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| re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 09:04 pm EST 02/15/21 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 09:02 pm EST 02/15/21 | |
| In reply to: re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA - Michael_Portantiere 08:43 pm EST 02/15/21 | |
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| Much as I love Loesser, I'm not going to trust him for Italian or English with an Italian dialect. He got "Spozalizio" wrong. It's a 4 syllable word in Italian, not 5. It might have still made sense for the Americans to sing it as 5 (we Anglicize things like that all the time), but the native Italians, starting with the trio who begin the number, would not have pronounced the word that way. That's actually always bothered me. But there's really also no way to change the music in any credible way so that the word could be sung properly. We're stuck with it, lol. I just think that a native Italian with English as a second language (i.e. Pavarotti, not Tony) might have to take extra time to lean the specific way Loesser wrote the dialect, as opposed to how it would naturally sound if he were saying the English words as an Italian. Not such a hard concept to understand. |
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| re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:21 pm EST 02/15/21 | |
| In reply to: re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA - Chromolume 09:02 pm EST 02/15/21 | |
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| You're absolutely right about "sposalizio" (note the correct spelling), though I would say that even when Italians pronounce it as a four-syllable word, those elided vowels at the end, "i" and "o," tend to make it sound like two quick syllables, at least to American/English ears. To your other point, I expect that Pavarotti would have had no problem learning how to sing, for example, "she was-a send-a me her photograph" even if he wouldn't actually pronounce that phrase that way in his authentic Italian accent. For that matter, if some of Pav's pronunciations might not have been EXACTLY what Loesser wrote, I'm guessing (though I can't be sure) that he probably wouldn't have minded very much, as long as it sounded natural. :-) |
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| re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 12:19 am EST 02/16/21 | |
| In reply to: re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA - Michael_Portantiere 11:21 pm EST 02/15/21 | |
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| Grazie for the spelling correction. ;-) And yes - we as Americans hear the elided "io" as 2 syllables, but a true Italian would make the distinction. It actually would have been an interesting detail if Loesser had set it "correctly' for the Italian trio at the beginning, but did the 5-syllable version for the American ensemble. But he may not have known the distinction (or might not have considered it a big deal in any case). I think we can just agree to disagree on the whole Pavarotti casting issue. Perhaps we could consider the issue of casting Netrebko as Mame instead?? :-) |
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| re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:33 am EST 02/16/21 | |
| In reply to: re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA - Chromolume 12:19 am EST 02/16/21 | |
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| Yes, or since the three Italian servants only sing the word "sposalizio" once each at the very top of the song, I guess those performers could fudge it and sing the word on four notes rather than five, if that would make you and me feel better. The rest of the number is sung by the American characters, and although Tony himself says "sposalizio" at least once during the show, he never sings the word :-) "I think we can just agree to disagree on the whole Pavarotti casting issue." Sure :-) And FWIW, I do agree with you that Domingo would have been a better fit for the role from a purely vocal standpoint. |
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| re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 11:56 am EST 02/16/21 | |
| In reply to: re: This gives me hope for a film of THE MOST HAPPY FELLA - Michael_Portantiere 10:33 am EST 02/16/21 | |
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| Yes, or since the three Italian servants only sing the word "sposalizio" once each at the very top of the song, I guess those performers could fudge it and sing the word on four notes rather than five, if that would make you and me feel better. | |
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