Shows
So Lit Song LitAugusta Browne, Jane Sloman, Faustina Hasse HodgesIn the 1800s, women in America were mostly only allowed to compose "Parlor Songs", sentimental pieces that were intended to be sung at home by amateurs rather than on the recital stage. But there are a lot of beautiful pieces that came out of this time period! This episode focuses on Augusta Browne (1820-1882), Jane Sloman (1824-after 1850), and Faustina Hasse Hodges (1823-1895).Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:Browne-The Courier DoveBrowne-The Song of the SkylarkSloman-Queen of the NightHodges-The Dreary Day Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.
2025-11-1822 minSo Lit Song LitJosephine LangJosephine Lang (1815-1880) came from a musical family in Munich and her musical talent developed very early. She composed her first songs at age 13 and has about 150 Lieder to her credit, many of which were published by major publishing houses during her lifetime. Her songs are full-on Romantic, with incredible melodies and often a wide range required of the singer with a somewhat operatic sweep.Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, Troy Cook, baritone, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:All of these songs are found in Josephine Lang: Selected Songs. Hildegard Publishing also has...
2025-11-0420 minSo Lit Song LitEmilie ZumsteegEmilie Zumsteeg's (1796-1857) father was a composer and her mother owned a music store, so her natural abilities were encouraged early. She made a living teaching voice and piano, and was a well-known composer in her time, with at least 60 Lieder, which were considered innovative by her contemporaries. Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:Die Unschuld (9 Lieder)Das Epheublättchen (9 Lieder)Die Kapelle (6 Lieder)Der Sternenhimmel (6 Lieder)Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA."Exactly" counter--Ellen 5 (16), Toni 0 (2)***So Lit Song Lit is a...
2025-10-2116 minSo Lit Song LitLouise ReichardtLouise Reichardt (1779-1826) came from a musical family in Berlin, and grew up to be a composer and choral conductor, establishing a choral society in Hamburg, Germany. Her Italian songs have a bel canto feel to them, and her German Lieder tend more toward folk melodies. Her mother Juliane was also a composer; some of her songs are available on IMSLP and more can be sourced through inter-library loan.Much of the information this season comes from Karin Pendle's Women and Music: A History.Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger...
2025-10-0718 minSo Lit Song LitAnna Amalia and Corona SchröterAnna Amalia (1739-1807) was a German princess who became Duchess of Saxe-Weimar upon her marriage. Also a composer, her love of the arts made her court a cultural center and ushered in the era of Weimar Classicism.Corona Schröter (1751-1802) was a singer in the court of Anna Amalia, brought there by her close friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe! Much of her compositional output has been lost, but two volumes of her songs were published.Much of the information this season comes from Karin Pendle's Women and Music: A History.Musical clips pe...
2025-09-3018 minSo Lit Song LitElizabeth Jacquet de la GuerreElizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729) was a child prodigy from a huge family of musicians and instrument makers on both sides of her family tree. She composed three volumes of cantatas, several of which use Biblical women as their subjects - most of these cantatas are intended for a single singer along with continuo.Much of the information this season comes from Karin Pendle's Women and Music: A History.Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:Judith AirRecitLe Passage de la mer rougeR...
2025-09-1615 minSo Lit Song LitBarbara StrozziBarbara Strozzi (1619-1677) was a prolific composer of secular chamber music, publishing eight volumes of her works, more than most men of her time period. She composed almost exclusively for voice and continuo, with just one volume including works with ensembles, and she never composed nor sang opera.Much of the information this season comes from Karin Pendle's Women and Music: A History.Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, Andrew Schucker, countertenor, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:Spesso per entro al petto (found in Women Composers – A Heritage of Song High Voice * Low Vo...
2025-09-0220 minSo Lit Song LitFrancesca CacciniFrancesca Caccini (1587-1640) came from a very important musical family, studying music with her father alongside her brother and sister. A noted singer and voice teacher as well, Francesca spent much of her musical career working in the Medici court. She composed the first extant opera by a woman and the first Italian opera that was performed outside of Italy.Much of the information this season comes from Karin Pendle's Women and Music: A History.Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, Troy Cook, baritone, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:Primo libro delle...
2025-08-1919 minSo Lit Song LitPinkham: Three Songs from EcclesiastesEllen was first introduced to the music of Daniel Pinkham by tenor Kenneth Riegel (who played Don Ottavio in the 1979 movie with Raimondi). Pinkham taught composition at New England Conservatory and Boston Conservatory for six decades, but he also had a church job, so many of his works have a religious element like his Three Songs from Ecclesiastes. The score is available from Sheet Music Plus.Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Michael Vallikappil, tenor (Instagram @mgvtenor), and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:I. Vanity of vanitiesII. Go thy way, eat thy bread with joyIII. To every...
2023-05-0412 minSo Lit Song LitLili Boulanger: Clairières dans le cielThis week, we talk about the Boulanger sisters, focusing on Lili Boulanger and her Clairières dans le ciel, a set of 13 songs for soprano. Lili was the first woman to win the Grand Prix de Rome in composition. The score for this stunning work is available through Classical Vocal Reprints.Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:Elle était descendue au bas de la prairieUn poète disaitRecorded at The Camp Recording Studio in Elizabethtown, PA.***So Lit Song Lit is a p...
2023-02-1615 minSo Lit Song LitKrenek: Reisebuch aus den österreichischen AlpenFor those of you who love Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, Ernst Krenek's Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen is another epic song cycle to fall in love with! The scores (in four volumes) is available at Classical Vocal Reprints.Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Michael Vallikappil, tenor (Instagram @mgvtenor), and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:No. 1: MotifNo. 4: WetterNo. 14: HeimwehNo. 20: EpilogPerformances recorded at Carnegie Mellon University's Recording Studio in Pittsburgh, PA. Jingle and theme music recorded at The Camp Recording Studio in Elizabethtown, PA.***So Lit Song Lit is a p...
2023-02-0215 minSo Lit Song LitSantoliquido: Tre poesie persianeHappy 2023! We are starting the second half of Season 1 off with an amazingly beautiful set of songs by Francesco Santoliquido. The score for Tre poesie persiane is available at Sheet Music Plus.Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Michael Vallikappil, tenor (Instagram @mgvtenor), and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:I. Quando le domandaiII. Io mi levai dal centro della TerraIII. Le domandaiPerformances recorded at Carnegie Mellon University's Recording Studio in Pittsburgh, PA. Jingle and theme music recorded at The Camp Recording Studio in Elizabethtown, PA.***So Lit Song Lit is a...
2023-01-1915 minSo Lit Song LitDuets for Soprano & BaritoneWe're halfway through the season, so we wanted to do something special! Episode 10 covers duets for soprano and baritone that are not "Là ci darem la mano" :-) including some by Peter Cornelius (whose Op 16 has four duets) and works included in the book Joys Abiding: Soprano and Baritone Duets by Historical Women Composers, available at Classical Vocal Reprints.Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Hannah Wolfe, soprano (Instagram @hannahwolfesoprano), Maika Madison, baritone (Instagram @maika.madison.baritone), and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:Peter Cornelius: Brennende LiebeHensel: Die Mitternacht war kalt und stummViardot: Habanera (main theme a...
2022-12-1517 minSo Lit Song LitPasatieri: Bel Canto SongsThomas Pasatieri has a large catalog of Art Songs, as well as 24 operas to his credit! Today's focus is on his Bel Canto Songs, a set of 6 songs on poems by William Blake, which are available through Classical Vocal Reprints.Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:The Garden of LoveLaughing SongThe LambHear the Voice Recorded at The Camp Recording Studio in Elizabethtown, PA.***So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their n...
2022-12-0115 minSo Lit Song LitInspired by A French CollectionJennifer Aylmer, Associate Professor of Voice at Carnegie Mellon University, joins us today to discuss some lesser-known songs found on the album A French Collection (featuring Martyn Hill, tenor, Graham Johnston, piano, and Alber Ferber, piano). Jennifer found this recording on a music streaming service called Tidal. Links to the scores for these pieces can be found by clicking on the recording titles below.Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:Fauré: MandolineDebussy: Mandoline Dupont: MandolineChabrier: Chanson pour JeanneFranck: NocturneRecorded at The Camp Recording Studio in...
2022-11-1720 minSo Lit Song LitMarschner: Ein Liederheft vom RheinHeinrich Marschner was the most important German opera composer between Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner, and he composed 430 Lieder! Dr. Jeffrey Williams, creator of the Marschner Song Database, joins Ellen to discuss Op. 186 Ein Liederheft vom Rhein (also available as PDF download). Dr. Williams has compiled several scores of Marschner's Lieder duets and opera arias for Classical Vocal Reprints, and his recording Marschner: Songs for Baritone with Jennifer McGuire, piano, can be found on Spotify.
Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Maika Madison, baritone , and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:
Still an der kühlen F...
2022-11-0324 minSo Lit Song LitDonaudy: 36 Arie di stile anticoNew York-based vocal coach Susan Morton of SingThrough Central joins us today to discuss the rest of Stefano Donaudy's songs (besides O del mio amato ben!). These songs are appropriate for singers at all levels and the score can be purchased at Classical Vocal Reprints. The recording that Susan recommended with Ernesto Palacio and Samuele Pala is available on Spotify .
Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:
Amorosi miei giorni
Freschi luoghi, prati aulenti
Amor mi tiene in pugno
Tregua non ho
Recorded at The Camp Recording Stu...
2022-10-2022 minSo Lit Song LitGomezanda: Mexican Song CollectionEpisode 5 introduces Gomezanda's Mexican Song Collection, a 3-volume set available at Classical Vocal Reprints. Our guest is Dr. Juanita Ulloa, who collected and edited the volumes; her direct email is juanitavoicetrainer@gmail.com. Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:Tiernamente (Tenderly-vol. 2)Detente (Wait-vol. 1)A una golondrina (To a Swallow-vol. 1) Recorded at The Camp Recording Studio in Elizabethtown, PA.***So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts....
2022-10-0619 minSo Lit Song LitHoiby: Three Ages of WomanThis episode is about the songs of Lee Hoiby, particularly his short cycle Three Ages of Woman (settings of Elizabeth Bishop poetry), which can be purchased at Sheet Music Plus. His song album, Thirteen Songs, is also available at Sheet Music Plus. There is a brief cameo appearance from conductor Tyson Deaton who performed Three Ages of Woman with soprano Barbara Paver; recordings of that performance are available on YouTube.
Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:
always it's spring (e.e. cummings poetry, in Thirteen Songs)
Filling...
2022-09-2914 minSo Lit Song LitIsabelle Aboulker: Savoir vivre et usages mondainsEpisode 3 focuses on Isabelle Aboulker's Savoir vivre et usage mondains, found in her song album Mélodies, which can be purchased at Presto Music.
Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:
À propos de la chaussette blanche...
Comment on offre le bras...
Violon (Fiançailles pour rire, Poulenc)
Et à propos de gant...
Recorded at The Camp Recording Studio in Elizabethtown, PA.
***
So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcast...
2022-09-1511 minSo Lit Song LitWolf: LiederstraußThis week, we discuss Hugo Wolf's Liederstrauß (with texts by Heinrich Heine) which were published posthumously. They are available for purchase through Amazon or Stretta Music.
Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Michael Vallikappil, tenor (Instagram @mgvtenor), and Ellen Rissinger, pianist:
No. 1: Sie haben heut Abend Gesellschaft
No. 2: Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen
No. 6: Mein Liebchen wir saßen beisammen
No. 4 Aus meinen großen Schmerzen
Performances recorded at Carnegie Mellon University's Recording Studio in Pittsburgh, PA. Jingle and theme music recorded at The Camp Recording Studio in Elizabethtown, PA.
To hear the en...
2022-09-0114 minSo Lit Song Lit24 Italian Songs and Arias by Women ComposersIn the inaugural episode of So Lit Song Lit, we discuss the 24 Italian Songs and Arias by Women Composers, compiled and annotated by Nicole Leone and Randi Marazzo, available for purchase at Hildegard Publishing. Recordings featured in this episode, performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, pianist: Chi brama in amore (Strozzi)Gia la notte s’avvicina (Colbran)La Speranza al cor mi dice (Colbran)Se spiegar (Szymanowska) Recorded at The Camp Recording Studio in Elizabethtown, PA.***So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can lear...
2022-08-1814 min
The Diction PoliceDiction Tip #31Since the podcast comes out every two weeks, on the off-weeks we post Diction Tips--very short tutorials focusing on a specific topic in Lyric Diction.
In Diction Tip #31, François Germain interviews Ellen Rissinger about the [æ] vowel in English lyric diction.
For more Diction Tips visit the videos section of our Facebook page or you can find all of our Diction Lessons, Diction Tips and Tongue Twisters for Singers at www.dictionpolice.com!
2018-04-2803 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 100-IPA Revealed: an audio guideFor our 100th episode we wanted to do something really special, and here it is! In "IPA Revealed: an audio-guide" we work our way through the phonetic alphabet, with examples of native speakers in each of the four main languages that we sing in, English, Italian, German, and French. Both Ellen and François host the episode, with guests Christoph Pohl, Daniela Pellegrino, and Grace Durham. There is no audio version of the podcast this week.
To see our complete catalog of text readings by native speakers and PDFs with IPA transcriptions, poetic and word-for-word-translations, as well as...
2017-10-0719 minThe Diction PoliceDiction Tip #20Since the podcast comes out every two weeks, on the off-weeks we post Diction Tips--very short tutorials focusing on a specific topic in Lyric Diction.
In Diction Tip #20, Ellen Rissinger talks about shadow vowels in English Lyric Diction.
For more Diction Tips visit the videos section of our Facebook page or you can find all of our Diction Lessons, Diction Tips and Tongue Twisters for Singers at www.dictionpolice.com!
2017-09-3004 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 76Gilles Ragon is back to discuss French Diction with the text to "Klein-Zach" from Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann. Our focus is on what happens when the same vowel sound appears back-to-back with no consonant between them, liaison, and some exceptional pronunciations in French.
The libretto for Les contes d'Hoffmann can be found at the Opera Guide. Make sure to click on L for libretto and F for French (because it defaults back every time) and then scroll down to Act I scene 4--the aria starts with Hoffmann's "Il était une fois."
The new projects that I announced on this e...
2016-05-1523 min
The Diction PoliceEpisode 75This week, French tenor Gilles Ragon works through Don José's aria, "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée", from Carmen with us. We concentrate on the letter "e" and how to tell whether it's the open epsilon [ɛ], the closed lower case [e] or the schwa [ə]. We talk about the accent grave (è) and accent circonflex (ê) which both open the vowel to [ɛ] and the accent aigu (é) which closes it to [e].
The libretto for Carmen can be found at the Opera Guide. Make sure to click on L for libretto and F for French (because it seems to default back eve...
2014-05-1926 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 74In this episode we finish up our conversation with Martin Koch, with the text "Wenn sich zwei Herzen scheiden" and an exercise from Dr. Augustin Ulrich Nebert's article "Das einzigartige -IG". Obviously we are focusing on the ending -IG again as well as devoicing/unvoicing final consonants and the voiced initial S.
The text Wenn sich zwei Herzen scheiden was written by Emanuel von Geibel, a 19th century poet who was part of a linguistic society in Munich called Die Krokodile (the Crocodile Society). This text has been set by Mendelssohn and a plethora of other composers. For...
2013-11-1230 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 73This episode is the beginning of a conversation with German tenor Martin Koch. With the text to Mendelssohn's "Frage", we focus on the -IG suffix, whether to roll an R or to use the near-open central vowel [ɐ] (which I keep calling the upside down bright A) and a few notable exceptional words with long, closed vowels followed by two consonants.
Originally attributed to H. Voss, it appears that Mendelssohn himself wrote the text as well as the music to "Frage". This song also became the basis for his string quartet in a-minor, Op. 13.
Please note t...
2013-09-2929 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 72 - Special Edition - Rolling RsThis is a mini-episode with some tips on learning how to roll Rs. Kerry Deal (from the faculty of Boston Conservatory and MIT) and Michael Strauss (a vocal coach with New England Conservatory and Boston Conservatory) talk about the problems we have rolling our Rs and give us some exericises and tricks to help us practice! We've been working together at the International Performing Arts Institute for the past few summers.
Don't forget that there are already two episodes with tongue exercises as well, Episode 48 and Episode 49!
Please feel free to contact me with any questions...
2013-09-0816 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 71In the second episode of our two-part discussion of Modern Greek Diction, Lydía Zervános works through the texts Κάτω στον Άγιο Σίδερο and Ο Ναός. We focus on the letters Gamma γ and Kappa κ and the vowel digraphs: αι [ε]; ει, οι and υι which all become [i]; αυ [av] or [af] and ευ [εv] or [εf]; and ου [u], along with the accent marking ´ and the diaeresis ¨ .
Κάτω στον Άγιο Σίδερο is probably recognized better as "La-bas, vers l'église", from Ravel's Five Greek Songs. Ο Ναός was composed by Μανώλης Καλομοίρης (the founder of the Greek National School of Music) to a text by Κωστής Παλαμάς (a Greek poet in the late 1880s who wrote the words to the Olympic Hymn).
The other resources that I mentioned in the episode were:
Learning Greek...
2013-09-0131 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 70Είμαι πάρα πολύ χαρουμένη για αυτά τα επισόδια! This episode and the next will be on one of my favorite topics--Modern Greek Diction! On this episode, baritone Aris Argiris works through the Greek alphabet with us, through the text Κόρες της Αττικής.
Κόρες της Αττικής was set to music by Theodoros Karyotakis (I could only find this in German on Wikipedia), a student of Dmitri Mitropoulos. The text to this song can be found on page 49 of Lydia Zervanos' Greek Diction Guide for Singers, from a Presidential Scholars Project she put together several years ago. She has since tweaked some of the transcriptions for errors, but the rules to Greek diction in the first half of the project are invaluable.
As I promised, here is the Greek...
2013-06-0435 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 69In the second half of my conversation with Italian bass Maurizio Muraro, we discuss the text to Don Bartolo's aria "A un dottor della mia sorte" from Il barbiere di Siviglia. This time we concentrate on the rule of "raddoppiamento sintattico" (called phrasal doubling in English), the combination GLI [ʎ], S before a voiced consonant (which becomes a voiced [z]) and when to roll or not roll Rs!
You can find a libretto for Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Opernführer. Scroll down to Aria No.8 (remember to make sure it's on L for libretto and I for Italian!).
The fa...
2013-04-2231 min
The Diction PoliceEpisode 68After an unexpected extended delay due to a climbing accident and travelling over Easter, we're back! Italian bass Maurizio Muraro, discusses Banco's aria from Macbeth in this episode, focusing on the palatal consonants GN [ɲ] and GL [λ], the combinations NG [ŋg] and NC [ŋk], double consonants and phrasal doubling, plus the suffixes -MENTO and -MENTE with stressed closed E [e].
Here is a libretto for Verdi's Macbeth--for Banco's aria scroll down to Nr. 8 1/2 Scena Banco. Sometimes the Opera Guide link will revert to the German text, or even to the Synopsis page, so make sure to click on Libretto and then I fo...
2013-04-0730 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 67We're sticking with Händel's Messiah this week, with soprano Amanda Majeski discussing "Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion" and the four short soprano recitatives before the chorus "Glory to God", followed by the rest of my conversation with Jan and Catherine McDaniel of the Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University. This week's episode focuses on English diphthongs and triphthongs, implosion and explosion of final Ds and Ts before another T and the specific words "righteous" and "with" (which can be the voiced delta [δ] or the unvoiced theta [θ]).
The libretto for the Messiah can be found here (the rec...
2013-02-2839 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 66As a belated Valentine's present, The Diction Police is back with all new episodes for 2013! Miss Kitty Fantastico and I are all settled in our new apartment and I have quite a few episodes already recorded, so we should be able to stay on track for this spring!
This week and next we'll be talking about some arias from Händel's Messiah. On this episode, tenor Charles Reid goes through the text of "Comfort Ye... Ev'ry Valley", and then we discuss some of the problematic traditional misuse of diction with Jan and Catherine McDaniel, from the faculty of the Bass S...
2013-02-1740 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 65-Special Edition for Young CoachesToday's episode is in response to a request from the Facebook page, specifically for young coaches! Conductor Erik Nielsen, and singers Simon Neal, John Packard and Nadja Mchantaf talk about what they are looking for from a rehearsal pianist or a vocal coach and I share my experiences as a coach, including a few of my tricks and advice on practicing for auditions.
The audition repertoire for coaches that I mentioned:
Mozart--Le nozze di Figaro 2nd Act Finale; Così fan tutte 1st Act Finale
French--Carmen Smugglers Quintet
Strauss--Elektra opening through the Magd Scene; Der Rosenkavalier opening (including Wie du warst); S...
2012-10-2537 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 64-17th Century French DictionOlivier Bettens takes us through the pronunciation of French in the 17th Century with a scene from Armide. We talk about some exceptional words that are the same in modern pronunciation, alexandrines, the imperfect verb tense and a fifth nasal vowel. We got through as many rules as we could in the past 2 episodes, but there is a lot of information on this subject, so to find out more, check out Olivier's website, Chantez-vous francais?
Armide was written by dramatist/librettist Philippe Quinault and composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. Lully is considered the founder of French opera, even though he was born...
2012-09-2824 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 63-16th Century French DictionThis week we focus on 16th Century French with specialist Olivier Bettens. Our text is "Mignonne allons voir si la rose" by Pierre de Ronsard, and we discuss the differences between 16th Century and Modern French pronunciation and spelling. I had some problems with a previous posting of this, so I'm hoping that this new post will work--fingers crossed!
Pierre de Ronsard was a very famous and prolific poet in 16th Century France, one of a group of 7 poets, called the Pleiades, dedicated to bringing French literature of the time up to classical standards. During the podcast I said that t...
2012-09-2727 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 62Simon Neal is back with us this week discussing the text "The Vagabond". We go through the text, focusing on the problem with Ls and Rs in English, dealing with pianissimi and why we should sing pure Italianate vowels in every language. I'll also talk about a phonetic concept for unstressed I (between the closed [i] and open [I] sounds) that Jan & Catherine McDaniel (English diction teachers at the Bass School of Music, Oklahoma City University) sent me, the SCHWI.
"The Vagabond" is the first poem in Robert Louis Stevenson's Songs of Travel, and the first song in Ralph Vaughan...
2012-09-0935 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 61It's the time of year when opera seasons and school years start, so it's time for The Diction Police to get back on track, too! This week and next our topic is English Diction with British baritone Simon Neal, who is here in Dresden singing in Henze's opera We Come To The River. Our text for today is A. E. Housman's "Loveliest of Trees" and we concentrate on the multiple phonetic functions of the letter O in English, final Y in words like "twenty" and "fifty" and a little bit about legato singing and consonants.
A. E. Housman was Professor...
2012-08-3034 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 60Since I just spent the weekend preparing for an upcoming Lieder recital with Mirko Roschkowski, of course I couldn't let him off the hook without talking some German Diction with us! This week's texts are two Schubert songs with mythological characters "Ganymed" (poem by Goethe) and "Der Atlas" (poem by Heinrich Heine). We concentrate on when NG is phonetically [ng] and not [ŋ], the prefixes UN- and AN- and review a few favorite topics like closed and open E's, glottals and the unvoiced genitive S.
Ganymede was the cup-bearer to the Gods, and maybe a lot more. There are many different o...
2012-05-2235 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 59Russian Diction is back this week--Katja Sapega Klein discusses the texts to Olga's Aria from Евгений Онегин (Yevgeniy Onegin) and Tchaikovsky's "Нам звёзды кроткие сияли", the last song of his Opus 60. Our focus this time is on what happens when 2 vowels come together in Russian, the devoicing (or not!) of consonants and double soft consonant/vowel combinations.
Olga's aria, "Ах, Таня, Таня! Всегда мечтаешь ты... Я не способна к грусти томной" can be found through an online libretto for Евгений Онегин, just scroll down to "page 16". If you want to check your homework after you've translated this aria :-) try Google translate--it does a pretty good job at quick translations from/to almost any language we would ever need and will even allow for alternate translations if you highlight a specific word. "Нам звёзды кроткие...
2012-05-0634 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 58We're sticking with English Diction and Jason Nedecky this week, discussing the text to "Music for a While". Our focus is on how to handle R's ([ʀ], [r], [ɾ] and the burred R [ɹ]), a little bit about glottals, a review of some of the topics from last week and voiced consonants at the ends of words. I also gave some tips on studying foreign languages, which I'll add to the 7 Steps to Learn Music page.
Henry Purcell's "Music for a While" was written as incidental music to John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee's tragic play Oedipus. There are several different realizations of the con...
2012-04-2628 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 57The Diction Police is now officially in its third year! Thank you so much to all listeners around the world--the audience has more than doubled in its second year, and I'd love to say that again next year, so I'm asking everyone to please spread the word: share on Facebook, post and write comments on the Facebook page, tweet on Twitter, send the link to your singer/coach friends and post comments on iTunes so that more people can find The Diction Police and benefit from it! Thank you!
This week and next our topic will be English Diction, concentrating...
2012-04-1733 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 56This week Swedish soprano Gisela Stille is with us to discuss the texts "Längtan heter min arvedel" and "I drömmen du är mig nära". We concentrate on the fun rounded H [ɧ], what I keep calling the C that turns back in over itself (but is officially called C with a curl) [ɕ], some of the differences between colloquial speech and lyric diction and a reminder of some spelling rules. At the end of the episode, I also compare some of the sounds of Swedish and Norwegian.
Both of our poets today were members of the Swedish Academy at the sa...
2012-03-0930 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 55Episode 55 is the end of my interview on Czech diction with Lucie Ceralová, this time with the Janáček's "Letí, straka letí". We concentrate on the letter C [ts] (which maintains it's own sound when followed by K), consonants that need a j-glide when followed by ě and the voicing and devoicing of consonants, as well as consonant pairs.
"Letí, straka letí" is No. 19 in Leoš Janáček's song cycle Zápisník zmizelého (The Diary of One Who Vanished). The texts were all published anonymously in the Brno newspaper 1916 and the poet remained unknown until 1998.
I also mentioned a blog posting w...
2012-02-2323 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 54Since I'm in rehearsals for a Czech opera right now, it only seems fair that we discuss Czech diction this week! Mezzo-soprano Lucie Ceralova is here with the text "Oblak a mrákota jest vůkol něho", focusing on devoicing consonants, vocalic L and R, the palatalized N [ɲ], D [ ɟ] or [d] and T [c] or [t] and a few ways to practice our favorite Czech consonant ř.
"Oblak a mrákota jest vůkol něho" is the first song in Dvořak's Biblické Písně (Biblical Songs), taken from the Book of Psalms of the Kralice Bible, which is the Czech equiv...
2012-02-1527 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 53This week, bass Ketil Hugaas talks us through the consonants and consonant clusters in Norwegian, through two songs by Edvard Grieg, "Sang til juletræet" and "En svane". The retroflex phonetic symbols that we talk about are RD [ɖ ], RL [ɭ], RN [ɳ] , RS [ʂ] and RT [ʈ], all with tails flaring off to the right. We also come across NG [ŋ] and GN [ŋn] as well as KJ and TJ [ç] (which I want to research more!).
"Sang til juletræet" is a Christmas song, with a text by Johan Krohn. The text was also published set to a folk melody in the Norwegian First Reading Book for Elem...
2012-02-0829 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 52Since the Swedish episodes were so popular, it's time to move next door in Scandinavia--for the next 2 weeks bass Ketil Hugaas discusses Norwegian Diction with us. This week we're focusing on vowels with the text "Mens jeg venter", a poem by Vilhelm Krag that was set by Edvard Grieg.
Grieg's Opus 60 is a set of 5 songs to texts by Krag and is available on IMSLP along with links to purchase a copy. I found one YouTube of Birgit Nilsson singing this song, and it can also be found on iTunes on the recordings Edvard Grieg Complete Songs Vol 1 with various...
2012-02-0225 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 51We're sticking with German Diction again, with a crew of low-voiced men--basses Thorsten Grümbel and Georg Zeppenfeld, as well as baritone Christoph Pohl, return to discuss the texts to "Anakreons Grab" and "Wie Melodien zieht es mir". We concentrate on the long sentence structures in these poems, along with short unstressed closed Es and the vowel combination IE (which is usually [i:] but in these cases becomes [i:ə] or the transcription possibilities of [jə] or [iə]) at the end of a word.
Goethe's "Anakreons Grab" refers to the ancient Greek poet, Anacreon--I also found a nice blog post entitled "What...
2012-01-2535 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 50Happy 2012! We're back from the holidays with German Diction. German actress Susanne Plassman discusses "Kennst du das Land" from Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and bass Georg Zeppenfeld talks about König Heinrich's Aria from Lohengrin, "Mein Herr und Gott" (scroll down a little beyond halfway to find the aria). The basis for this episode came from bass Thorsten Grümbel, and at his suggestion, we focus on [ʃ], [ç] and [x], as well as when ZU- at the beginning of a word isn't stressed.
If you haven't already heard Georg Zeppenfeld sing this role (because I posted it on the Facebook page seve...
2012-01-1834 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 49-Special Edition-Tongue ExercisesIn the second of our two-part series on tongue exercises, Silke Kurpiers gives us a few more advanced exercises to try (some of which require pretzel sticks or straws) and goes more in-depth on practicing rolled Rs. Be sure to listen to Episode 48 first and get a handle on those exercises before trying these! Then for a treat, Silke shows us a few German tongue twisters to get things really moving:
Zehn zahme Ziegen zogen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo.
Zwischen zwei Zwetschgenzweigen saßen zwei zwitschernde Schwalben.
Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische. Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritz.
B...
2011-12-0224 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 48-Special Edition-Tongue ExercisesThis is the first in a 2-part special edition of The Diction Police--all about tongue exercises! In this episode, Silke Kurpiers, a stage manager at the Semperoper, but also a trained professional speech therapist, gives us some basic tongue exercises to gain more independence of the tongue and train it in all directions. She also gives us some ideas to prepare for rolling Rs. The way this blog is set up, I can only attach one file to every blog posting, so for a pdf file of the exercises (which Silke drew by hand!) look for the blog entry...
2011-12-0224 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 47This week finishes off a series of episodes on many of the arias from Le nozze di Figaro. Coach Matteo Pais walks us through "E Susanna non vien... Dove sono" and "Bravo signor padrone... Se vuol ballare", focusing on open and closed E and O in every position.
Opernführer has the libretto for Le nozze di Figaro (remember to click on libretto and then I for Italian!). For "Dove sono", scroll down to Recit and Aria No. 20 in the third act, and "Se vuol ballare" starts with the recit just before Cavatina No. 3 close to the beginning. Here is t...
2011-11-2329 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 46We're back on German diction with bass Thorsten Grümbel and sopranos Netta Or and Karen Bandelow, focusing on glottals in German and some unstressed prefixes with open E (er-, her-, ver- and zer-), as well as reviewing a few things that we've talked about before, like the NG sound [ŋ], the unpronounced intervocalic H and some diphthongs.
Our texts for this episode are "O Isis und Osiris" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (I did not link this to the Opera Guide website because there are several typos there), and "In dem Schatten meiner Locken" from Wolf's Spanisches Liederbuch.
I dug thr...
2011-10-2336 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 45In the second half of my interview with Simone di Felice, we concentrate on the Count's Aria "Hai già vinta la causa" from Le nozze di Figaro. We cover those assimilations of N again, as well as diphthongs and triphthongs, a few more verb forms and non-aspirated K, P and T.
The Opera Guide has a libretto for Le Nozze di Figaro. You'll have to click on Libretto and the letter I (for Italian!), then scroll down to Aria No. 18, in Act 3.
The book that I mentioned at the beginning of the episode is Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates W...
2011-10-1332 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 44Italian Vocal Coach Simone di Felice is with us to discuss more arias from Le nozze di Figaro--since he and I had such a long conversation with a ton of useful information, it will be spread out over two episodes! This week it's Bartolo's aria, "La Vendetta", focusing on some standard verb endings with stressed E, some consonants that are automatically doubled between two vowels and the assimilation of N before certain consonants. The new phonetic letter we talk about is the labio dental [ɱ].
The Opera Guide has a libretto for Le Nozze di Figaro. You'll have to click on L...
2011-10-0327 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 43This is the second part of our 2-part series on Swedish diction, with mezzo-soprano Sofi Lorentzen discussing the text to Sibelius's Fågellek. This week we're talking about consonant combinations and clusters, including:
DJ, GJ and HJ (all the j-glide); LG [lj]; GN [ŋn]; NG [ŋ] and NK [ŋk]; KJ and TJ as well as the soft K [ɕ]; SJ, SKJ, STJ and SK before soft vowels [ɧ]; and the R combinations RD [ɖ], RG [rj], RL [l], RN [ɳ], RS [ʂ] and RT [ʈ].
Our text for today, Fågellek, is by Finnish author Karl August Tavaststjerna, considered the first modern Swedish writer in Finnland. If this link wo...
2011-09-2723 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 42This week we're branching off into a new language--Swedish! In the first of a 2-part series, mezzo-soprano Sofi Lorentzen discusses the vowels and consonants of Swedish, with two songs from Sibelius' Opus 36, No. 4 "Säf, säf, susa" and No.1 "Svarta rosor". The new phonetic letters that we introduce this week are for the letter U [ʉː] & [ɵ] and for the soft K sound [ɕ].
"Säf, säf, susa" is a poem by Gustav Fröding, "Svarta rosor" by Ernst Josephson, a Swedish portrait painter. Composer Jean Sibeluis was Finnish, but most of his songs are to Swedish texts, not surprising since both Finn...
2011-09-1934 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 41Matteo Pais, coach and music coordinator of the Scuola dell'opera italiana in Bologna, joins us this week to talk about two arias from Le nozze di Figaro, Susanna's 4th act aria "Deh, vieni, non tardar" and Cherubino's first aria "Non so più cosa son". We concentrate on Rs in every position, the letter G and what to do when there are millions of vowels in a row.
The libretto for Le nozze di Figaro is can be found at the Opera Guide website here--sometimes it defaults to the main entry page, so you may have to click on Libretto and t...
2011-09-1231 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 40English Diction is our topic this week, covering the texts to "The Roadside Fire" and the aria "Iris, hence away" from Händel's Semele with vocal coach Mark Lawson, contralto Rebecca Raffell and tenor Donald George. Our focus is on what to do with Rs, WH words, the crazy spelling in English and some differences between American Standard and British Received pronunciation. Some of the new phonetic symbols referred to on this episode are [ɝ] and [ɚ] (for those Rs in diphthongs and triphthongs) and [ɒ] (for the British open back rounded vowel).
The Roadside Fire is the 11th poem in Robert Louis Stev...
2011-09-0535 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 39Happy neue Spielzeit! We're back from summer vacation discussing German diction, covering the texts to "Die Lotoblume" and "Liebst du um Schönheit" with tenor Mirko Roschkowski and coach Hans Sotin. We concentrate on the assimilation of consonants and also discuss and compare some common open and closed Es with soprano Karen Bandelow.
"Die Lotosblume" is a Heinrich Heine poem set by many composers, the most familiar setting by Robert Schumann (part of Myrthen, Op. 25). The poem "Liebst du um Schönheit" was written by Friedrich Rückert, and also set by many composers--the ones by Gustav Mahler (as the 5th...
2011-08-2932 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 38 - Special EditionWe're back to basics again today! Conductor Jonathan Darlington reminds us what all the other markings in the score are about--from tempo indications to metronome markings to rubato and col canto, we discuss what composers are trying to tell us, and compare the markings a little between Italian, French and German.
There are many online dictionaries of musical terms, but the best one I found for our purposes was from the Dolmetsch Organization. They have all the terms we referred to in this podcast, and also have the French and German equivalents most of the time. There are also many...
2011-07-1134 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 37This week, Spanish bel canto tenor José Bros works through the texts of "La maja y el ruiseñor" and "La maja dolorosa No. 3" with us. We're concentrating on diphthongs and other instances when vowels in Spanish come together, which happens quite a lot! We also talk about the difference between [nj] and [ɲ].
Here is the text for Enrique Granados' Goyescas (this libretto is sideways, so it's probably easier to print out to read!); the aria "La maja y el ruiseñor" starts Cadro III on page 28. The text for "La maja dolorosa No. 3" is here. For anyone interested in seei...
2011-06-1337 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 36Russian Diction is our topic this week--baritone Dmitri Vargin helps us work through the text to Onegin's aria "Вы мне писали... Когда бы жизнь домашним кругом". Our focus this time is on unstressed Os in every position.
Finally there's a working link to this libretto that doesn't need to be downloaded! So here is the libretto for Евгений Онегин, scroll down to "page" 37 to find the recitative and aria for today. If you have the book Russian Songs and Arias, be aware of two typos in their transcription of this aria:
In the first line, кругом has the wrong stressed syllable so the O is unstressed
On the second page of it, the seventh line, годам also has the wrong stressed...
2011-05-2632 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 35This week we're covering German diction again, with baritone Christoph Pohl and vocal coach Michael Schütze, focusing on the texts to "Mondnacht" and "Die Mainacht". The episode started off being about open and closed Ü, and ended up branching out in a few different directions, including double consonants and open and closed U and I.
The text to Josef von Eichendorff's poem "Mondnacht" can be found here. It has been set by many composers, but the version most people know best is by Robert Schumann in his Liederkreis Op 39. Our second text is "Die Mainacht", a poem by Ludwig Heinrich Ch...
2011-05-1628 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 34Early music specialist Andrea Marchiol is our guest this week, discussing the texts to "Piangerò" from Händel's Giulio Cesare and the Prologue to Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. We concentrate on the accidental doubling of consonants, open and closed E's and O's (as usual!) and talk a little about the different styles of recitative throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Giulio Cesare libretto is here--along the left hand margin, scroll down and click on Act 3 Scene 3 for "E pur così in un giorno...Piangerò". The text to L'Orfeo is here, and our text is La Musica's Prologo.
The websites I mentioned earl...
2011-05-0332 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 33In the second episode of our two-part discussion of French liaison, Dr. Francois Germain takes us through the text of "Chanson triste", with a focus on verbs in the future tense as well as the pronunciation of consonants in liaison.
Chanson triste is one of Henri Duparc's early songs, set to a text by Henri Cazalis under the penname of Jean Lahor. The score to Chanson triste is also available online at the International Music Score Library--make sure that you know the copyright laws of your country before you download anything, in most of the world copyright is held 50-70 yea...
2011-04-1726 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 32Happy Anniversary to The Diction Police! I started this podcast on April 1, 2010, so this week marks the first episode of our second year!
Episode 32 is the first of a two-part discussion with French vocal coach Francois Germain focusing mainly on liaisons, with some exceptional words in French and the pronunciation of future verbs.
Our text this week is En sourdine, a Paul Verlaine poem. The resources that we talk about on this episode are Thomas Grubb's Singing in French and Pierre Bernac's The Interpretation of French Song, and I also found an article by Thomas Grubb entitled "What does the vocal...
2011-04-0329 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 31This week is the other half of my conversation with Tuscan tenor Giorgio Berrugi. Our texts today are Christoph Willibald Gluck's "O del mio dolce ardor" and Petrarch's Sonnet 104, "Pace non trovo." We talk about whether or not to use glottals in Italian (spoiler-the answer is NO!), some irregular verbs you may run across, some standard suffixes with stressed E and the importance of knowing every meaning of your lines in an opera.
You can find both texts for today at the Lied and Art Song Texts Page. "O del mio dolce ardor" is from the opera Paride ed Elena, a...
2011-03-2831 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 30Castilian Spanish is our focus this week, with Basque soprano Vanessa Goikoetxea. Our texts for today are the Zarzuela tenor aria "No puede ser" and the Obradors song "Al amor". This time we are concentrating on the S, C and Z, and the LL in Castilian Spanish.
The text for "No puede ser" can be found here, as well as a brief history of Zarzuela and a short biography of the composer, Pablo Sorozábal. The text to "Al amor" can be found at the Lied and Art Song Texts Page, and I found the original Catullus poem that it's bas...
2011-03-1422 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 29This week we are back to German Diction with vocal coach Michael Schütze and baritone Christoph Pohl. We focus on the text to Agathe's Aria "Wie nahte mir der Schlummer... Leise, leise" from Der Freischütz and Heinrich Heine's poem "Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'" from Dichterliebe. Since German has so many of them, this week we are concentrating on consonants! Double consonants, 2 in a row, 3 in a row, with some ideas on how to practice them, as well as the genitive (possessive) S.
You can find the libretto for Der Freischütz here, just scroll down to musi...
2011-02-2727 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 28Our first episode on Czech diction! This week conductor Tomáš Netopil is our guest, discussing two texts from Rusalka, the Song to the Moon (Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém) and the Prince's first act aria (Vidino divná). Since many people are less familiar with the Czech language, we tried to cover a lot of the basics, while concentrating on things foreigners have trouble with like the palatal D [ɟ]and T[c], the voiced H [ɦ] and the accent markings on vowels and consonants, including our favorite Czech letter ř [Ř]!
You can find a libretto for the first act of Rusalka which also has...
2011-02-0632 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 27Happy 2011! We're starting back up again with a discussion of "Un'aura amorosa" and "De' miei bollenti spiriti" with tenor Giorgio Berrugi. We concentrate on some common suffixes with stressed o (-oro, -ore and -oso), intervocalic S and using consonants to create expression.
Here are links to the libretti for Così fan tutte (scroll down to Aria No. 17) and La Traviata (scroll down to the opening of Act II). Just for the sake of clarity, on this episode we translated the word "esca" as "hook", but I double-checked this with my Harpers Collins Sansoni dictionary and the definition there is "bait, enti...
2011-01-3027 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 26-Bel CantoBefore we go on holiday break, I wanted to get another Special Edition of The Diction Police, this time on Bel Canto music. Tenor Javier Camarena and basso buffo Carlo Lepore give us tips on how to practice coloratura and patter, while conductors Henrik Nánási and Erik Nielsen talk about Bel Canto style, cadenzas and what young singers can do to prepare themselves better.
We'll be back mid-January with new episodes--I already have several interviews lined up for this month, including one on Czech diction! Meanwhile, have a wonderful holiday season, stay warm and see you next year!
Ellen
2010-12-0440 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 25This week we are back to Russian Diction, with Siberian-born tenor Andrej Dunaev, discussing the texts to two Rachmaninoff songs, Opus 14 No 1 "Я жду тебя" (I Wait for You) and No 14 "Весенние воды" (Spring Waters). We concentrate on the й (I-kratkoe), the devoicing of consonants, the hard sign ъ (not to be confused with the soft sign ь or the vowel ы!), another way to write the JE vowel - ѣ and a little on the soft consonant щ.
Since I'm a big fan of trying to read the Cyrillic, here are the links to the texts for "Я жду тебя" and "Весенние воды" in Cyrillic. If you prefer, there are links directly under the texts to get the Roman alphabet transliterations...
2010-12-0431 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 24We finish up our 2-part series on Hungarian diction this week, concentrating on Zoltán Kodály's "A csitári hegyek alatt" with Zoltán Nyári and Henrik Nánási. This week our focus is on the consonants, especially the fun combinations of GY [Ɉ], TY [c], NY [ɲ] and LY [j]; and the variations of S [ʃ], ZS [ʒ], SZ [s], CS [tʃ] and C [ts].
Here is a link to the text for this week, and I also found these YouTube clips of it in performance as a solo with piano and as a duet with orchestra--there are also many other clips availabl...
2010-11-1325 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 23At least Episode 23 is up! Sorry for the delay, and for the static that you will sometimes hear on the podcast!
This week is the first of a 2-part series on Hungarian diction, discussing some text from Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle (Kéksakállú herceg vára) with conductor Henrik Nánási and tenor Zoltán Nyári. Here is a link to an online libretto--we chose the first two long passages of Kéksakállú and the first long passage of Judit. If you have downloaded this on iTunes, I added the text to the Lyrics tab under Get Info, hopefu...
2010-11-0822 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 22This week we are discussing long and short syllables in German with mezzo-soprano Tanja Baumgartner, tenor Virgil Hartinger and Uta Mücksch, a prompter at the Semperoper. The texts for today's episode are "Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen" from Der Freischütz and "Waldesgespräch", by German romantic poet Josef von Eichendorff, one of the most famous pieces from Schumann's Liederkreis Op. 39.
If you are interested in Pennsylfaanich Deitsch, there is actually a Wikipedia page, both in the language and about the language. There are many different spellings and pronunciations, so it's fun to look at! Plus, tenor Kenneth Riegel comm...
2010-10-2931 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 21French-Swiss soprano Nathalie de Montmollin is back to talk about three poems of Paul Verlaine, one of the greatest French poets of the 19th century. We concentrate on some of the mixed vowels, especially [œ] and [ø] again, the letter X, and go over some of the confusing spellings that make up French!
Our texts for today are "Mandoline", "Prison" (or "Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit"), and "Green". At Art Song Central you can find the music for many art songs in pdf form, and also the IPA as well. I'm a big fan of doing your own transcriptions, but these can b...
2010-10-2229 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 20Episode 20 is our first discussion of Spanish Lyric Diction, with Pablo Assante, the chorus master at the Semperoper in Dresden. We discuss some of the differences between Spanish and Italian, as well as the differences between Castilian and Argentinean Spanish, the letters B (which can be transcribed as [b] or [β]), D ([d] or [ð]), the unvoiced TH pronunciation of C and Z [θ] and the aspirate S used in Spain.
Our texts for today are the Obradors' song "Del cabello más sutil" and "Bonita rama de sauce" set by Argentinean composer Carlos Guastavino. In "Bonita rama de sauce", the word that looks like "...
2010-10-1628 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 19Italian Diction is back this week with conductor Matteo Beltrami from Milan. The texts for this week are "Tutte le feste al tempio" from the second act duet in Rigoletto and Dorabella's "Smanie implacabili" from Così fan tutte, and we talk about when to voice or unvoice the S, the imperfect verb ending -EVA and the problem of rolling Rs! Maestro Beltrami also talks about the importance of text in recitative.
For the text to "Tutte le festi al tempio" click here and scroll down to No 10-Scena e Duetto. For the text to "Smanie implacabili" click here and scroll d...
2010-09-2528 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 18Today we're talking with Siberian-born tenor Andrej Dunaev about the text to Lensky's Aria from Yevgény Onégin. We concentrate on the vowels e [jɛ] and ё [jo], the hard consonant ж [ʒ] and the soft sign ь.
For the text to Lensky's aria, you can download the libretto for the opera through the Wikipedia page here. Just scroll down to "External links" at the bottom and click on "Russian libretto in zip file for Word". I mention on the podcast that the Tenor Anthology has a lot of extra soft signs--I've discovered an older piano/vocal score online here (scroll down to page 58) th...
2010-09-1730 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 17Since we talked so much last week about studying the diction of your native language, I thought it only fitting that we discuss a little English Diction today! Our guests are Mark Lawson, an American coach on the music staff of the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and Aaron Pegram, an American tenor in the ensemble at the Semperoper in Dresden. Our texts today are "Take O Take Those Lips Away" and Stephen Foster's "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair". We concentrate on the American diphthongs and how to handle the Rs when singing in English.
You can find the texts...
2010-09-1030 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 16In Episode 16 we discuss the texts to "Avant de quitter" and Marguerite's "Jewel Aria" from Gounod's Faust with French-Canadian coach Nathalie Doucet. We talk about some letter combinations that make the J-glide (or Jot), compare OE, O-slash and the schwa, and discuss why you should study the diction of your own native language and some of the differences between Canadian-French and French spoken in France.
For an online libretto to Faust click here. For Valentin's aria, "Avant de quitter", scroll down to No. 6-Scène et Récitatif, for Marguerite's "Jewel Aria" scroll down to No. 14-Air des bijoux, the recita...
2010-09-0430 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 15This week we concentrate on the German CH in all its forms, with mezzo-soprano Tanja Baumgartner and tenors Virgil Hartinger and Mirko Roschkowski. The texts for this week are the Komponist (Composer) Aria from Ariadne auf Naxos and the Brahms Lied "Von ewiger Liebe".
You can find an online libretto for Ariadne auf Naxos here, just scroll down almost halfway to "Seien wir wieder gut", and for the text to "Von ewiger Liebe" click here or follow the link at the right to the Lieder and Art Songs Text Page.
For those of you interested in the German version of "Rock...
2010-08-2830 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 14Welcome back from the summer! Here's the first episode of the new opera season, a discussion of Italian recitative with coach Felice Venanzoni. We focus on the recit before "Là ci darem la mano" and the aria "Non mi dir" from Mozart's Don Giovanni. We talk about many diction details, but also about recitatives in general and how to approach learning and performing them.
There is an online libretto of Don Giovanni here, just scroll down after Nr. 6 Aria for the recitative and Nr. 23 Recitativo ed Aria for "Non mi dir".
On this episode, I also talk about 7 steps to le...
2010-08-2032 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 13 - Special EditionIn this special edition of The Diction Police, we discuss studying and working in both the US and Germany with Americans Stephanie Woodling Bucher and Timothy Oliver and Australian James Martin. We talk about how our careers got started and give some tips on how to prepare yourself for the professional world.
The resources mentioned in the podcast include:
Opera America, whose members have access to a comprehensive list of American opera companies and many international ones, including Young Artist information, chorus auditions, job listings and contact names and addresses throught Opera Source.
Musical America, a yearly publication and website...
2010-06-2539 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 12This week we discuss German diction with Mirko Roschkowski and Clemens Posselt, working through the texts to "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai" from Schumann's Dichterliebe and "O du, mein holder Abendstern" from Wagner's Tannhäuser. We focus on the sound NG, SP at the beginning of words and a few regular inseparable prefixes.
The text to "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai" is here, and I found an online libretto for Tannhäuser here. Just scroll down to the Zweite Szene for Wolfram's aria.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them here, on the Facebook page or c...
2010-06-1829 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 11Back to German Diction, with the texts to Strauss' "Zueignung" and the first two poems of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben. Our guests this week are Rainer Mühlbach and Stephanie Atanasov, and we review some sounds that we've already talked about, like Äs and Ls, and also talk about the prefix ZU- (so that no one will ever mispronounce "Zueignung" again!) and the suffix -IG.
Texts for these songs can be found at The LiederNet Archive.
If you have any questions or comments for me, feel free to leave them here, at the Facebook page or write me dir...
2010-06-1126 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 10This week we talk about Russian Diction with Maria Fontosh. First we discuss the text to Tatjana's Aria from Yevgeny (Eugene) Onegin and then we go through the alphabet to try to take some of the fear out of reading Cyrillic! We focus on a, я and unstressed o.
The only online Russian libretto I found for Onegin is a zip file you can download at the end of the Wikipedia Article. This is the text I refer to when I mention "paragraphs" in the episode.
The Wikipedia page for the Russian alphabet with a very general outline of spoken diction r...
2010-06-0431 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 9French Diction is our topic this week--we concentrate on the texts to "À Chloris" by Reynaldo Hahn and "Chanson à boire" from Ravel's Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, with a discussion of the nasal vowels and bright [a] and dark [ɑ] with Dr. Francois Germain, a coach and French Diction teacher on the faculty of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.
You can find the texts to these songs at The LiederNet Archive.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me here, on the Facebook page, or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
2010-05-2830 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 8"Auch kleine Dinge" and "Die Nacht" are our texts this week, with Nadja Mchantaf and Mirko Roschkowski. We talk a little about what to do with Ts and Ds that follow one another ("und duftet doch"), some open and closed Us, and show you a few words with ß that crop up in many Lieder.
The texts for these songs can be found at The LiederNet Archive. Auch kleine Dinge is actually found under the title Le cose piccoline. If you are interested in Der kleine Hey, the ISBN for the book is 3-7957-8702-5, and for the DVD 3-79...
2010-05-2134 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 7This week we work through 2 arias from Il barbiere di Siviglia--"La calunnia" and "Una voce poco fa". Our guest is Andrea Sanguineti, an Italian coach/conductor with the Staatsoper Hannover, and we talk about the letters C and G in Italian and some standard suffixes with stressed E and O.
There is an online libretto for Il barbiere di Siviglia here, just click under Act 1, Scene 5 Cavatina for Una voce poco fa, or Act 1, Scene 8 Aria for La calunnia. If you are interested in the podcast "Audio storie, fiabe e favole per bambini", you'll find the link here.
2010-05-1431 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 5In Episode 5 we talk with Nathalie de Montmollin about French Diction in 2 Fauré songs, Mai and Aprés un rêve. We specifically talk about the letters E and I, mute E, the nasal vowels, and some rules about obligatory, forbidden and optional liaison. You'll see this is a longer episode--I've also included an interview with Philip Shepard, author of What the Fach?!, on working in opera in the German-speaking countries and in the US for both singers and coaches, and there was so much useful information that I hope you will forgive me for going well over the half-hour time l...
2010-04-3049 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 4This week we work through Gretchen am Spinnrade with Netta Or and Die Post with Markus Marquardt, and then discuss German Diction in a more general way with coach Hans Sotin. We talk a little more about open and closed U and Ü and devoicing consonants.
If you need the texts, follow the link to the Lied and Art Song Text Page at the right.
Feel free to leave comments here, at the Facebook page, or you can send me specific questions at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
2010-04-2329 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 3This weeks show contains 3 arias from Die Zauberflöte: "Ach, ich fühl's" with Nadja Mchantaf; "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" with Oliver Ringelhahn; and "Papageno's Suicide" with Markus Marquardt. We'll be concentrating on 3 specific sounds: the letter ä, the letter r in many positions, and the German schwa.
If you want to follow the text, you can find an online libretto at this Opera Guide website or if you would like to see the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (the critical edition of the full score), you can find that through the website of the Mozarteum--click Ja that you are only using this...
2010-04-1532 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 2In Episode 2 we concentrate on Le Violette (from 24 Italian Songs and Arias), Il fervido desiderio (Bellini), and O del mio amato ben (Donaudy), and discuss some basic rules of Italian diction with Fabio Centanni, an Italian coach who accompanies Renata Scotto's Opera Studio in Rome!
The texts are available from the LiederNet Archive by clicking on the titles above.
Feel free to leave comments here or you can write to me with specific questions at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
2010-04-0329 minThe Diction PoliceEpisode 1Well, here it is! In Episode 1 we discuss the texts of "Heidenröslein" and "Der Gärtner" with Nadja Mchantaf and Hans Sotin, focusing on the long vowel [øː] and the short [œ], and talk with conductor Rainer Mühlbach about singing in German. Hope you enjoy it!
The texts are available from the LiederNet Archive, "Heidenröslein" and "Der Gärtner".
Please feel free to leave comments here or to write to me at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
2010-04-0128 min