+++
author = ["authors/jenna.md"]
categories = "Editorial"
date = "2015-09-24T17:55:00-04:00"
lastmod = "2015-09-25T13:55:00-04:00"
primary_image = "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmopera/image/upload/v1545409169/media/webhook-uploads/1443190046333/CapitalLetters.jpg.jpg"
publishDate = "2015-09-25T10:07:00-04:00"
short_description = "I look at a lot of artist biographies, concert programs, season line-ups, and other lists of opera titles, and I keep noticing a small, nerdy detail that I&#039;ve finally decided to address. Can we discuss the right way to use capital letters in your opera titles?"
slug = "opera-nerd-meets-grammar-freak"
title = "Opera nerd meets grammar freak"
+++

I look at a lot of artist biographies, concert programs, season line-ups, and other lists of opera titles, and I keep noticing a small, nerdy detail that I've finally decided to address.

Can we discuss the right way to use capital letters in your opera titles?

In English, we use plenty of capital letters. *The Turn of the Screw*, *Two Boys*, *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, etc. It's an anomaly in that it uses capital letters consistently throughout a title, regardless of the function of each word.

German capitalizes initial title letters, and all nouns, proper or otherwise. So, *Die Fledermaus* and *Die Entführung as dem Serail*, but *Die tote Stadt*; the adjective "tote" stays in lower case, like *Die lustige Witwe* and *Der fliegende Holländer*.

In Italian and French, the only words that use capitals are initial letters and proper nouns. So, *Le nozze di Figaro* and *Lucia di Lammermoor*, but **not** *La Clemenza di Tito* or *I Puritani*. *Les pêcheurs de perles* and *Les contes d'Hoffmann* and **not** *Le Roi D'Ys* or *La Belle Hélène*. 

For titles like *La traviata* and *La bohème*, there's more of a grey area between using the words "traviata" and "bohème" as nouns (not proper ones), and using them as nicknames of sorts for the characters they describe. Both *La traviata* and *La Traviata* are correct, but it's definitely *Così fan tutte* and *Il barbiere di Siviglia*.

Of course, if you're using English translations of titles, *The Magic Flute* and *The Barber of Seville* are correct.

So, English speakers, as you proofread your biographies and type up recital programmes, keep your eye out for unneccessary capitalizations; if not for this detail-freak blogger, do it because it's simply correct.
