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Singing Italian

The Coronation of Poppea is the first of many Italian texts printed in this book. To follow the recordings, it will help to know a few simple rules about Italian pronunciation and singing conventions.

The consonants c and g are soft (pronounced, respectively, “ch” and “j”) when followed by e or i (cello, Genoa, cappuccino, DiMaggio). They are hard when followed by other letters, including h (Galileo, spaghetti con Chianti).
In poems, when an Italian word ending with a vowel is followed by another word beginning with a vowel, the two vowels are elided, run together as one.
In Italian (and German) z is pronounced dz or tz (pizza, Mozart).

Lines from our selection from The Coronation of Poppea are sung as indicated below:

3	Pur teco io stò	= Pur téc’yo stó
19	tu a me verrai	= tw’a méh verráh-ee
27	Il core accarezzando	= Il cór’ accar-etzándo
30	E mi circondi intanto	= E mi chircond’ intánto
35	Per me guerreggia Amor	= Per méh gwerréj’ Amór