Gateway to Italian Diction: Vocal Book & CD

$29.99 USD

Gateway to Italian Diction: Vocal Book & CD

Name: Gateway to Italian Diction: Vocal Book & CD
Brand: Alfred Music
SKU: 00-17613
Price: 29.99 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

A Guide for Singers

Ed. John Glenn Paton

Item: 00-17613

$29.99

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As part of a series of coordinated diction manuals and anthologies, this book helps students to move beyond diction to clear understanding and authentic style. Thomas Hampson says the series, "not only achieves an excellent study of the tools for proper translation and diction, it goes much deeper and more importantly to the teaching of musical and poetic expression from the inner side of the language." Every Italian example word or phrase is translated into English and is also spoken perfectly on the included CD by linguist and native Italian Dr. Anna Siragusa.

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Series: Gateway Series

Publisher: Alfred Music

Page Count: 120

ISBN10: 0-7390-3589-4

ISBN13: 978-0-7390-3589-4

UPC: 038081155111

SKU: 00-17613

More about this title

About the Creator: Thomas Hampson (series endorsement); Dr. Anna Siragusa (linguistic consultant and native speaker on CD)

Thomas Hampson stands among the most recorded baritones in history, with a career spanning multiple decades and continents. His deep engagement with the art song repertoire and commitment to linguistic authenticity in performance have made him a vocal pedagogue as much as a performer, influencing how singers approach the relationship between language and music.

Dr. Anna Siragusa brings native fluency and scholarly rigor to the linguistic and phonetic instruction. As both linguist and voice professional, she anchors the series in authentic Italian speech patterns, ensuring that students hear and absorb the sounds from someone for whom the language is native.

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Why we love this

This book succeeds where many diction guides stop short. Rather than treating Italian as a collection of sounds to master in isolation, it invites students into the language's expressive character. The recorded examples from Dr. Siragusa give singers an immediate ear-training resource, eliminating guesswork about vowel purity and consonant placement while modeling how native speakers actually perform the text.

What to expect

Opening this book feels like gaining access to someone's practice journal. The combination of clear instruction, accurate translation, and native-speaker recordings creates an intimate learning environment where Italian moves from a foreign obstacle to a lived, expressive language.

Who it's for

Voice students preparing Italian repertoire for competitions, auditions, or recitals will find this essential. Teachers of vocal technique and art song benefit from having authoritative guidance they can reference with confidence when coaching diction.

How to get the most out of it

Listen to Dr. Siragusa's recordings multiple times before attempting your own interpretation. Let your ear absorb the language first; technique follows naturally when the sound is internalized.
Work the translations alongside the Italian text. Understanding what the words mean frees your voice to shape the line with genuine musical intention rather than mechanical diction.
Record yourself and compare your vowel shapes and consonant articulation to the CD. The immediate feedback loop reveals habits you might not hear in real time.

How to use it

Assign this to voice students during their first engagement with Italian literature, whether that's early art song or operatic arias. Its systematic approach means students can return to specific sections whenever they encounter unfamiliar text, making it a year-long reference tool rather than a one-time study.