Can you hear me? ENO war of words

English National Opera, whose founding principle since 1931 has been singing opera in English, has announced plans to display the text of its operas above the stage.

The move to surtitles has horrified the triumvirate that ran the company in the 1980s.

"Surtitles are," said David Pountney, one of the three, "a celluloid condom inserted between the audience and the immediate gratification of understanding."

Sir Peter Jonas, now head of the Bavarian State Opera, said: "If ENO are doing what the audience wants, they should have public executions on the stage of the Coliseum. After all, the public wants capital punishment."

Dennis Marks, who succeeded Sir Peter at ENO, said: "It's yet another undermining of the principles on which ENO was founded."

Séan Doran, ENO artistic director, said: "When Lilian Baylis founded this company in 1931, her mission was to make opera as accessible as possible. Surtitles as a tool are vital if ENO is to continue this mission and continue to attract audiences. I have no doubt that were Lilian alive today she wouldn't hesitate to introduce surtitles for the audience's benefit."

But Sir Peter retorted: "If you'd asked her, Lilian would have said, 'I'm going to ask God.' She would have then turned away for a minute, and said, 'God says no, dear.'"

The director Graham Vick, who once threatened to bomb the Coliseum should ENO introduce surtitles, said: "It's unbelievably shocking. It will anaesthetise the art form."

Asked whether he would carry out his bomb threat, he said: "Watch this space. But they've put a bomb under it themselves. It's saying 'What we are doing is pointless'."

The surtitles will be introduced next March; each opera will also be given one or two performances without them.

Paul Daniel, outgoing music director of ENO, was unavailable for comment, but has said: "Surtitles make audiences passive and castrated. You cannot feel an opera in your bollocks if you are just having the information fed to you."