I can't speak any of the three languages you mentioned but, like you, I too have a problem with lack of clarity. I feel the same about Joan Sutherland. Whilst I admire everything she has achieved on a technical level, the fact that I can never tell which vowel she is attempting to sing prevents me from enjoying her. I think poor diction takes so much away from a performance, both in terms of expressiveness and in terms of the music itself.

 

Joan Sutherland is one of my favorite sopranos, but of course more for her tone, her technique, and her personal warmth (yes, I feel this comes across in her recordings) than her enunciation -- which, however, was sharper during the 1970's than it was during most of the 1960's (though it was probably best at the very start of her career).

A funny thing (though probably something of a no-brainer) is this: when I listen to Sutherland while following along with the text in a libretto, I can hear the words quite well, but not so much when I'm just listening without any printed text. On the other hand, I'm far from being fluent in Italian (though I am of Italian descent). The foreign language I know best is Spanish; all of the French and most of the German I know I've learned from opera. I'm very much a "timbre" person: for better or for worse it's the sheer sound of the singer's voice that's the most important factor in deciding whether or not I like that singer. Diction is certainly very important, but it's something I tend not to think about very much as a thing in and of itself. I have noticed when singers have excellent diction. The first example that comes to mind is Bryn Terfel, though I suppose you could say that his foreign languages are "accented" -- i.e. I can hear his British accent when he sings in Italian, French, etc. (not that I, personally, mind this).

 

Joanie is a mush mouth.
On the good side you have di Stefano, Lanza and Steber for starters. There are others but these came to mind first.

 

Truth to tell, Joan was one of my top favorite sopranos early on. Her "Art of the Prima Donna" is unexcelled. At that time she had not adopted that mushier middle till her mate Bonynge decided that he wanted her to get deeper.
I recall driving down the road with her high note blaring away at a red light. The person next to me hearing it gave me a big smile and a thumbs up sign.

 

Diction, diction,diction...If you don't work hard with diction then I am not interested in hearing your performance - please don't take offence as none is intended - Its only business. For diction its just about impossible to beat Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau:

 

I know French, Italian, and Spanish well enough (in this order), but all are foreign languages for me. Still I have problems with Diana Damrau singing Italian roles. Her vowels are not as open as they should be, and she has a style of singing with an almost closed mouth that does not work with latin/romance languages. She is my best Queen of the night, but one of the worst Violetta, still not as bad as Anna Netrebko...

 

Words and music are not merely superimposed on each other. Composers set specific words that have specific sounds and accentuations, and if they are good composers they will know how to use the sounds of words as well as to find the right mood for them. Styles of music differ in this respect; Baroque music may be more "instrumental" and relate less to the specific words being sung at the moment, but even in early music, recitative and arioso passages demand a clear projection of words to make their proper effect. Wagner made a virtual science out of the most effective way to set his language in order to make the word musical and the music articulate.

I will not listen to singers with vague diction. Enunciation is not optional. It is part of the music. Two singers I prize for their diction - among other fine qualities - are Elisabeth Grummer and Tito Schipa. When you hear such artists exquisitely etch a vocal line by means of the sounds of words and feel them speaking directly to you, you realize beyond any question that, for a singer, diction is an essential element of musicianship.

 

I'm with Woodduck on this one. Surely good diction is part of good technique. I hate to bring Sutherland up again as an example, but she is often cited as a singer with a perfect technique, but if that technique necessitates reducing every vowel to a vague "aw" sound, swallowing all consonants in order to achieve a legato, then how is that a perfect technique? Admittedly this wasn't always the case; in her early recordings her diction is actually quite clear, and her performances, to my ears anyway, are enlivened because of it. Later on her lack of diction becomes a serious impediment to enjoyment, for me anyway. Even in her famous recording of La Fille du Regiment, you'd be hard pressed to know what language she is singing in. Pavarotti, on the other hand, is so clear, you can hear just how bad his French is, something that also applies to Corelli in any of the French roles he sang. Their diction remains superb, even when their pronunciation of the language is not.

Take another example, say Sutherland's recording of Puccini's Senza mamma. Here she does try to sing the words, but the words cause her to have problems maintaining a pure legato line in the very first phrase Senza mamma of bimbo tu sei morta. To hear what I mean, listen to Scotto or Tebaldi, singers with very different instruments, but both of them have perfect diction and are yet able to maintain a smooth, effortless legato line. I don't think it has anything to do with them being Italian, because Callas, De Los Angeles and Caballe all manage it too.

 

Just a comment on the general subject of opera singers' diction: We talk about this or that singer's diction as being good or bad, but as for the lay listener (i.e. the person who doesn't habitually listen to opera), it seems his/her ear has to be "educated up" to the level of operatic diction. An example of what I mean: my dad is proficient in French but knows very little about opera. One day he happened to hear the recording of Pavarotti singing "Ah, mes amis" from LA FILLE DU REGIMENT -- the one GregMitchell described as clearly enunciated. My dad's reaction? "I can't understand a word of it." My point is that even if an opera singer has clear diction, as Pavarotti had, it doesn't automatically follow that the words will be readily understood by the "average guy on the street" who speaks the language being sung.