Singers, teachers, coaches, and conductors will appreciate
French Lyric Diction: A Singer's Guide
for its thorough account of the language as it is sung in opera and
mélodie
. Often-overlooked topics are explored, including phrasal and emphatic stress, vocalic length, singing the French
r
, and traditions in the setting of French poetry. Considerable attention is paid to the subject of
liaison
, with recommendations on how to make decisions about optional
liaisons
in singing. A comprehensive guide to orthography provides instruction on the pronunciation of all French spellings, including many optional secondary pronunciations, and accepted
francisé
pronunciation for loanwords. Pronunciation dictionaries give transcriptions for over 10,000 names of composers, poets, artists, roles, performers, characters, and places, as well as everyday musical terms.