Happy neue Spielzeit! We're back from summer vacation discussing German diction, covering the texts to "Die Lotoblume" and "Liebst du um Schönheit" with tenor Mirko Roschkowski and coach Hans Sotin. We concentrate on the assimilation of consonants and also discuss and compare some common open and closed Es with soprano Karen Bandelow.

"Die Lotosblume" is a Heinrich Heine poem set by many composers, the most familiar setting by Robert Schumann (part of Myrthen, Op. 25). The poem "Liebst du um Schönheit" was written by Friedrich Rückert, and also set by many composers--the ones by Gustav Mahler (as the 5th song in the cycle Rückert Lieder) and Clara Schumann are both performed very often.

Following a fellow podcaster's advice, I'm trying something new with the audio format, to improve the quality but also lower the file size. I'm not very technologically adept, so hopefully it will work correctly this first time, please let me know if there's a problem!

Feel free to contact me with comments or suggestions either here, at the Facebook page or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com