In this episode, Jason Nedecky is back to talk about unstressed vowels, the consonant cluster 'str', and triphthongs, using Purcell’s "Strike the viol".

The Diction Police website offers phonetic transcripts of texts, with word-for-word and poetic translations, text readings by native speaking opera professionals, along with a variety of video tutorials that are useful for both professional singers and for teachers to supplement their diction classes. The Diction Police was founded on the principal of native speakers pronouncing and discussing the diction of their own languages, and we continuously strive to offer the highest quality lyric diction resource possible.

Over the past 9 years of the podcast, we’ve now comprehensively covered the four main singing languages as well as many others, so from now on we’ll be releasing new episodes less regularly and only cover special topics, such as rare languages and dialects. All the previous episodes of the podcast will be available on iTunes and at the website, and all of our other resources and materials will still be available on the website through individual and studio subscriptions and now also through university library subscriptions!

Talk to your teacher about getting a subscription for your school or inquire for more information at info@dictionpolice.com

In Episode 114, Jason Nedecky leads us through the text to Purcell's "What can we poor females do?", talking about long vowels, the Daniel Sitteth rule, and the difference between the [ʌ] vowel and [ə]. 

 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com ! 

In this episode, Dr. François Germain and I discuss the text to Paul Verlaine's "Clair de lune", which has been set by many composers, focusing on mixed vowels, the phonetic [k] sound, and some of the digraphs that make up French spelling. This is the audio version of the video tutorial.

 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com !

Welcome 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 learn music and have added a page to this website to list them out and explain them a little more fully than in the podcast. I hope you find them useful! You can find this page by clicking here or following the permanent link to the right. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me here, on the Facebook page, or to write me directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

In 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, which contains contact information for over 14,000 performing arts organizations in the United States and abroad. Deutsches Bühnenjahrbuch, which is unfortunately still not available online anywhere I can find, but this book contains a comprehensive listing of theaters in the German-speaking countries, plus agencies and all performers working in those theaters (including me!). What the Fach?! The Definitive Guide for Opera Professionals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by Philip Shepard. This book has interviews with professionals working in Europe, lists of agencies and houses, as well as a plethora of information about setting up audition tours and moving to, working and living in Germany. You can also follow What the Fach on Twitter. NYIOP is the acronym for the New York International Opera Auditions. For a rather substantial fee, singers may have the opportunity to sing for groups of international opera company representatives, after a screening audition. The fee pays for the travel and housing of the panel, which is still considerably less than the costs accrued by an audition tour in Europe. While these auditions may not be for everyone, I do have several friends who have either gotten a fest contract, a guest contract or an invitation to audition in an opera house after having done the NYIOPs, so it has worked for some people. There are also NYIOPs set up in several different cities in Europe as well, including Vienna and Napoli. After this I'll be on break for the summer, so the next episode will be posted on August 20, 2010. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with questions, comments or suggestions at ellen@ellenrissinger.com Have a great summer!

This 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 contact me directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

Back 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 directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

This 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 rules is here, and I also found another website where you can click to hear the letters pronounced here. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me here, on the Facebook page, or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

French 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

"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 3-7957-6089-5. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me here, at the Facebook page, or email me at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

This 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.  Please feel free to leave comments here, on the Facebook page, or to contact me directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

This week we discuss the texts to Orlovsky's Aria from Die Fledermaus and "Morgens steh' ich auf und frage" (from Schumann's Liederkreis op. 24) with Stephanie Atanasov and Markus Marquardt. We also talk about diphthongs and the pronunciation of the letter S before T and P with coach Markus Henn.  There is an online libretto for Die Fledermaus at the Opera Guide here, just scroll down to No. 7 Couplet for Orlovsky's Aria, and the text for "Morgens steh' ich auf und frage" can be found from the LiederNet Archive 

In 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 limit!  You can find the texts the LiederNet Archive by clicking on the song titles. For more information about the French liaison, I found a website with a complete list of liaison rules in French here. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or email me at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

In this episode, diction coach Elizabeth Brodovitch introduces us to the Auvergnat language, through the text to "Baïlero", one of the Chants d'Auvergne by Canteloube. This is the audio version--the full video tutorial is available at  dictionpolice.com !

This 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

This 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 for study purposes, and then look for Die Zauberflöte under Bühnenwerke. As always, please feel free to send me any questions at ellen@ellenrissinger.com Viel Spaß!

In 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

Well, 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

Matteo Pais talks through the text to "Quando me'n vo'", Musetta's aria from La Bohème with us, talking about double and single consonants, some standard closed [e] endings, and pitching voiced consonants and glides. 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com

Since it's Messiah season, we wanted to post another aria for the basses! Jason Nedecky works through the text to "The people that walked in darkness" and it's preceding recitative, with an emphasis on handling 'r', the [æ] vowel, and aspirate 't'. This is the audio version of the video tutorial.

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com

In Episode 101, Dr. François Germain and I talk about the text to "En fermant les yeux", the tenor aria from Massenet's Manon, focusing on nasal vowels and some normal spellings that may look complicated. This is the audio version of the podcast. For all of The Diction Police's resources, come to dictionpolice.com!

This week, Mirko Roschkowski is with us to discuss the first song in Die schöne Müllerin, "Das Wandern". We talk about how to handle strophic texts, as well as long and short vowels and the different possible pronunciations of R. This week’s Diction Lesson on the Facebook page also covered the topic of R, so please check that out, too!

 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com

In this episode, Jason Nedecky and I work our way through the text to Handel’s "The Trumpet Shall Sound" from Messiah, talking about the letter 'L', a little bit about glottals, and when to knowingly break the rules of lyric diction! 

The NY Times article that I mentioned, entitled "In Handel's 'Messiah', the trumpet as divine agent" is available here.

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com

Happy Spielzeit! With the new school year/opera season upon us, it's time for some new episodes! This is the audio version of this episode--a full video tutorial is also available.

In Episode 97, Dr. François Germain leads us through the text to "Va, laisse couler mes larmes" from Werther, focusing on bright A, a little bit about nasal vowels, and a lot of subtext on this aria. For more information, go to dictionpolice.com

In Episode 96, Dr. François Germain works through the text to Debussy’s "Nuit d’étoiles" with us, talking about the French schwa and when it’s not pronounced, the various combinations of 'ie', and a little on liaisons and elision. There are two versions of this episode—the full video tutorial or the audio version for people prefer to listen to podcasts while they’re out and about. This is the last episode before summer break--we'll be back with all new episodes on Aug 26, 2017! 

In the meantime, for all of The Diction Police podcasts, Text Readings, and PDFs with phonetic transcriptions as well as translations into several languages, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

This week, Simone di Felice discusses the text to Scarlatti's "O cessate di piagarmi", focusing on phrasal doubling, the double consonant [∫], and some spelling rules for the letter 'c'.

For more Video Tutorials, Text Readings, and PDFs with phonetic transcriptions as well as translations into several languages, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

It’s the start of the opera season and the school year in most places, and we’re kicking off our 9th Season with Dr. François Germain! Using Duparc’s "Phydilé", we focus on the final schwas in French, the '–ill' and '–il' spellings, plus the pronunciation of the third person plural as opposed to the gerund form in verb conjugations.

 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com ! 

In Episode 94 Jason Nedecky discusses "Where e'er you walk", one of the most famous arias from Handel’s Semele, concentrating a lot on the different forms the letter 'r' can take. This is the audio version of the podcast for people prefer to listen to podcasts while they’re out and about.

For more Video Tutorials, Text Readings, and PDFs with phonetic transcriptions as well as translations into several languages, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

Episode 93 covers Heinrich Heine's text "Du bist wie eine Blume", which has been set over 380 times! Mirko Roschkowski leads us through it, focusing on the vowels [ə] and [ɐ], the difference between [ʃ] and [ç], and some phrases where back-to-back [t] and [d] need to be clearly articulated.

For more Video Tutorials, Text Readings, and PDFs with phonetic transcriptions as well as translations into several languages, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

This week, François Germain reads the text to "Après un rêve", and we talk about what happens to nasal vowels in liaison, the difference between [ɑ̃] and [õ], and open and closed vowels in French.

For more Video Tutorials and Text Readings, as well as our Facebook Diction Lessons and Tongue Twisters for Singers series, or for the accompanying PDF for this Tutorial, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

In Episode 91, Simone di Felice and I work through the text to Alessandro Scarlatti's "Già il sole dal Gange", talking a lot about consonants! This is the audio version of the SDU Tutorial.

For more Video Tutorials and Text Readings, as well as our Facebook Diction Lessons and Tongue Twisters for Singers series, or for the accompanying PDF for this Tutorial, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

In Episode 90, Jason Nedecky and I focus on the text to Purcell's "Sweeter than Roses", written as incidental music for Richard Norton's Pausanius, Betrayer of His Country. We concentrate on the different forms of the letter 'i' (both spelling and phonetic), some pronunciation shifts between American Standard and British Received Pronunciation, and glottals. This is the audio version of the podcast.

For more Video Tutorials and Text Readings, as well as our Facebook Diction Lessons and Tongue Twisters for Singers series, or for the accompanying PDF for this Tutorial, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, what better way to celebrate than to discuss the text to "Widmung" (Dedication)?! Mirko Roschkowski joins us to work through the lyric diction rules that come up, focusing on long and short vowels, Auslautverhärtung, and the different possibilities of the letter 'r'. This is the audio version of the podcast.

For more Video Tutorials and Text Readings, or for the accompanying PDF for this Tutorial, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

Happy 2017! We're starting off the year with some French Diction, discussing the text to Paul Verlaine's "En sourdine" with Dr. François Germain. This episode focuses on the letters 'c' and 'u', as well as some exceptional pronunciations like "sens" and "solennel". This is the audio version of the full video tutorial.

 

For more Video Tutorials and Text Readings, or for the accompanying PDF for this Tutorial, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

In Episode 87, Simone di Felice helps us work through the text to "O del mio dolce ardor" from the 24 Italian Songs, focusing on phrasal diphthongs, the bright [a] vowel, and the LMNR rule. This is the audio version of the full video tutorial. 

This will be our last episode before our Holiday break--we'll be back on January 28, 2017, with all new episodes! In the meantime, we wish everyone a wonderful holiday and a very happy and successful New Year!

For more Video Tutorials and Text Readings, or for the accompanying PDF for this Tutorial, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

In Episode 86, Jason Nedecky and I work through the text to Purcell's "Sound the Trumpet", focusing on diphthongs, glottals, and the unstressed open [ɪ] in English Diction. This is the audio version of the podcast.

I had also promised to post some of the articles on sleep that I've seen over the years:

Sleep and learning

Sleep and Preventing Illness

Health benefits of sleep

There are lots more, I'll be posting them on the Facebook page all week!

For more Video Tutorials and Text Readings, or for the accompanying PDF for this Tutorial, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

Since I just started a production of Les contes d'Hoffmann, we thought it would be the perfect time for some French Diction! Dr. François Germain and I discuss the text to Duparc's "Soupir", covering some of the digraphs in French and the concept of "déplacement de l'accent tonique"--the displacement of the tonic accent. This is the audio version of the Tutorial. The full video Tutorial is also available. For more Video Tutorials and Text Readings, or for the accompanying PDF for this Tutorial, please visit us at www.dictionpolice.com . You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook and Twitter.

This will be our last episode for this season, and we wanted to do something special—so this will be our first Russian episode with a video tutorial! Ekaterina Sapega-Klein leads us through the text to Olga’s aria from Yevgeniy Onegin, talking about devoicing consonants, palatalized consonants, and what happens when a soft sign meets a vowel that starts with a j-glide. This is the audio version of the video tutorial.

In the episode I talk about the difference between a palatal consonant and a palatalized consonant--for the Wikipedia entry on this topic, click here.

The Diction Police podcast will start back up again at the end of August!

'Tis just about the Messiah season, and time to start working on our diction for it! This week's Tutorial covers "O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion", focusing on what happens when 't's and 'd's come together and how to deal with 'r's in English Diction with Jason Nedecky. We have already worked through some of the Messiah arias on the podcast (Comfort Ye Episode 66/Rejoice Greatly Episode 67); the complete Messiah, including IPA transcriptions and text readings by Jason Nedecky (our contributor for this episode), is available at The Diction Police: Special Diction Unit! All of the Special Diction Unit premium content is available at www.dictionpolice.com either by subscription or individually! If there are texts you are looking for that we don't offer yet, please contact us at info@dictionpolice.com to let us know, so that we can develop the repertoire that you need. You can also follow The Diction Police on Facebook or Twitter.

Mirko Roschkowski leads us through the text to "Wir wandelten", focusing on alliteration in German poetry, the difference between "gebe" and "gäbe", and glottals in the middle of words. No need to go looking for the text, because you can follow along with the text and IPA right here! This is the audio version of the podcast--the full tutorial with video is also available. Our new website is live! Be sure to come to www.dictionpolice.com to check it out and subscribe to get all of our Special Diction Unit premium content, like text reading videos (with normal and slow speed text readings), and phonetic transcriptions, including poetic and word-for-word translations! And if there are texts you are looking for that we don't offer yet, please contact us at info@dictionpolice.com to let us know, so that we can develop the repertoire that you need.

In Episode 82 (from The Diction Police: Special Diction Unit), Simone de Felice walks us through the diction rules applicable in Scarlatti's "Se Florindo è fedele". This is the audio version of the tutorial--the full video tutorial is available on iTunes or at our website. Our new website will be going live within a few hours! Be sure to come to www.dictionpolice.com to check it out and subscribe to get all of our premium content, like text reading videos, and IPA transcriptions, as well as poetic and word-for-word translations! And if there are texts you are looking for that we don't offer yet, please contact us at info@dictionpolice.com to let us know, so that we can develop the repertoire that you need.

Episode 81 (from The Diction Police: Special Diction Unit) covers the text to "Villanelle" from Berlioz' Les nuits d'été. Dr. François Germain leads us through the text, focusing on some deceptive pronunciations and liaisons as well as vocalic harmonisation.  This is the audio version of the podcast. For the full video tutorial, click here. We are in the midst of revamping our website, to include text readings as well as subscription capabilities, plus a blog page where you can find all of our Diction Lessons and Tongue Twisters for Singers series all in one place! Keep watching here or at the Facebook page for that to go live--our goal is for September 10, 2016! As always, feel free to contact me here, on Facebook or directly at info@dictionpolice.com

We're back from summer vacation with all-new episodes! This week's episode is from The Diction Police's Special Diction Unit--this is the audio version, for people who want to listen on-the-go. This week we focus on "Who is Sylvia" from Gerald Finzi's Let Us Garlands Bring. The text comes from Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, and we concentrate in the open I [ɪ], as well as the differences and similarities between [ə], [ɜ], and [ʌ], as in the phrase "the dull earth". For the full video Tutorial of this episode, click here. We are in the midst of revamping our website, to include text readings as well as subscription capabilities, plus a blog page where you can find all of our Diction Lessons and Tongue Twisters for Singers series all in one place! Keep watching here or at the Facebook page for that to go live. As always, feel free to contact me here, on Facebook or directly at info@dictionpolice.com

This week's episode is from The Diction Police's Special Diction Unit! This is the audio version of the SDU Video Tutorial, for people who want to listen on-the-go.

Mirko Roschkowski leads us through the text to "Morgengruß" from Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, with readings at normal and slow speeds, as well as our usual Diction Police-style interview and wrap-up. The full IPA transcript, with poetic and word-for-word translation is available for individual sale here. For the full video tutorial of this episode, click here. This will be our last episode before the summer break--we'll be back with all new episodes on Saturday, August 20, 2016. In the meantime, if you missed our Webinar series (The Diction Police: By the Book) on French Lyric Diction, you can watch all 4 episodes on our YouTube channel! Or be sure to like us on Facebook for weekly Diction Lessons and Tongue Twisters for Singers! With comments or questions, please feel free to contact us here, at the Facebook page or directly at info@dictionpolice.com

This week's episode is from The Diction Police's Special Diction Unit! This is the audio version of the SDU video tutorial, for people who want to listen while they are out and about.

François Germain leads us through the text to "Avant de quitter", Valentin's aria from Gounod's Faust, with readings at normal and slow speeds, as well as our usual Diction Police-style interview and wrap-up. The full IPA transcript, with poetic and word-for-word translation is available for individual sale here. For the full video tutorial, click here. Also, don't forget The Diction Police: By the Book webinar series on French Diction continues today (June 11), Wednesday (June 15) and Saturday (June 18) at 11am EDT on Google+ Hangouts--see the FB page for details. We hope you can join us live! The Webinar videos will also be available on our YouTube channel--watch Episode 1 in the series now! With comments or questions, please feel free to contact us here, at the Facebook page or directly at info@dictionpolice.com

This week's episode is from The Diction Police's Special Diction Unit! This is the audio version of the SDU Video Tutorial, for people who want to listen while they are out and about.

Simone di Felice leads us through the text to Conti's Il mio bel foco... Quella fiamma che m'accende, with readings at normal and slow speeds, as well as our usual Diction Police-style interview and wrap-up. The full IPA transcript, with poetic and word-for-word translations is available (in English, French, and German) for individual sale here! For the video version of this episode, click here. Also, don't forget that François Germain is at the Classical Singer convention in Boston right now--stop by The Diction Police table to say hello or to sign up to sing at his master class tomorrow (May 28, 2016) at 11am. With comments or questions, please feel free to contact us here, at the Facebook page or directly at info@dictionpolice.com

Gilles 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 episode are  The Diction Police: Special Diction Unit (SDU) Here we offer: 

• Video Tutorials on songs and arias, including Diction Police-style interviews with leading diction experts
• IPA transcriptions with word-for-word and poetic translations of texts from Art Song, opera and oratorio
• Translations into English, French and German
• Diction Tips
• Skype coachings

The Diction Police: By the Book Our new webinar classes on lyric diction! A great refresher for professionals, an excellent resource for diction teachers looking for new resources for their classes, and a perfect introduction to lyric diction for young singers. Our first Webinar session on French Lyric Diction will be held June 2016. Registration opens soon, so keep checking back for details! And don't forget that François Germain will be giving a master class on French Lyric Diction for the Classical Singer Convention in Boston on May 28th! For exact details, check out the Facebook Event page. Please feel free to contact me here, at the Facebook page, via Twitter, or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

This 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 every time, and in that order, because it will keep reverting!) and then scroll down to No.17 Duo--the aria is just a little beyond that indication. The diction book I mentioned in this episode is the second edition of Jason Nedecky's French Diction for Singers: A Handbook of Pronunciation for French Opera and Mélodie, available from the University of Toronto bookstore. It's a great resource, which includes a list of common spellings and their pronunciations as well as over 7,000 proper names with their phonetic transcriptions! The YouTube that I promised to post is this one, of Gérard Souzay singing "Clair de lune" with Jacqueline Bonneau on the piano. Please feel free to comment below, I would love everyone's opinion as to whether or not you think he is singing "les" open or closed (there are a whole bunch of "les" starting at about 1:55) :-) With questions, comments or suggestions, you can get in touch with me here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

In this episode, baritone Christoph Pohl works through the text to "Ich grolle nicht" with us, talking about Ach- and Ich-lauts, a little bit about glottals, and painting the text by using all of the consonants. We also mention the problematic letter 'L' in German—we recently posted a Diction Lesson on this topic, so if you haven’t seen that yet, make sure to check it out! This is the audio version of the video tutorial.

 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com ! 

In 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 the exercise text, see Dr. Nebert's article "Das einzigartige -IG" and scroll down to page 10 under "Übungstext". The resources and summer programs I talked about in the episode are:

• Dr. Nebert's Sprechatelier--based in Halle, Germany, they have classes in every kind of public speaking in German, from diction lessons to media related speaking to debate and rhetoric, from Hochdeutsch through to every dialect. Dr. Nebert also studied singing as well as speech science. Special thanks to Dr. Nebert for recording his Übungstext for us!
• University of Miami Frost School of Music's summer program in Salzburg, Austria--a 5-week program for young singers and pianists, with many opportunities to take advantage of being in Salzburg during the summer Opera Festival (Festspiel)
• IPAI (The International Performing Arts Institute)--in Kiefersfelden, Germany (near Munich, on the Austrian border), a 3-week program for young singers and pianists with divisions for Classical/Opera and Musical Theater
• IMFA (The International Music Festival of the Adriatic)--in Duino, Italy (near Trieste), a 3-week program for young singers and pianists as well as composers and string players, which makes for a very interesting possibility of vocal chamber music and modern music
• AIMS (American Institute of Musical Studies)--in Graz, Austria, a 6-week program that has been around for over 40 years, for singers and pianists, plus an orchestral program to create their own festival orchestra

Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com