Episodes
Monday May 16, 2011
Episode 35
Monday May 16, 2011
Monday May 16, 2011
This week we're covering German diction again, with baritone Christoph Pohl and vocal coach Michael Schütze, focusing on the texts to "Mondnacht" and "Die Mainacht". The episode started off being about open and closed Ü, and ended up branching out in a few different directions, including double consonants and open and closed U and I. The text to Josef von Eichendorff's poem "Mondnacht" can be found here. It has been set by many composers, but the version most people know best is by Robert Schumann in his Liederkreis Op 39. Our second text is "Die Mainacht", a poem by Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty. You'll notice that the text contains 4 verses, but we used the Brahms setting (which is probably the most famous) which only uses Verses 1, 3 and 4. We mention the ß in passing in this episode. If you need a refresher on that, check out episodes 8 and 22, where that topic is covered a little more in-depth. The University of Iowa website that I referred to is here. You can see the side-view tongue diagrams that many diction books contain here in motion, in English and Spanish as well as German. Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments or suggestions here, at the Facebook page or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
Sunday Feb 27, 2011
Episode 29
Sunday Feb 27, 2011
Sunday Feb 27, 2011
This week we are back to German Diction with vocal coach Michael Schütze and baritone Christoph Pohl. We focus on the text to Agathe's Aria "Wie nahte mir der Schlummer... Leise, leise" from Der Freischütz and Heinrich Heine's poem "Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'" from Dichterliebe. Since German has so many of them, this week we are concentrating on consonants! Double consonants, 2 in a row, 3 in a row, with some ideas on how to practice them, as well as the genitive (possessive) S. You can find the libretto for Der Freischütz here, just scroll down to musical number 8-Szene und Arie to find Agathe's aria. The text for "Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'" can be found here. There was also a movie version of Der Freischütz released in December of 2010, hopefully this trailer is viewable all over the world and not copyright protected! Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments here, at the Facebook page or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
Friday Oct 29, 2010
Episode 22
Friday Oct 29, 2010
Friday Oct 29, 2010
This week we are discussing long and short syllables in German with mezzo-soprano Tanja Baumgartner, tenor Virgil Hartinger and Uta Mücksch, a prompter at the Semperoper. The texts for today's episode are "Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen" from Der Freischütz and "Waldesgespräch", by German romantic poet Josef von Eichendorff, one of the most famous pieces from Schumann's Liederkreis Op. 39. If you are interested in Pennsylfaanich Deitsch, there is actually a Wikipedia page, both in the language and about the language. There are many different spellings and pronunciations, so it's fun to look at! Plus, tenor Kenneth Riegel commissioned a song cycle of PA Dutch poetry in 1977, entitled Songs of the Tulpehocken, from composer Stephen Douglas Burton. There is a recording of them with the Lousiville Symphony, and he also performed them in several recitals with my mother! As always, please feel free to contact me here, at the Facebook page or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
Friday Aug 27, 2010
Episode 15
Friday Aug 27, 2010
Friday Aug 27, 2010
This week we concentrate on the German CH in all its forms, with mezzo-soprano Tanja Baumgartner and tenors Virgil Hartinger and Mirko Roschkowski. The texts for this week are the Komponist (Composer) Aria from Ariadne auf Naxos and the Brahms Lied "Von ewiger Liebe". You can find an online libretto for Ariadne auf Naxos here, just scroll down almost halfway to "Seien wir wieder gut", and for the text to "Von ewiger Liebe" click here or follow the link at the right to the Lieder and Art Songs Text Page. For those of you interested in the German version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock" click here! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them here, at the Facebook page or contact me directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
Friday Jun 18, 2010
Episode 12
Friday Jun 18, 2010
Friday Jun 18, 2010
This week we discuss German diction with Mirko Roschkowski and Clemens Posselt, working through the texts to "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai" from Schumann's Dichterliebe and "O du, mein holder Abendstern" from Wagner's Tannhäuser. We focus on the sound NG, SP at the beginning of words and a few regular inseparable prefixes. The text to "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai" is here, and I found an online libretto for Tannhäuser here. Just scroll down to the Zweite Szene for Wolfram's aria. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them here, on the Facebook page or contact me directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
Friday Jun 11, 2010
Episode 11
Friday Jun 11, 2010
Friday Jun 11, 2010
Back to German Diction, with the texts to Strauss' "Zueignung" and the first two poems of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben. Our guests this week are Rainer Mühlbach and Stephanie Atanasov, and we review some sounds that we've already talked about, like Äs and Ls, and also talk about the prefix ZU- (so that no one will ever mispronounce "Zueignung" again!) and the suffix -IG.
Thursday May 20, 2010
Episode 8
Thursday May 20, 2010
Thursday May 20, 2010
"Auch kleine Dinge" and "Die Nacht" are our texts this week, with Nadja Mchantaf and Mirko Roschkowski. We talk a little about what to do with Ts and Ds that follow one another ("und duftet doch"), some open and closed Us, and show you a few words with ß that crop up in many Lieder.
Friday May 07, 2010
Episode 6
Friday May 07, 2010
Friday May 07, 2010
This week we discuss the texts to Orlovsky's Aria from Die Fledermaus and "Morgens steh' ich auf und frage" (from Schumann's Liederkreis op. 24) with Stephanie Atanasov and Markus Marquardt. We also talk about diphthongs and the pronunciation of the letter S before T and P with coach Markus Henn.
Friday Apr 23, 2010
Episode 4
Friday Apr 23, 2010
Friday Apr 23, 2010
This week we work through Gretchen am Spinnrade with Netta Or and Die Post with Markus Marquardt, and then discuss German Diction in a more general way with coach Hans Sotin. We talk a little more about open and closed U and Ü and devoicing consonants. If you need the texts, follow the link to the Lied and Art Song Text Page at the right. Feel free to leave comments here, at the Facebook page, or you can send me specific questions at ellen@ellenrissinger.com
Thursday Apr 15, 2010
Episode 3
Thursday Apr 15, 2010
Thursday Apr 15, 2010
This weeks show contains 3 arias from Die Zauberflöte: "Ach, ich fühl's" with Nadja Mchantaf; "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" with Oliver Ringelhahn; and "Papageno's Suicide" with Markus Marquardt. We'll be concentrating on 3 specific sounds: the letter ä, the letter r in many positions, and the German schwa. If you want to follow the text, you can find an online libretto at this Opera Guide website or if you would like to see the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (the critical edition of the full score), you can find that through the website of the Mozarteum--click Ja that you are only using this for study purposes, and then look for Die Zauberflöte under Bühnenwerke. As always, please feel free to send me any questions at ellen@ellenrissinger.com Viel Spaß!