About Diction Desk

Diction Desk is a reference for opera singers, coaches and students who need the words right: how each language is sung, what each role demands, and what each line of the libretto means.

What it covers

• Lyric diction: Italian, French, German, Latin, Spanish, Russian, English and Ladino, with IPA.
• Opera guides: synopsis, roles and voice types, arias with their first lines, and the diction traps of each score.
• Libretti: how to read them, where to find the texts, and how translations differ.
• Role preparation: learning a role, the Fach system, young artist programs and audition packages.

Who writes it

The pages are researched and written by the Diction Desk editors. The desk is run by a working opera diction coach who publishes under the desk name rather than a personal one, so each page stands on its sources, not on a name. Every page is compiled from the published sources listed at its foot (university diction courses, opera companies, music publishers, public-domain libretti and the press), and every claim is checked against them. Each page shows the date it was last checked. Translations of libretto lines are our own.

Nothing here replaces your teacher, coach or conductor. When they ask for a different vowel or a different liaison, they have the final word.

How the desk checks a page

A fact enters a page only when it can be traced to a source we have read in full: university diction courses, phonetics references, opera company materials, public-domain libretto editions and the press. Before a page goes up:

• We download every source page and keep its exact words. Each claim on the page rests on a verbatim passage from one of them, not on a search snippet or a summary.
• Every date, number, act and voice type is matched against the passage its note cites. A sentence the passage does not support is cut.
• IPA is copied symbol for symbol from the cited source, and each page marks whether it shows sung or spoken practice.
• When two sources disagree, we follow the opera company, university or publisher over a general reference, and the newer source over the older one.
• Each opera guide is compared with what singers search for: its questions, its roles table, its act-by-act synopsis and its arias are checked for gaps.

The date at the top of each page is the last time it was checked. Errors go to the corrections page. Read the full editorial policy.

Why Nico Castel's name

Our address carries Castel's name because his method is the one this desk follows. Nico Castel, a tenor and the Metropolitan Opera's diction coach for three decades, set every word of a libretto three ways: the IPA, the original line and a word-for-word translation. Singers, teachers and conservatories in North America and Europe use those volumes. His career, his Puccini libretti and how to find them are on the Nico Castel page.