Cindy,
I was surprised to read about what you called the "standard" pronunciation of the combination of a flipped final "r" and an initial vowel. I've been out of school lots and lots of years at this point, and I was taught that any German word beginning with a vowel starts with a glottal stop, and that the "r" preceding such a vowel would be pronounced with the schwa ending you mention. This is also what I hear in performance and on recordings. So the standard which is said to be on the wane was never taught to me, and what is supposed to be replacing it is what I was taught way back when. I have continued to pronounce this combination as I learned it then, and no teacher, coach or conductor has ever corrected me on that.
As a teacher, I understand the reluctance to encourage young singers to be sprinkling their singing with liberal amounts of glottal stops. However, I think this must be taught along with the emphasis that one must develop the facility that allows one to choose the degree or severity of the glottal; a very light stroke that does not interfere with line, does not harm vocal folds, and makes text more easily understandable is quite possible. A stronger glottal may be used sparingly where text is to be highlighted or emotion pointed up. But I think that attention to learning how to produce and adjust these varying degrees of glottal stop early on in my singing training have meant that I have never had to deal with vocal issues of improper onset since.
Having used a few different diction texts, I find that no two give identical phonetic spellings. The sounds that you and I are after here may not be so far apart, but may look more so on the page. I'm not familiar with the Siebs book; you state that it deals with "stage diction". I wonder if it is specifically directed to lyric diction as opposed to spoken diction. In working with native speaker diction coaches, there is a pronounced (no pun intended!) difference between those whose expertise is in lyric diction and those who concentrate on spoken diction.
Robin Lynne Frye Mezzo-Soprano Voice and Piano Teacher New York, New York
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