Explore every episode of the podcast The Diction Police

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 ! 

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 ! 

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!

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 ! 

The Diction Police is just starting its 9th year! Thank you for being a part of it!

This week my partner-in-crime, François Germain, talks about Sophie's aria from Werther, "Frère voyez... Du gai soleil", with an emphasis on consonants that should not be pronounced by often are accidentally, the spelling OY, and how to avoid stressing unstressed syllables. This is the audio version of the video tutorial.

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com ! 

Vocal coach Matteo Pais works through the text to Händel's "Ombra mai fu" from Serse with us, talking about open and closed vowels, glides and diphthongs, and a little about the sound of Italian!

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com !

In Episode 108, Christoph Pohl works through the text to "An die Musik" with us, discussing the open, flying [ʊ], spitting consonants, and how to get the consonants to be part of the legato. This is the audio version of the video tutorial. For more information, go to dictionpolice.com !

This week, Dr. François Germain and I talk about the text to "Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle" from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, with a lot of focus on French grammar and how that can affect pronunciation! This is the audio version of the full video tutorial.

 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com !

In Episode 106, Simone di Felice and I work through "Come raggio di sol" by Antonio Caldara, paying special attention to phrasal diphthongs (that is, when vowels come together between words), the pronunciation of the spelling GI, and some words with intervocalic Ss that are technically considered unvoiced but become voiced in Italian lyric diction. This is the audio version of the full video tutorial.

 

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 !

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 !

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.

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.

'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 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

This 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 that Lydía Zervanos has allowed us the use of some of her texts with IPA and translation for Episode 71 on Greek diction, feel free to download them!

As always, please feel free to contact me here, through the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com (I'm trying something here, not sure if this link will work... if not, please cut and paste into your email program!)

This 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, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

In 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 Podcasts by the Hellenic American Union--a podcast where you can practice listening and learn quite a few useful colloquial phrases in Modern Greek
• Επικοινωνήστε ελληνικά--all in Modern Greek, this is a great book to learn the language from, since you don't have to keep flipping between the Greek alphabet and the Latin one as you're learning; there are 3 main books and 2 workbooks to go along with each of them
• Minos--try this on Spotify! Type in Minos in the Spotify search and under the albums you should get a few listings for Greek Pop music. It's a great way to hear the sounds of the language!

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger

Είμαι 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 alphabet, along with an Americanized form of their names plus the options for their pronunciation (not including the digraphs that we'll talk about on the next episode):

• Α α - alpha [a]
• Β β - vita [v]
• Γ γ - gamma [γ] [ʝ]
• Δ δ - delta [ð]
• Ε ε - epsilon [ε]
• Ζ ζ - zita [z]
• Η η - ita [i]
• Θ θ - thita [θ]
• Ι ι - iota [i] [j] [ç]
• Κ κ - kappa [k] [c]
• Λ λ - lambda [l] [λ]
• Μ μ - mi [m]
• Ν ν - ni [n]
• Ξ ξ - ksi [ks]
• Ο ο - omikron [ɔ]
• Π π - pi [p]
• Ρ ρ - rho [r]
• Σ σ ς - sigma [s] [z]
• Τ τ - tau [t]
• Υ υ - ipsilon [i] [v] [f]
• Φ φ - fi [f]
• Χ χ - xi [x] [ç]
• Ψ ψ - psi [ps]
• Ω ω - omega [ɔ]

Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments or suggestions here, on the Facebook page (and now you can even "like" each separate episode here on the blog!), on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

In 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 fabulous website resources that I mentioned in this episode are: Technology for the Classical Singer, a must-have resource for all of us, with blog postings on everything from foreign language dictionaries to the free treatises on singing at IMSLP to where to find accompaniment tracks. She also has amazing video tutorials to teach us all how to get the most out of our technology! SingersBabel, a diction website with video clips that allow you to see the text and IPA transcription while you listen! Focusing on French, German and English repertoire right now, it has a large selection of pieces to choose from, including Bach Cantatas and choral repertoire! And don't forget to have a good chuckle over Bugs Bunny's classic Rabbit of Seville :-) As always, please feel free to contact me with questions, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

After 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 for Italian. The resources I talked about on this episode were the Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia from RAI (the Italian television station) and the Wikipedia entry for standard suffix endings in Italian, including lists of words ending in -MENTO and -MENTE. The iPad apps that I now use for translation and diction purposes are the Harpers Collins Italian-English Dictionary and lo Zingarelli Italian Dictionary (which also gives open and closed Es and Os for all verb forms!). Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

We'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 recitatives are Nos. 14a, 14b, 15 and 16, "Rejoice Greatly" is No. 18) and the score is available as a free download from the Petrucci Music Library. We talk quite a bit about Madeleine Marshall's book The Singer's Manual of English Diction, which is still one of the most important reference materials for English Diction. If you want a brush-up on the vowel shifts between American Standard and British Received Pronunciation, check out Jason Nedecky's worksheet and for more discussion of the  diphthongs in English, check out Episode 17. I left one completely mispronounced word in there, just for fun, and Miss Kitty Fantastico makes a quick cameo at the beginning that I couldn't help leaving in :-) If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact me here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com NB: I found some new information that I needed to add into this episode, so I redid the episode, in case people are wondering why it's suddenly slightly longer. The word SHONE in British RP should be [ʃɒn] rather than the diphthong [ʃoʊn] that it would be in American Standard. The word SHOWN remains a diphthong in both British RP and American Standard.

As 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 School of Music at Oklahoma City University, focusing on the words COMFORT and SAITH (plus other words that tend to be mispronounced), rolling Rs in the combination CR and GR, the pronunciation of the letter X and a whole lot about schwas. The score for Händel's Messiah can be found as a free download at Petrucci Music Library (IMSLP) and you can find the libretto here ("Comfort Ye... Ev'ry Valley" begins the Messiah). We talk about the word COMFORT quite a bit on this episode and I promised to post YouTubes--I found one with Jerry Hadley singing, this one where tenor Howard Crook sings COMFORT correctly at least once :-) and a very interesting BBC TV show about Comfort Ye with Trevor Pinnock discussing it, Kurt Streit singing. There are, of course, a ton of YouTubes of this recit and aria, have fun listening to them and comparing the diction to what we talk about in the episode! Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com

Today'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); Salome Jews Quintet
• Chorus Scenes--La Bohème 2nd Act; Otello opening; Falstaff Fugue

If anyone has other repertoire that they have found useful, please feel free to post them in the comments section! One thing I didn't mention in the episode is Wolf Trap Opera's Aria Frequency List--they list the arias that were performed with the number of times they heard them. So if you're looking to prepare yourself to accompany audition season in New York City, start learning those arias :-) I'm moving in a few days and not sure when my new DSL will be hooked up, but I'll be working on new episodes in the meantime so that once it's installed we can get back on track! Please feel free to contact me with requests, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page, on Twitter or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com