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From:  John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
Date:  Fri Jan 26, 2001  4:53 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] diction (e and o)


I've only been on a brief trip to Italy (10 day choir tour in '94) but was
struck by not only the different kinds of "Italian" but also the way in
which even a Roman may make fun of Florentine pronunciation peculiarities.
The gondoliers of Venice are, I'm sure, completely unintelligible to
Italians from other regions. From the Ethnologue (online) and other
sources, I note that the variety in Italian is such that each dialect is
more distinct than, say, Danish is from Swedish. There is such a thing as a
standard Italian, but everyone speaks it (who can) with their own accents
and vowel qualities, and half the population apparently speaks something
else at home. The standard is supposed to derive from Tuscany, around
Florence, though it's really a sort of idealized Tuscan, shorn of more
local peculiarities.
I suspect that people living in Britain or Germany would have access to
similar dialectical variation, with Britain being the least varied! I
suspect that the success of two children of Modena, Pavarotti and Freni,
has made some impact in ideas of Italian pronunciation, at least
internationally. (Where is Paolo Conte from anyway?)
I can't remember who (famous singer perhaps) but a point was made that the
important thing, in singing Italian convincingly, is consistency rather
than necessarily following a standard prescription of long o and e here and
short o and e there - probably such consistency as may be obtained either
from long domicile in a specific region of Italy plus awareness of other
regions and the broadcasting standard, or by direct imitation of someone
with these advantages.
Soon I must sing some Verdi, and the only recorded exemplars I have are
Domingo (a Spaniard) and Milnes (an American) - though I hasten to state
that I make a point of *not* listening to recordings or repertoire I'm
working on until I've worked out my own ideas of how to perform the music -
both of whom have studied Italian repertoire extensively - to my ear Milnes
sounds more Italian than Domingo, but unless he is a perfect study, my
following him is going to result in the kind of transformation that changed
'Send reinforcements: we're going to advance!' into 'Send three and
fourpence: we're going to a dance!'
Still there? john


At 06:38 AM 1/26/01 +0100, you wrote:
...>I am Italian and live in Italy. We speak, but we don't study many rules.
>I'm trying to think to many words, but I always find that unstressed means
necessarily close.

John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada


  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
8785 Re: diction (e and o) Lloyd W. Hanson   Fri  1/26/2001   3 KB

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