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
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