Russian diction for singing

[Keith Langston]

Dear SEELANGers,

 From what I have been told and from what I think I hear when listening
to recordings of Russian vocalists, I was under the impression that in
singing opera and art songs the vowel reduction is modified: unstressed
e is pronounced [e] and unstressed o and a are pronounced [a],
regardless of position.

However, in the guide to singing in Russian by Jean Piatek and Regina
Avrashov (Russian songs and arias, Dallas TX 1991) they give the exact
same rules as for spoken Russian, with reduction of unstressed e and
the reduction of unstressed o and a to [a] or schwa, depending on the
position.

Can anyone enlighten me about what is the standard practice here?

Thanks,

Keith

***************************************************
Keith Langston
Department Head
Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages
University of Georgia
201 Joseph E. Brown Hall
Athens, GA 30602
706.542.2448, fax 706.583.0349

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