The combination of audio description (AD), audio introduction (AI) and audio subtitles has been the access modality of choice for blind and partially sighted audiences at the two major opera houses in Spain (the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and Teatro Real in Madrid). While AD for film, television and museum exhibitions largely consists of descriptions of the visual elements, opera AD integrates the sung dialogue in the form of audio subtitles, as well as an AI—a summarised account of the play’s synopsis, the cast as well as the visual information about the staging and the characters—, which is also characteristic of theatre AD. But what are the linguistic, rhetoric and textual strategies that define this type of AD? Unlike other AD modalities such as film (Salway, 2007; Arma, 2011; Reviers, 2017; Matamala, 2018) and museum (Jiménez Hurtado & Soler Gallego, 2015; Perego, 2019), opera AD scripts have not yet been investigated extensively. The research project that culminates in this thesis aims to fill this gap. This work—framed within the fields of Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility—examines the amalgamation of AD, AI and audio subtitles from a product-oriented perspective. Our aims are, on the one hand, to define the lexicogrammatical features of opera AD and AI by comparing them amongst each other, to other modalities of AD and to general language. On the other hand, we enquire about the hierarchisation and the functions of operatic signs in AD scripts: audio subtitles, instrumental and vocal music, noise, character identification, kinesics, proxemics, acting, scenography, wardrobe, theatre architecture, dancing, lighting, props and AD inserts. To fulfil said aims and answer the research questions, a mixed methods study is undertaken combining a corpus linguistics approach with a semiotic analysis. Departing from a sample of 15 AD and AI scripts from the Liceu in Barcelona (2007-2020) and 13 from Teatro Real de Madrid (2015-2019), the corpus applies measures of lexical density and variation, legibility, aboutness and register, and it investigates frequency lists to establish semantic trends in the scripts. The results suggest that both AD and AI yield a high lexical density, which is often linked to the written register, while lexical variation remains low, which implies a conscious effort to facilitate comprehension. Legibility and register-wise, AIs are more complex, and they resemble written language more than ADs. In terms of lexis, references to the “physical” action (the individual and the body) are particularly frequent in the ADs, while theatrical, musical and temporal organisation references abound in the AIs, which break from the suspension of disbelief. Within the semiotic framework, a sample of AD scripts is codified, and each operatic sign is analysed individually. We identify description strategies that range from literalness to interpretation, generalisation, synthesis, attenuation and a combination of strategies. Literalness is the most common strategy overall, although the scripts from Liceu include more interpretations. Furthermore, we observe that certain codes serve particular narrative and aesthetic purposes. For instance, lighting serves several of the functions proposed by Dunham (2018) in the AD, particularly in terms of visibility, focus, the creation of a scene and mood. More generally, the hierarchisation of the signs follows a similar trend in the AD scripts from both theatres, but Liceu’s codes tend to be wordier. The most frequent signs are characters, surtitles, scenography and acting, while signs comprising music and sound are infrequent.
| Date of Award | 20 Dec 2022 |
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| Original language | Spanish |
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| Supervisor | Miquel Edo Julia (Director) |
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