NEW: VIDEO PRESENTATIONS
Watch our new video presentations of our textbooks and our pronunciation supplement in Italian.
Dispensa di pronuncia
I nostri libri
UNDERSTANDING THE LANGUAGE OF THE ITALIAN OPERA
Operatic singing, especially of Italian arias, is a curricular subject in music schools and music academies. Reading and understanding librettos is one of the greatest challenges for foreign opera lovers.
THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM FOR OPERA STUDENTS
The language of opera librettos differs from everyday Italian both in vocabulary and in grammar. Mastering the Italian of operas is a precondition for anyone who wants to understand and sing arias at professional level. Italian pronunciation is also complex, with its so-called open and closed vowel sounds, its double consonants, consonant clusters, etc. In those cases standard textbooks for Italian as a second language (SL) are not helpful because they focus on common language usage, not on specific opera language.
ITS SOLUTION: TWO NEW TEXTBOOKS WITH CD
Two experienced Italian educators, specialised in opera Italian teaching, created a set of specific textbooks to enable students, teachers and opera lovers to approach language and Italian arias professionally, whatever their mother tongue; these volumes offer the method and tools needed to understand and interpret dialogues, texts and arias.
L’italiano nell’aria 1 and L’italiano nell’aria 2 not only help develop the four language skills, they also motivate the user better to understand and translate opera texts. Furthermore, communication exercises facilitate guided conversations on everyday topics, and the use of the vocabulary presented in the dialogues in real-life situations.
The pronunciation supplement called “Dispensa di pronuncia” -including an audio CD- is supplied with the first textbook and contains numerous listening comprehension and fill-in exercises, as well as intonation and stress practice exercises.
CONTENT
Dialoghi
on real-life situations pertaining to the music and opera environment (audio CD)
Grammatica italiana
selected according to the specific learning requirements of the opera
Arie e recitativi
selected according to the grammar topics explained in the corresponding text units (audio CD)
Lettura, quiz e curiosità
on music topics, chosen to enrich and integrate the user’s knowledge
Dispensa di Pronuncia
with audio CD in the first textbook, essential to the aspiring operatic singer
Guida per l’insegnante
with exhaustive information on the arias and operatic texts presented in the textbook, a very useful tool for educators with little or no experience in the music field, as well as for experts
Available for download from the publisher’s Edilingua website
>>> keys to the exercises in the practice book (Quaderno degli esercizi)
>>> keys to the exercises in the pronunciation supplement (Dispensa di pronuncia)
>>> final pronunciation control test (Test di verifica finale per la pronuncia)
>>> grammar summary (Riepiloghi grammaticali)
>>> instructor’s guide (Guida per l’insegnante)
>>> glossaries (by unit and by music/opera terms) in:
Italian-Chinese
Italian-English
Italian-German
Italian-Russian
>>> Examples of didactic units (browsable PDF):
example 1
example 2
THE AUTHORS
“As Italian SL educators, we conceived L’italiano nell’aria 1 and L’italiano nell’aria 2 on the basis of our long direct experience. The course textbooks focus on opera lexicon at beginner and intermediate level (A1-B2).”
Mariella Martini-Merschmann (on the left)
MA in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, Università di Pisa, has been an Italian SL educator at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater (High School for Music and Theatre) of Hamburg since 1991 and also teaches Italian as a SL at the local Hamburger Volkshochschule (adult education centre) and private institutions.
Donatella Brioschi (on the right)
MA in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, Università Cattolica di Milano, has a working record in the publishing sector in Italy. She has been living in Hamburg since 2001 and is employed as an Italian SL instructor at the Italian Culture Institute (Istituto Italiano di Cultura) and at the local Hamburger Volkshochschule; she also works as translator and editor for various publishers.
AWARDS
L’italiano nell’aria was awarded the European Language Label of the European Commission in 2016. This prestigious acknowledgment “encourages new, original and creative initiatives in the field of language teaching/learning, supports the development of language skills in both educators and students and motivates them better to understand other cultures.”