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Italian Diction

Italian Diction

How can two well-respected singers of Italian song be compared and scrutinized based on there Italian diction. For example, when Luciano Pavorotti is compared to Mirella Freni, there is some variation of their diction, variations that also vary from the diction we learned in class this quarter. One might think that their personal backround that could account for such differences, however, they were both born in Modena in 1935 and it is even said that they shared the same “wet-nurse” ( whether or not this is true can be left for you to decide).
So if they don’t come from completely different backrounds, then we must start somewhere else. The truth is, although they are both 67 years old, Mirella Freni still sounds as if she is 22. Some even say that if Milanese opera-goers had drunk a sleeping potion instead of champagne at the intermission of their Bohème performance in 1963 and awakened 32 years later, they might have concluded that they had merely nodd...

Posted by: Gina Allred

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