Italian Diction is back this week with conductor Matteo Beltrami from Milan. The texts for this week are "Tutte le feste al tempio" from the second act duet in Rigoletto and Dorabella's "Smanie implacabili" from Così fan tutte, and we talk about when to voice or unvoice the S, the imperfect verb ending -EVA and the problem of rolling Rs! Maestro Beltrami also talks about the importance of text in recitative.

For the text to "Tutte le festi al tempio" click here and scroll down to No 10-Scena e Duetto. For the text to "Smanie implacabili" click here and scroll down to just before No 11-Aria.

In case you want to read about the life of Lorenzo Da Ponte, here is the Wikipedia link.

There will be no episodes for the next two weeks since I'll be in the US doing some master classes, but TDP will be back on October 15!

As always, please feel free to contact me here, at the Facebook page or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com