Opening doors to opera. The strategies, challenges and general role of the translator

Media accessibility is an increasingly prominent issue in today’s rapidly developing technological age. The growing awareness of the diverse needs of the population is reflected in legislation and facilities for accessing information, and is starting to also show signs of recognition within the world of entertainment, as demonstrated by legislative acts on accessibility including the Broadcasting Act 1990 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Indeed, accessibility to the arts is becoming a more highly-rated concern with various art forms, including opera, making provisions to improve their access services. Given the multilingual, multisemiotic and increasingly multimedia nature of opera, the translator plays a fundamental role in this process. This article looks at how the strategies, challenges and general role of the translator are affected by issues of accessibility in opera, focusing on methods for making opera accessible to wider audiences including the sensory-impaired.