Our first episode on Czech diction! This week conductor Tomáš Netopil is our guest, discussing two texts from Rusalka, the Song to the Moon (Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém) and the Prince's first act aria (Vidino divná). Since many people are less familiar with the Czech language, we tried to cover a lot of the basics, while concentrating on things foreigners have trouble with like the palatal D [ɟ]and T[c], the voiced H [ɦ] and the accent markings on vowels and consonants, including our favorite Czech letter ř [Ř]!

You can find a libretto for the first act of Rusalka which also has an English translation here. The Song to the Moon is about halfway down and the Prince's aria is towards the end of the first act.

Timothy Cheek's Singing in Czech is an excellent resource to study Czech diction. It includes a CD with native speakers pronouncing the examples in the book, as well as an extensive list of Lieder and Opera in Czech and word-for-word translations and IPA for many of the most important songs and arias.

I also found a blog called Czech Mix: Opera Colorado celebrates Czech cultural arts, with some interesting entries about Czech music, Dvorak and a conversation with the Czech language coach for Opera Colorado's production of Rusalka about the challenges of singing in Czech.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me here, on the Facebook page or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com