Sonya Friedman

Tristan und Isolde rehearsal at Carnegie Hall, courtesy of Boston Symphony Orchestra
Supertitle Equipment courtesy of Digital Tech Services, photo by Casey Smith

"Speaking of supertitles, Sonya Friedman's are the state of the art…"
New York Times

"Read 'Em And Weep: Celebrating 35 Years Of Opera Supertitles"
NPR, 2018

"English supertitles are used judiciously, often disappearing so focus is returned to the onstage action."
The News Journal (Delaware), 2017: Exhilarating "Semiramide" offers first-rate cast

"As operagoers know, there are supertitles and supertitles. These, by Sonya Friedman, gave the essence of the dialogue without cribbing every word, and the projections were expertly timed. That the audience got the point was evident from the bursts of well-timed laughter. Wagner is funny on occasion, a trait lost on most English-speaking audiences."
St. Paul Pioneer Press: The Minnesota Orchestra performs "Das Rheingold"

"Sonya Friedman had been working since September crafting the subtitles that proved to be one of the big hits of the Metropolitan Opera's four-night televised "Ring" cycle… The subtitling was notable for its clarity and pithiness ...making Wagner's often complex language immediately graspable."
The New York Times: The Word on "The Ring"

"One of Miss Friedman's talents, shown both here (New York City Opera's supertitles for "Cendrillon") and in her subtitles for Metropolitan telecasts, is her shrewd sense of how much of the libretto an audience really needs to have. A full translation...would keep the eye fastened on the screen at the expense of the production. Too few words would give a skimpy, haphazard impression…Miss Friedman's compromises struck me as perfect. Key arias were given in some detail…but the screen went blank when singers lapsed into the kind of lyrical repetition that opera composers are so fond of. At one stroke…one of the most vexing problems in opera has been resolved."
New York Times: It's Nice to Know What Is Happening In An Opera