Surtitles: why oh why?
 Went to see La Boheme last night at The Coliseum and found myself immensely distracted by the surtitles. Nothing wrong with the way they were done (very nice clean san-serif font, and easy to read), but why were they there? The ENO sing in English, so it's not as if they served the purposes of translation. 

Defenders of surtitles would say that you can't always make out the words to the arias, but the answer is obvious: sing more clearly! Anyway, if you listen carefully you can make out enough to get more than the gist. The trouble is, when there are surtitles, you don't listen carefully, you read the surtitles. I found it impossible to stop myself.

The worst thing is that you read the surtitles quicker than the singers sing the lines, so you know what's coming. I saw Figaro at ENO a couple of years ago, and people laughed ahead of the jokes, which must surely have been disconcerting for the singers. 

If you choose to sing in English, it's not because it sounds better (how can "I'm always called Mimi" compare with "Mi chiamano Mimi"?) but because you want to make it accessible. This is good. So have the courage of your convictions! Assume that people can understand you and don't use surtitles! Because there's no point, is there? If you use surtitles, you might as well sing it in Italian as nature intended.

Apart from that, it was a very enjoyable production.