The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #134883 Message #3072302
Posted By: GUEST,Grishka
11-Jan-11 - 02:25 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Go to Sleep folk song
Subject: RE: Origins: Go to Sleep folk song
Aafje Heynis is Dutch, and her YouTubes in German and Italian are not pronounced any better. As Leenia writes, it's not only her accent, but her general treatment of the consonants is not up to today's standard.
Nowadays, opera and lieder singers are required to pronounce the main languages (Italian, German, French, English, Russian, and Czech) clearly and without too strong an accent. Some of the most famous singers of the past wouldn't get hired now, even those who are unsurpassed in other aspects.
In some operas, the libretti were not considered important traditionally, often because they were considered horrible. "Prima la musica" - "music first" was the slogan. However, this never applied to songs. And nowadays we also want to understand the lyrics of Donizetti's operas, which actually are not all that bad.
Anyway, the line that Taconius understands is unknown to Google, so you experts have your challenge.