text, similar to the repeated choruses of a pop song. While the music might change at times when the captions drop out, you don’t have to worry about missing out on any plot developments—the text hasn’t changed.

If you want to make sure you understand even more of what’s happening, we offer free Pre-Show Talks one hour before each mainstage performance, usually in the Studio Loft (ask an usher or staff member if you need help finding it).