Re: Pronunciation Guide

Those audio clips of Leonard Masters are not gone! They may be heard
here:

http://www.kmfa.org/index_memorabilia.htm

Enjoy... --E.A.C.


On Jan 11, 1:34 pm, "Edward A. Cowan" <eaco...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Second, what's wrong with

someone speaking in English pronouncing "Rigoletto" in English,
any more than saying "Pair-iss" for "Paris"? Imagine an
American English speaker pronouncing "London" with a British
accent--that would be ridiculous, don't you think? <<

Quite so! <g> That is, if there is a distinction between British and
American pronunciation of "London". I cannot detect any. (And, yes, I
have been in London, too...) "Pair-iss" is an established anglicism
for the French city, just as "Warsaw" and "Brussels" are for those
places. (Now why it is that Germans and some other Europeans refer to
the capital city of Estonia as "Reval" instead of "Tallinn," I have no
idea...)

Myself, I picked up pronunciations from recordings of operas, starting
with Bizet's _Carmen_, which was my first opera, and I was eight years
old at the time. A recording of excerpts, with the texts of the
selections, and translations, was soon in my hands, and I picked up
the rudiments of French pronunciation in a completely audio-lingual
way, though it was a long time before I could figure out the meaning
of expressions such as "un oeil noir te regarde", for example (the
Toreador's Song).

FWIW, the story of the sound of Austin's KMFA-FM, with an account of
the contribution of PD and announcer Leonard Masters, may be found
here:http://www.kmfa.org/index_story_sound.htm.
The website used to have a link to archived sound clips of Masters
speaking, but these seem to have disappeared. A pity. --E.A.C.

On Jan 11, 9:38 am, k...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (James Kahn) wrote:

In <b75388dd-ab04-43a4-840b-1c62b499e...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> "Edward A. Cowan" <eaco...@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

I object to the proposition that pronouncing foreign words correctly
in context is necessarily pretentious. To pronounce "Rigoletto,"
listen to a recording in Italian. You will hear both t's pronounced,
as, indeed, all double consonants are in that language. A slight
"roll" on the r is also appropriate. (NOTE: I'm a language person who,
while not fluent in Italian, is at least minimally functional in it
and have used my little Italian in Italy itself...) Remember, too, not
to aspirate the consonants. To me, pronouncing "Rigoletto" as "wriggle-
eta" is simply not correct. To be sure, an over-pronunciation
("rrrrreeegho-LETT-to") is pretentious indeed. (As for wrong
pronunciations, has anybody listened lately to any Italian-language
opera sung by Germanic singers, those who perpetrate "kvess-t(h)o"
etc.?)
Bellini's _Norma_ is rightly pronounced "norr-ma". Marilyn Monroe's
original first name is "Norma" without the trill. <g> --E.A.C.

We're not disagreeing that much. But, first, it's difficult for most
English speakers to pronounce Rigoletto as an Italian would, so
an attempt to do so will often end up exaggerated or botched,
and therefore pretentious-sounding. Second, what's wrong with
someone speaking in English pronouncing "Rigoletto" in English,
any more than saying "Pair-iss" for "Paris"? Imagine an
American English speaker pronouncing "London" with a British
accent--that would be ridiculous, don't you think?
--
Jim
New York, NY
(Please remove "nospam." to get my e-mail address)http://www.panix.com/~kahn

.

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