Hi,
I got caught in this discussion with a completely different topic in mind. Let me summarize what I have posted in order to put my point across:
1. Romance-language speakers perceive basically 5 vowels and put any vowels into those pre-conceived categories;
2. As an example, Romance-language speakers tend to perceive words like 'live' and 'leave' as homophones due to those 5 vowel categories cited above;
3. English speakers, on the other hand, have a wider range of vowel categories;
4. As a consequence, two vowel sounds may be perceived as being different by English speakers but as a single vowel sound by Romance-language speakers;
5. Italian, as a Romance language, shares those 5 vowel categories;
6. Italian opera was created to entertain or enlighten an Italian-speaking audience. As such, that audience perceives only those 5 vowel categories;
7. Italian opera has taken advantage of those categories in order to adapt vowel resonance and create harmonics necessary to project the voice above the orchestra. That's what an evolutionary sociologist, using a jargon adapted from evolutionary biologists, might call a cultural pre-adaptation, a.k.a. a big favorable coincidence! hehe
8. English opera singers have taken advantage of the development of Italian opera and applied their background in singing to both their Italian opera performances and their English-speaking opera;
9. Most English speakers don't speak Italian, so vowel modifications in Italian operas are meaningless to them. Obviously, the same can't be said of operas in English;
10. If opera has perfection as its esthetic goal, as Lloyd put it some time ago and was openly supported by many Vocalisters, anything perceived as not perfect and accepted as such mars that goal and is therefore not related to opera;
11. As English speakers notice when a vowel in an English word is modified, vowel modifications are perceived as an imperfection to that audience. Therefore, vowel modifications must be avoided in English-speaking operas;
12. THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT THAT IS BY PERFORMING THOSE OPERAS IN SMALLER THEATERS, TO A SMALLER AUDIENCE AND WITH A SMALLER ORCHESTRA SO AS TO AVOID THE NECESSITY OF SUCH MODIFICATIONS.
13. Not persecuting 12 as the way to reach the operatic esthetic ideal in 10 is not opera, as can be said of the usage of microphones on stage, etc, etc.
I think I got you, baby! hehe
Bye,
Caio Rossi Sao Paulo, Brazil
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