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From:  promero@w...
promero@w...
Date:  Tue Jun 19, 2001  6:34 am
Subject:  Re: Rats, NATS!


A reply to the rest:

Heh, that's the problem, It HAS to be in english. Honestly, in
Luke Havregal you have an A4 with the word "Flames", that is Feh-
eeems and the "eh" never gets to be open (that's the way english is)
like it would in Italian, thus the sound is always in danger of being
thrown to the back, AND if you choose to help yourself by turning it
into an Italian e, the judges say you're not using the correct
diction. It's not that I'm dissing english or American composers, I
just don't have particular love for the issues this repertory brings
up because, at this point in my studies, I'm more preoccupied with
acquiring the right placement of the sound in the italian vowels -
which are the best conductors of sound- in order to become
familiarized with where the sound should be in the passaggio, the
issues of maintaining correct diction in the anglo language are
conflictive with what you do with italian and the vowels are handled
differently. Honestly, from a tenor student, I would rather work on
my passaggio with the best set of consonants to aid the sound rather
than to struggle along with darker vowels when I could be reinforcing
my passaggio technique and later on approach it with a firmer upper
register. Listen to Domingo singing "memory", why doesn't he use
a 'proper' diction? yes, part of it is because his english
pronunciation is horrible, but the other part is that he sings it
with Italian vowels because- like it or not- they're the best vowels
to produce sound--ESPECIALLY for tenors

I realize most singers here are american and those are the vowels
they grew up with and you're familiar with that, but I was born
speaking two languages---english and spanish, and the italian vowels
(which are the same in spanish) give me an ease that the english
vowels don't. On the side of the repertoire, I see Mozart, Rossini
and Co. helping me build a stronger technique more than R.V.W or J.D.
during my studies-- it's just about where you are, really. YOu
probably no longer face the issues I do (or never did, since your
voice is different) and can feel comfortable with this repertory
because you have developed the technique I am still in the process of
developing.

To Robin:

(Now if I
> only had the time to DO it!)

Well, I don't speak Italian ( I can understand it) but I can help you
translate them into Spanish, which is exactly like italian except
that ch is a Ch (instead of a K) and a C is just a normal C (S if it
goes in front of the e or the i, and K before every other vowel)

> Incidentally, did they say WHICH American composers you could
choose
> from, or could it be a new fledgling one? ;)

It could be a fledgling one, as long as they don't have me singing
obscene vowels in the passaggio--- I'm still a student, chrissakes :P

I read the most infurating post today on another forum, in it the
lady said "However, most of Italian song literature is more
appropriate for playing on an accordian at a theme restaurant than
for singing in public.". It reminds me why we singers are famed for
being the snobs of the music world (after the poor ballet dancers!).

Oh well, I've vented enough :p



  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
12737 Re: Rats, NATS! Nancy Fontana   Tue  6/19/2001   4 KB

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