Alain Zurcher wrote: >I am a bit tired of reading about "the 5 Italian vowels", since: >1) even in Italian, the "o" and "e" can be open or closed, which makes at >least 7 vowels, >2) I cannot find any reason why a [y] (French "u" or German "u") or a German >closed or open "o" (French "eu") should not be considered (and sung) as >"pure".
There is no reason why they should not be considered or sung as "pure". However, this is a discussion of "bel canto", not "beau chant", so presumably the discussion will center around Italian. ;-)
Also, there was a great deal of difference in singing styles in France and Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. See Sally Sanford's DMA dissertation from Stanford University as well as some of the writers of the period (Benigne de Bacilly, J.B. Berard, etc. Furthermore, as far as we know, 17th century Italian pronunciation was mostly a good deal closer to modern Italian pronunciation than 17th century French is to modern French. You yourself mentioned a site (Olivier....) that had a discussion of this matter, when I asked on chant about French stage diction.
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