Perfect Italian Diction for Singers - by Timothy Cheek & Anna Toccafondi (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Perfect Italian Diction for Singers: An Authoritative Guide provides the steps and tools for singing beautifully and expressively in this language.

Timothy Cheek and Anna Toccafondi systematically home in on the essential features of the most beautiful Italian, pitfalls of non-native singers, and how to overcome those issues. In addition to delving to the heart of Italian sounds and inflection, they present controversies, misconceptions, and various approaches--often conflicting--that have arisen throughout the last century. Chapters also address:

Italian style and legatoBest use of supplemental resources and dictionariesRecitative with suggested, short Mozart excerptsWorking with textSinging diphthongs, triphthongs, and hiatus
Also included are a plethora of audio and video examples and exercises (over seventy QR codes), exercises for group or self-study, and self-assessment summaries. This book will help singers and students lay a solid foundation in beautiful, lyric Italian.

Review Quotes

"Bravo! A book for serious craftspeople in opera. I think of a talented student of opera singing as a diamond in the rough, and perfect Italian diction is the table facet on the brilliant cut. This book makes the cut and polish." --Rockwell Blake, renowned tenor

"Diction can frequently be taught in a way that divorces the techniques of diction from the expressive tools it offers a singer. Cheek and Toccafondi's approach is entirely thorough in its technical breakdown of Italian diction, while never losing sight of the artistic universes that it opens." --Nicholas Phan, esteemed tenor, artistic director, Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago

"We finally have an Italian diction book for 21st-century singers! While being practical and fun, this book includes everything classical singers need to know about singing in Italian and is a must for all classical singers, from beginners to professionals, voice teachers, vocal coaches, and diction teachers alike." --Mutsumi Moteki, professor of vocal coaching, University of Colorado Boulder

"Much more than your typical diction manual, Perfect Italian Diction for Singers is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in singing in Italian. The book provides essential information as well as a clear methodology for putting that knowledge into practice. Comprehensive treatment of even the most subtle and intricate aspects of Italian diction make the book suitable for beginners and advanced students alike." --Salvatore Champagne, esteemed tenor, professor of voice, Oberlin Conservatory

"Perfect Italian Diction for Singers is a stunning foray into the intricacies of accurate and idiomatic reproduction of Italian diction for all levels of singers and professionals alike--it reflects the vast experience of the authors. Not only does it address rules of lyric diction in a comprehensive fashion, but it also investigates the characteristic inflection and elements of style integral to a greater realization of authentic Italian performance. This is an essential tool for all who strive towards the highest levels of Italian repertoire performance, and it will certainly take pride of place on my bookshelf!" --Howard Watkins, assistant conductor, pianist, coach, Metropolitan Opera; The Juilliard School; Bard Conservatory

"This immense, exhaustive work is a fantastic new approach in helping Anglophones understand not only the technical minutiae of Italian language but also explains it in a wonderfully approachable and enjoyable vernacular. I cannot recommend this guide enough." --Chris Merritt, world renowned tenor

"Since its inception, opera has served as a formidable means of spreading the Italian language. Over the centuries the language of opera librettos has followed the evolution of taste and has changed while maintaining a strong link with the classical poetic tradition. Both for its linguistic accuracy and for its cultural richness, Perfect Italian Diction for Singers allows those who approach the Italian vocal repertoire to perfect the study of the language of librettos in a thorough and effective way, through clear examples and up-to-date teaching tools." --Harro Stammerjohann, distinguished linguist; translator; foreign member of the Accademia della Crusca and Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei

"For those who work in the world of singing, both solo and choral, diction is often a difficult problem to solve reliably and securely. This text represents an exhaustive tool for Italian phonetics, providing solid theoretical foundations with truly effective practical exercises. This new text is absolutely indispensable for the serious study of Italian phonetics as applied to singing in all its expressions." --Lorenzo Fratini, chorus master, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

"Cheek, who teaches lyric diction at the University of Michigan, is the author of several books, including Singing in Czech. Toccafondi is Professor of Collaborative Piano at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence; she has worked extensively as instructor of Italian vocal repertoire and diction in both her native Italy and abroad. The combined expertise of the authors is evidenced by the thoroughness of this volume. Singers, coaches, and anyone committed to perfecting their Italian lyric diction will find this book an indispensable tool. It is highly recommended." --Journal of Singing

Bravo! A book for serious craftspeople in opera. I think of a talented student of opera singing as a diamond in the rough, and perfect Italian diction is the table facet on the brilliant cut. This book makes the cut and polish.

Cheek, who teaches lyric diction at the University of Michigan, is the author of several books, including Singing in Czech. Toccafondi is Professor of Collaborative Piano at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence; she has worked extensively as instructor of Italian vocal repertoire and diction in both her native Italy and abroad. The combined expertise of the authors is evidenced by the thoroughness of this volume. Singers, coaches, and anyone committed to perfecting their Italian lyric diction will find this book an indispensable tool. It is highly recommended.

For those who work in the world of singing, both solo and choral, diction is often a difficult problem to solve reliably and securely. This text represents an exhaustive tool for Italian phonetics, providing solid theoretical foundations with truly effective practical exercises. This new text is absolutely indispensable for the serious study of Italian phonetics as applied to singing in all its expressions.

Perfect Italian Diction for Singers is a stunning foray into the intricacies of accurate and idiomatic reproduction of Italian diction for all levels of singers and professionals alike--it reflects the vast experience of the authors. Not only does it address rules of lyric diction in a comprehensive fashion, but it also investigates the characteristic inflection and elements of style integral to a greater realization of authentic Italian performance. This is an essential tool for all who strive towards the highest levels of Italian repertoire performance, and it will certainly take pride of place on my bookshelf!

Since its inception, opera has served as a formidable means of spreading the Italian language. Over the centuries the language of opera librettos has followed the evolution of taste and has changed while maintaining a strong link with the classical poetic tradition. Both for its linguistic accuracy and for its cultural richness, Perfect Italian Diction for Singers allows those who approach the Italian vocal repertoire to perfect the study of the language of librettos in a thorough and effective way, through clear examples and up-to-date teaching tools.

This immense, exhaustive work is a fantastic new approach in helping Anglophones understand not only the technical minutiae of Italian language but also explains it in a wonderfully approachable and enjoyable vernacular. I cannot recommend this guide enough.

About the Author

Timothy Cheek has taught Italian lyric diction at the University of Michigan since 1993. As collaborative pianist, he has performed throughout Italy, and worked for nine years in Tuscan summer vocal programs, both at Cincinnati Conservatory's Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca program and at the University of Michigan's spring term program in Sesto Fiorentino. Cheek has written books on Czech lyric diction and opera, and he is the series editor of Rowman & Littlefield's Lyric Diction series. His long association with Italian pianist/coach Anna Toccafondi extends to over three decades of collaboration and consultation.

Anna Toccafondi performs regularly in major festivals and theaters in Italy, Europe, and Japan. She recently began a cooperation with the Municipality and the Teatro Garibaldi of Modica (Sicily) for the project Cantare in Perfetto Italiano, Singing in Perfect Italian, a series of masterclasses devoted to foreign singers and collaborative pianists. Committed to unpublished or lesser known compositions of the Italian vocal repertoire, Toccafondi has done research, transcriptions, revisions, and recordings of important composers.