Need Help with Opera Libretto Pronunciation?

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland singers make heavy use of IPA Source - it's the International Phonetic Alphabet website for opera pronunciation, available within the Conservatoire. 

It's great for arias, telling you how to pronounce libretti in different languages.  Not
as comprehensive for recitatives, mind you, but the IPA Source team explain that there are other sources for this information:-
 

"One of the main reasons we decided not to offer this material is that it is already available in book form. Here is what I recommend on the our site:

 "http://www.ipasource.com/opera-libretti "

The Leyerle series are cited - we have those - and two more useful websites are listed:-

	Baroque Libretti   A few early libretti
	Libretti d'opera italiani  Dozens of Italian libretti (no translations)

Singers! Instantly track down that Aria - The Aria Database

The Aria Database

Singers will feel right at home here!  Who wrote that aria? What opera is it in? Who wrote the libretto?  Are there recordings?  The Aria Database is a free resource to help you.

Staff and students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will probably be very familiar with IPA Source, which gives you transliterations, phonetic pronunciations and so on.  It's fabulous, but our subscription is only available on campus.  Therefore, The Aria Database might be a useful fallback for those away-days when you need aria information in a hurry.

Save IPA Source (International Phonetic Alphabet) and The Aria Database to your favourites, and you've got arias just about covered!

 

Say what you mean, Sing what was written - IPA Source

IPA Source is a database for singers.  It gives the pronunciations of opera, oratorio and song texts.  Karen has made a short podcast about it.  Here's the YouTube link.

You'll also find the podcast on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Library Mahara pages, so don't worry if you can't find this posting later!

The German Fach System - Different Voice Types

Has your singing teacher referred to the Fach System?  You didn't like to admit it was unfamiliar?  It's the German way of categorising voice types.

Panic not!  We have a book about it in the Whittaker Library:-

What the Fach?! The definitive guide for opera singers auditioning and working in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, by Philip Shepard.  Catalogue details here.

You can also read a page about it on our IPA Source database - the database which gives the IPA pronunciations of opera and song texts.  The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has a subscription, which our staff and students can access online, on campus.  Check it out here:- 

http://www.ipasource.com/

Here's the page about the German Fach system.  (You'll need to be on site to access it.)