Back in the old days – well, 13 years ago – the Australian orchestras’ program notes were often scanned from the previous published use, treated to an optical character recognition process, and re-typeset.
Proofreading was much more entertaining in those days.
Foreign words and characters proved especially interesting, and OCR misinterpretation of these is the source of my favourite madeupical: Die Schopfling [a shopping spree], from Haydn’s long-lost retail therapy oratorio.
But the very best was this one – not so much for the error itself, but the correction applied to it by a colleague in one of the orchestras:
The overture, it was claimed, “begins with an orchestral tutu” [tutti].
P couldn’t resist an insertion:
“…and ends in a strapless evening frock.”
