From: "John Beamish" 

Most of the time the libretto is in French/Italian/German/...

Only rarely is it in English and it's a very stylized form of word
pronunciation.  Quite a few years ago the Canadian Opera Company had a
"soap opera" that was a 30-minute 'demo' of the "stuff of
opera".  Although sung using English words, it was still _quite_
difficult to understand.

These days, operas are often performed using surtitles (in Canada) or
supertitles (in the US) which have the general dialog and singing
accompanying the singers projected on a screen above the stage.  Valerie
can listen to the music and enjoy the spectacle.  I need a story narrative
and this one change made a big difference to me.

Side note to Alan Cairns:  Valerie ordered the 2006 Ring Cycle tickets last
night.  Non-refundable $40 to place the order plus, of course, the cost of
the tickets (to be paid about a year before the opera is performed).

"Mark"  wrote in message
news:409f01e1$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>
> "Robert Comer"  wrote: I'd
never sing along with
> Opera anyway...
>
> Sing along with Opera? They don't actually use real words do they?  not any words I recognize from the, too long, 30 second clips I've seen of
> it> 
>
>

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