Singing Recitative: Guiding Young Singers in Italian Diction

In his thirty-seven years as vocal coach with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Eric Weimer has worked with many of the greatest Italian opera singers of the day as well as trained several generations of young American singers. In Singing Recitative, he makes his expertise available to singers and coaches everywhere.

Native English speakers frequently exhibit several common misconceptions when learning opera in Italian, particularly in executing recitative, passages where the singer must deliver the text in the rhythm of the spoken language. Weimer illuminates the critical differences between English and Italian accentuation and offers helpful pointers on other key issues, including how to negotiate different types of consonant clusters and how best to execute double consonants.

Utilizing numerous examples drawn from the standard operatic repertoire, Weimer shares the approaches he's developed for performing recitative in a way that's more authentic, more dramatic, and more sung. And, while the book focuses on recitative, the suggestions offered here will improve the clarity and expressiveness of diction throughout any role in Italian.

Singing Recitative is an engaging guide to performing some of the most difficult and enigmatic passages of the operatic repertoire with elegance, skill, and confidence.