Allan Kozinn
Distracted Diva: The Second Screen Goes to the Opera
Do two instances mean the start of a trend -- or is it still just an experiment? In May 2014, On Site Opera, a small New York company, presented a production of Rameau’s “Pygmalion,” at which operagoers were encouraged to use Google Glass, the eyeglasslike computer, onto which a translation of the libretto was projected.
It was by no means an amateur operation or a frivolous stunt: the technology used to project the subtitles to Google Glass was created by Figaro Systems, the company that makes the seat-back title panels used at the Metropolitan Opera, the Santa Fe Opera and other houses. Now Figaro is taking the next step.
When the Wolf Trap Opera performs Bizet’s “Carmen” at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap, in Vienna, Va., on July 25, Figaro and its MobiTxt technology will be on hand. And apart from taking the technology to a bigger opera company, Figaro is offering an expanded form of its service -- but one that could raise hackles if it becomes widely used. This time, the libretto will be beamed not only to Google Glass, but also to cellphones, tablets and other devices that can connect to the Internet.
French Court Dismisses Hate Speech Case Against Bob Dylan
The preliminary charge brought against Bob Dylan in Paris for what a Croatian organization said was hate speech comparing Croats to Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan has been dropped by a French court.
The charge was filed by the French government after the Representative Council of the Croatian Community and Institutions in France complained about comments Dylan made in a September 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
In the interview Dylan was discussing racism in the United States, and noted that American blacks could sense whether whites had slave-master blood “just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood.” At the time, Ivan Jurasinovic, a lawyer for the organization, said that the French Croats were not seeking money or punishment, but hoped that Dylan, whom he described as “a singer who is liked and respected in Croatia,” would apologize.
But it was not quite that simple: under French hate speech laws, he could have been sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of up to €45,000 ($62,000). The case was dismissed on a technicality: Dylan, the judge ruled, had not authorized the publication of the comments in France.