I suspect I’m not alone with the following experience. I live in many worlds. I most often exist as an music teaching entertainer, chorus marm, voice teacher spy, transsectional singer, choral section alpha, and traumatic, err I mean, dramatic operatic soprano. My working world is spread out for reasons like ya know paying the bills, health insurance yada yada….gone are the days of being groomed to be a golden age opera heroine…gotta bring home the bacon….
When I DO get to hunker down into my big girl opera britches (which feels like coming home if I’m being honest), I am quickly reminded of the detailed and nuanced work required to learn an opera role.
So I push aside that imposter puppet mocking me on my shoulder and I get to work.
I recall that I indeed studied the efficient tool that is IPA throughout out my various college music degrees and dagnabbit, I’ve got this wordy hochdeutsch.
Thanks to a thorough but kind german opera coach, I made a trip thru Act 1 of Die Walküre yesterday and know even more now what I need to know better.
Now I shall commence in slaying the standout gremlins that enjoy flummoxing my Midwest tongue:
- Find more closed German e
- U inside mouth not on lip (shocking lol)
- Access a less shallow sch
- More open “er” (not French schwa)
- Awareness of elisions
- Umlaut clarity
- Flip Vs rolled R
akintsucrooner 