An opera fan's log - French, German, Italian, etc

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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Deinonysus » Thu Jan 25, 2018 3:28 pm

Cavesa wrote:Hi,

I love your log. I am a beginning amateur singer, I've been taking lessons for one year now and it has been one of the best decisions of my life. One of the many benefits: it has been helping me with some aspects of the Italian and German pronunciation, despite the fact that the spoken and sung pronunciation differ in certain aspects (for example, I've finally learnt the doppio consonants). Understanding the lyrics is very important to me. It also helps me memorise the aria or song. But I must admit I sometimes have too much to focus on at once, so I sing blablabla for the few notes in question even with the part in my hand. :-D

What do you like to sing the most in each of the languages, if I may ask? I am curious.

I've noticed there is little classical music in Spanish, that is true. But would you still happen to know about something good? It may be a very interesting experience. Even if it is not something I could sing, I'd love to listen.

Wow, you opened up a can of worms! Wall of text incoming.

First of all, I'm glad you enjoy my log, and from an advanced amateur singer, I wish you the best of luck as a beginning amateur singer! I'll start here talking a bit about Spanish (and Czech) music, then about singing, and then finally about my favorite music to sing and listen to.

Czech Classical Music
You're very lucky to be a Czech speaker learning classical singing. A lot of very popular operas were written in Czech so if you ever decide on a career in opera, you have a great niche! If you haven't already, check out the operas of Smetana (most famous: The Bartered Bride), Dvorak (most famous: Rusalka), and Janáček (most famous: The Cunning Little Vixen). I'm sure these composers all have great art songs too.

Spanish Opera
Your best place to start is Zarzuela, and your best source for Zarzuela recordings would be Placido Domingo. He comes from a Zarzuela family, and he got his singing start in Zarzuela before he moved on to standard opera.

Other great Spanish opera singers are José Carreras, Victoria de los Ángeles, Monserrat Caballé, and Alfredo Kraus. José Carreras is Catalan, and I don't know if de los Ángeles and Caballé are also ethic Catalans but they're from Barcelona, and I believe all three have recordings in Catalan as well as Spanish. Other great Spanish-speaking opera singers from around the world are Rolando Villazón, Luigi Alva, and Ramón Vinay. (I'm using present tense here but many of these singers are retired or dead)

Juan Diego Flórez is arguably the best operatic tenor there is right now. He's Peruvian and I'm sure he has plenty of good material in Spanish.

I'm not really familiar with Spanish art songs, but I'm sure they're out there and I'm sure that these singers have recordings of them.

Spanish Choral music
I've sung in a lot of choirs and I can think of two Spanish-language choral pieces that I've sung, both contemporary:

Paul Carey - El Limonar Florido: I was lucky enough to sing at this piece's premier! I don't know if there's a recording of that, but if you follow the link there's a full recording of another performance.

Osvaldo Golijov - La Pasión según San Marcos - This is mostly in Spanish with some Aramaic. I think we sang a couple of movements towards the end. The libretto is here.

Shadowing

Probably 75% of the progress I've made in singing had come from shadowing recordings my favorite singers (like shadowing a language, but you do your best to sing exactly like them). For the best results, try to find a singer whose voice is close to the same pitch as yours; if you try to exactly imitate a singer whose voice is too different from yours, you'll do the right things on the wrong notes and you'll hurt yourself. You need to have the basics down to really take advantage of this, so pay a lot of attention to your teacher, especially the breathing and intonation. Once you have those down, you can figure out most of the rest on your own.

Overtones

This is going to sound really bizarre, but one of the best things you can do for your classical singing is to listen to throat singing. I'd recommend the recordings of Kongar Ol-Ondar and Hun-Huur-Tu for Tuvan throat singing. Mongolian throat singing is similar but I'm not as familiar with it. Practice singing along a bit (but stop immediately if your throat starts hurting). You don't need to be able to throat sing perfectly, the important thing is just to be aware of the overtones in your voice. You will eventually notice that a lot of the best opera singers focus certain overtones when they sing. When you get to a really advanced level, you will find that you can sing high notes at any volume with very little effort if you're hitting the right overtone just right (this also presumes that you're doing everything else just right too). This can help you pull off the most impressive trick an opera singer can do, which is to start a note loud and then fade to almost nothing, like at the end of this clip by Franco Corelli:



I've only ever heard tenors and sopranos do this, but there's no reason other voices couldn't also pull it off.

Favorite music
My training is mostly in art songs, with some opera arias mixed in. But honestly, one of my favorite things is to be stuck in traffic alone, singing along with my favorite opera singers. That's a secret, don't tell anyone. ;)

Here's my favorite opera and art song music to sing and/or listen to, by language:
  • German: My favorite Lieder are by Schubert (especially his three song cycles Winterreise, Die schöne Müllerin, and Schwanengesang, and I also love the song "Erlkönig") and Brahms (Vier ernste Gesänge, and a lot of great individual songs). In terms of opera, there's a ton of great stuff in German but my favorite is Wagner. I tried to get some Wagner played at my wedding but we're Jewish so that was vetoed pretty hard.
  • French: There are lots of great French art songs (chansons or mélodies, I'm not sure if there's a distinction). Fauré, Débussy, Ravel, and Poulenc have some great ones. My two favorite French art songs to sing are "Beau soir" by Débussy and "Après un Rêve" by Fauré. My favorite French operas are Pélleas et Mélisande by Debussy, La fille du régiment by Donizetti, Carmen by Bizet, and Faust by Gounod.
  • Italian: Honestly I go by favorite singer rather than favorite composers in Italian: there are so many classics and everything's great. My favorite Italian singer is Franco Corelli (see above), and all of his recordings are amazing. In terms art songs, the first introduction to singing classical music was going through the famous compilation 24 Italian Songs and Arias; you probably already have a copy but if not you should grab it. It's a staple for any vocal student.
  • Russian: I barely speak a word of Russian, but I love the music! In my opinion, Rachmaninoff's "All Night Vigil" is the greatest choral work ever written in any language. I've sang a few movements of it in a few different choirs, and it honestly single-handedly made me decide that I need to learn Russian one day. There are also great operas and art songs by Tchaikovsky and Mussurgsky. Some old school singers to check out are Fyodor Chaliapin, Galina Vishnevskaya, and Sergei Lemeshev (Latin character spellings vary). Vishnevskaya and Lemeshev have a great recording of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

That's it for now (whew!). I'll need to start posting YouTube clips of my favorite singers later on! Classical music is a terrific resource to get exposure languages from all over Europe, and more recently, all over the world and throughout history. For example, John Adams (but not that John Adams, and not the other one either) is a contemporary American composer with operas lyrics in Sanskrit, ancient Egyptian, and ancient Babylonian. Western Classical music is also hugely popular in East Asia, and I've heard that composers there have started writing in their own languages.
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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby garyb » Thu Jan 25, 2018 4:11 pm

I also got into singing a couple of years ago so I'm following with interest! I have a low voice and enjoy attempting some of Verdi's bass arias, and I've studied a few French songs too. Right now I'm still quite a beginner though. The idea on shadowing is an interesting one, and I'll consider it once I'm more advanced! I'm can't tell whether singing has helped my pronunciation of spoken Italian or French, but to be honest my pronunciation is beyond help... I'll also look up the Spanish stuff since I've hardly heard any Spanish classical singing. I just remember one time I watched an event where a young woman sang a piece in Spanish and the judges complimented her performance and also her Spanish... and I'd hope so too since she was from Spain!

Good luck with your studies!
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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Cavesa » Thu Jan 25, 2018 4:32 pm

I love this textwall!!!
Apart from the things I am learning with my teacher, I love to sing with youtube. Various genres, opera, pop, some metal, some rock, and so on. I love that :-) However, shadowing was not recommended to me by my teacher, at least for now. To listen a lot, yes. To listen to various singers. But no shadowing, at least for now. I'll look into those throat singers. Apart from the european tradition, I've recently heard some arabic songs and they sounded awesome, with technique that sounded rather different from ours too.

Yes, Czech is a good language for classical music, I've seen a few of the operas live. I have been learning some Dvořák's songs and will be learning a Smetana soon. I am unlikely to ever try Rusalka. Not only it is superhard, it also clearly for a soprano and I am mezzo.

Thanks for the Spanish tips! I'll get through all that. Spanish is great language for contemporary and popular music too, too bad the classical pieces are not too known. There must surely be some jewels among their composers. From the instrumental things, I love Astor Piazzola. I used to play the flute and am coming back to it now, so listening to l'Histoire du tango is a miracle. (Out of the Czech things, I used to play Scherzo by Martinů for example. Awesome. And hyperhard. I never got it to the full speed professionals play it at)

Schubert is great. I am learning one of his songs too. But I am more thrilled by Schumann, learning his Frauenliebe und leben. I get the note about Wagner, being Hitler's favourite is still casting a shadow on his music. It is epic. But the cultural historical memory of it during nazism is still strong.

French: I used to play Débussy and Ravel. Haven't sung anything by them yet. I am learning Carmen too, Habanera is really great for my voice. Of course I have a lot of work before me, and some things will improve only with time, as I grow as a singer in general. But I love it. I'll look up Gounod's Faust.

Italian is THE language of music. Both the italian composers and the non-italians making music sung in italian are great. I am now learning Mozart's Despina from Cosi fan tutte, and it is great. A challenge indeed, but I love it. And I'm also learning an easier Puccini (he also has hyperhard stuff of course), it is awesome how diverse the classical music is. It's love and discovery for the whole lifetime.

Russian is an area I don't know at all. Of course I know some of the instrumental things (and even have played a few). I love to listen to Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, for example to their piano concertos. I slightly dislike Mussurgsky, but that will pass. One of the music teachers at highschool loved him too much and it felt as were listening to him for the whole year. Perhaps not, but I remember it like that.

What do you think of the rock versions of some of the classics? For example Mussorgsky has a good cover. But various authors have been made.

I'll look up John Adams. I have been learning one shorter Bach in Latin, but that is my only ancient language experience (and latin was still well alive in Bach's times). Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, and Sanskrit must be awesome!

When I visited Japan, many people we met knew Prague and "Czechoslovakia" (yeah, the world still hasn't noticed), mainly due to the classical composers and architects (for example Kotěra made the Hiroshima dome, that survived the nuclear bomb). There are many great musicians from the region. The saying "you may be as great as you want, there will always be a twelve year old asian better than you" is often true in music. If they are starting using their own languages in the classical music, it will lead to interesting stuff. I must say I haven't understood the classical Chinese music so far. Yes, a bit of it is nice, but I somehow cannot get used to it or feel any need to discover it in more detail. Perhaps that will change.

I am looking forward to following your youtube links :-)
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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Josquin » Thu Jan 25, 2018 4:48 pm

Another amateur singer here! I'm probably somewhere between beginner and advanced, so you could say I'm in the "intermediate" stage in singing... :D

I'm a baritone and I also sing mostly art songs, especially Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Mendelssohn. I'm doing the Winterreise for my voice lessons right now and I'm going to have a recital with it in March or April (the date hasn't been fixed yet). Also, I'm singing in a choir (funnily, I have to sing tenor there), mostly romantic stuff like Mendelssohn, but also more modern pieces by Rutter or Nysted.

I agree with all what you write about composers, especially about Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, but additionally I'm finding myself more and more attracted to early music, i.e. from the Renaissance to Bach and Handel. There are such great motets and cantatas out there! Do you know Handel's Dixit Dominus? It's one of my favourite choral pieces right now.



I've also had a penchant for Buxtehude's cantatas for the last few days. Here's quite a good recording:



Also, I simply love anything by Stile Antico:



I must admit I'm not that much into opera. Well, I do go to the opera house once in a while, but I haven't really sung opera yet. I have more of a lieder voice than an opera voice I guess. I've tried singing a little bit of Mozart for myself though (Papageno and Figaro), but I'm not really satisfied with the result. Maybe, my voice will still develop and I'll get there one day. At least I hope so.
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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Neurotip » Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:21 pm

Great discussion! I'm not a singer, but I love opera and art-song and I have accompanied a fair few songs in my time. I'm not sure I have much to add to Deinonysus' list, but:

Janáček: all the operas are amazing but personally I'd recommend Kát'a Kabanová as a first listen - and don't forget the Glagolitic Mass (also for linguistic interest)
Spanish song: the only vocal work I'm familiar with is Falla's El amor brujo, but I know both de Falla and Granados wrote songs.
French: I absolutely second the Faure and Poulenc recommendations, many very suitable for amateur singers.
Don't forget the enormous corpus of English song! Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Finzi, Britten, etc., etc. Not to mention Copland, Barber, ...
Not so much in Icelandic, sad to say. Finnish though...

Looking forward to following the log!
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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Deinonysus » Thu Jan 25, 2018 11:08 pm

garyb wrote:I also got into singing a couple of years ago so I'm following with interest! I have a low voice and enjoy attempting some of Verdi's bass arias, and I've studied a few French songs too. Right now I'm still quite a beginner though. The idea on shadowing is an interesting one, and I'll consider it once I'm more advanced! I'm can't tell whether singing has helped my pronunciation of spoken Italian or French, but to be honest my pronunciation is beyond help... I'll also look up the Spanish stuff since I've hardly heard any Spanish classical singing. I just remember one time I watched an event where a young woman sang a piece in Spanish and the judges complimented her performance and also her Spanish... and I'd hope so too since she was from Spain!

Good luck with your studies!

Thanks!

Pronunciation

For pronunciation, your mileage will vary depending on the language. Operatic Italian is very close to the spoken language, and it's probably the same for Spanish. German is also very close, except that they use the Italian "r" rather than the throaty "r" of standard German. German pronunciation in Opera and Lieder is very clear and I was able to understand a lot even as a beginner. Singing and listening to classical music in these languages will help your pronunciation and listening comprehension very much in the spoken languages.

English and French are a whole different story. Operatic English usually tries too hard to sound like Italian, and you may have a hard time understanding it even as a native speaker. You'll hear every syllable, but you'll need to decipher how it would actually correspond to spoken English. Operatic French is also very hard to decipher; when I play it for my wife she has no idea what they're saying. They use the Italian "r" (although recently the French "r" has become more popular for French opera singers singing French material), and as you will have encountered, they pronounce almost every silent "e" (this does help you remember spelling!). You can definitely learn to understand the operatic versions of these languages as they are very clear in their own way, but it really is a different skill than listening comprehension in the spoken language.

Bass singers
My favorite bass singer is Paul Robeson. He was an accomplished polyglot and sang in probably a dozen languages. He mainly sang American spirituals and folk songs from around the world, but he also sang some classical songs and arias. He had a tendancy to sing half of a song in English and the other half in the original, as here:



The video doesn't say, but I have this on a CD and the liner notes say it's by Alexandrov. I'm not familiar with him other than this song.

Another great bass is Cesare Siepi, Legendary for his Don Giovanni!



Since you like Verdi and speak French, you should also check out Gounod's Faust if you haven't already. It's one of the best bass parts. There are lots of great Méphistophélèses, but I'll post René Pape. I actually thought he was French but I just looked him up and he grew up in Germany.

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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Cavesa » Thu Jan 25, 2018 11:45 pm

Deinonysus wrote:English and French are a whole different story. Operatic English usually tries too hard to sound like Italian, and you may have a hard time understanding it even as a native speaker. You'll hear every syllable, but you'll need to decipher how it would actually correspond to spoken English. Operatic French is also very hard to decipher; when I play it for my wife she has no idea what they're saying. They use the Italian "r" (although recently the French "r" has become more popular for French opera singers singing French material), and as you will have encountered, they pronounce almost every silent "e" (this does help you remember spelling!).

Yes, getting used to singing the "wrong" r in French was not easy. Sometimes, I still mess up.


You can definitely learn to understand the operatic versions of these languages as they are very clear in their own way, but it really is a different skill than listening comprehension in the spoken language.

Even the operatic version of one's native language can be difficult to understand :-D

I'd like to share a link to one of my favourites right now: Julie Fuchs singing Despina from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. I am learning this. I will never be this awesome, but I love it. I think this singer is the best at it (from all the youtube versions I have listened to), as she is clearly enjoying it. The others surely have great technique too, they are professionals after all, but this one makes it so alive and full of joy and humour that she really stands out.



I couldn't but notice there are significantly fewer mezzo pieces. Fortunately, some soprano ones are accessible to me, like this Mozart. I am much more drawn towards opera than the songs. I find the aria being part of a story fascinating. That is one of the main differences from playing an instrument. As for songs, I'd like to look into other genres too with my teacher, to not learn mistakes by doing something wrong all the time on my own with youtube :-) But learning to sing the classics is the base and I it is a dream come true to explore it. A dream I hadn't known about for a long time. I started rather late, but that is no problem. It is the same as with the languages. Of course spending hours a day on it from the early childhood will lead to the best results. But you can still learn a lot much later.
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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Deinonysus » Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:12 am

Cavesa wrote:I love this textwall!!!
Apart from the things I am learning with my teacher, I love to sing with youtube. Various genres, opera, pop, some metal, some rock, and so on. I love that :-) However, shadowing was not recommended to me by my teacher, at least for now. To listen a lot, yes. To listen to various singers. But no shadowing, at least for now. I'll look into those throat singers. Apart from the european tradition, I've recently heard some arabic songs and they sounded awesome, with technique that sounded rather different from ours too.

Yes, Czech is a good language for classical music, I've seen a few of the operas live. I have been learning some Dvořák's songs and will be learning a Smetana soon. I am unlikely to ever try Rusalka. Not only it is superhard, it also clearly for a soprano and I am mezzo.

Thanks for the Spanish tips! I'll get through all that. Spanish is great language for contemporary and popular music too, too bad the classical pieces are not too known. There must surely be some jewels among their composers. From the instrumental things, I love Astor Piazzola. I used to play the flute and am coming back to it now, so listening to l'Histoire du tango is a miracle. (Out of the Czech things, I used to play Scherzo by Martinů for example. Awesome. And hyperhard. I never got it to the full speed professionals play it at)

Schubert is great. I am learning one of his songs too. But I am more thrilled by Schumann, learning his Frauenliebe und leben. I get the note about Wagner, being Hitler's favourite is still casting a shadow on his music. It is epic. But the cultural historical memory of it during nazism is still strong.

French: I used to play Débussy and Ravel. Haven't sung anything by them yet. I am learning Carmen too, Habanera is really great for my voice. Of course I have a lot of work before me, and some things will improve only with time, as I grow as a singer in general. But I love it. I'll look up Gounod's Faust.

Italian is THE language of music. Both the italian composers and the non-italians making music sung in italian are great. I am now learning Mozart's Despina from Cosi fan tutte, and it is great. A challenge indeed, but I love it. And I'm also learning an easier Puccini (he also has hyperhard stuff of course), it is awesome how diverse the classical music is. It's love and discovery for the whole lifetime.

Russian is an area I don't know at all. Of course I know some of the instrumental things (and even have played a few). I love to listen to Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, for example to their piano concertos. I slightly dislike Mussurgsky, but that will pass. One of the music teachers at highschool loved him too much and it felt as were listening to him for the whole year. Perhaps not, but I remember it like that.

What do you think of the rock versions of some of the classics? For example Mussorgsky has a good cover. But various authors have been made.

I'll look up John Adams. I have been learning one shorter Bach in Latin, but that is my only ancient language experience (and latin was still well alive in Bach's times). Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, and Sanskrit must be awesome!

When I visited Japan, many people we met knew Prague and "Czechoslovakia" (yeah, the world still hasn't noticed), mainly due to the classical composers and architects (for example Kotěra made the Hiroshima dome, that survived the nuclear bomb). There are many great musicians from the region. The saying "you may be as great as you want, there will always be a twelve year old asian better than you" is often true in music. If they are starting using their own languages in the classical music, it will lead to interesting stuff. I must say I haven't understood the classical Chinese music so far. Yes, a bit of it is nice, but I somehow cannot get used to it or feel any need to discover it in more detail. Perhaps that will change.

I am looking forward to following your youtube links :-)

Very cool! The world needs more mezzos! It sounds like you're already starting to tackle some challenging material after just a year, so don't be sure that you won't eventually move on to the super- and hyper- hard stuff! Wind instrument players always seem to pick up singing quickly.

Wagner was definitely a bigot and a bully, but I don't think his reputation would have nearly as much of a stain on it if it weren't for events that took place well after his death. His greatest offense was that he was, as you say, Hitler's favorite composer. If it weren't for that, I think more people would be able to overlook his many faults as a person and appreciate his music.

I would definitely be interested in a rock cover of Mussurgsky! Who's it by? I think this is my favorite rock interpretation of a classical piece, even though the synth is cheesy and their latin pronunciation is awful:
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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Deinonysus » Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:28 am

Josquin wrote:Another amateur singer here! I'm probably somewhere between beginner and advanced, so you could say I'm in the "intermediate" stage in singing... :D

I'm a baritone and I also sing mostly art songs, especially Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Mendelssohn. I'm doing the Winterreise for my voice lessons right now and I'm going to have a recital with it in March or April (the date hasn't been fixed yet). Also, I'm singing in a choir (funnily, I have to sing tenor there), mostly romantic stuff like Mendelssohn, but also more modern pieces by Rutter or Nysted.

I agree with all what you write about composers, especially about Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, but additionally I'm finding myself more and more attracted to early music, i.e. from the Renaissance to Bach and Handel. There are such great motets and cantatas out there! Do you know Handel's Dixit Dominus? It's one of my favourite choral pieces right now.



I've also had a penchant for Buxtehude's cantatas for the last few days. Here's quite a good recording:



Also, I simply love anything by Stile Antico:



I must admit I'm not that much into opera. Well, I do go to the opera house once in a while, but I haven't really sung opera yet. I have more of a lieder voice than an opera voice I guess. I've tried singing a little bit of Mozart for myself though (Papageno and Figaro), but I'm not really satisfied with the result. Maybe, my voice will still develop and I'll get there one day. At least I hope so.


Awesome, what's your favorite song in Winterreise? Mine is Das Wirthaus. I also started out as a baritone that got Shanghaied into singing tenor, although eventually it turned out that I was a low tenor after all.

I was going to ask you if you named yourself after Josquin des Prez, then I checked his Wikipedia article and your icon was right there, so that anwers that question! I do love early music, especially madrigals! I also love recorder music. I bought myself a baroque-style plastic alto recorder but never got around to learning to play it.

I'm reasonably familiar with Handel but had never heard of Dixit Dominus, and I'd never even heard of Buxtehude at all! I'll need to check them out.

I'm listening to your Stile Antico clip now; it's awesome! I'll definitely need to check out more of their stuff! I've honestly never seen a bad Tiny Desk Concert. Even T-Pain's was great.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau got away with singing tons of opera with more of a Lieder voice than an opera voice, so it's definitely doable.
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Re: An opera fan's language log - working on French

Postby Deinonysus » Fri Jan 26, 2018 1:02 am

Neurotip wrote:Great discussion! I'm not a singer, but I love opera and art-song and I have accompanied a fair few songs in my time. I'm not sure I have much to add to Deinonysus' list, but:

Janáček: all the operas are amazing but personally I'd recommend Kát'a Kabanová as a first listen - and don't forget the Glagolitic Mass (also for linguistic interest)
Spanish song: the only vocal work I'm familiar with is Falla's El amor brujo, but I know both de Falla and Granados wrote songs.
French: I absolutely second the Faure and Poulenc recommendations, many very suitable for amateur singers.
Don't forget the enormous corpus of English song! Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Finzi, Britten, etc., etc. Not to mention Copland, Barber, ...
Not so much in Icelandic, sad to say. Finnish though...

Looking forward to following the log!

Awesome playing! I never really got past the beginner phase as a pianist, but I would love to be able to play Débussy someday! It would probably help if I ever practiced…

I do definitely like English Language songs! I sang a few by John Duke, and my favorite of his is Luke Havergal.


Leontine Price and Samuel Barber's recording of his Hermit Songs has been on my list of things to listen to for a while, but I've never gotten around to it.

This is a pretty great Icelandic choral piece by the Árstiðir with Anneke van Giersbergen:


That whole album is gold. There are only two songs in Icelandic, but lots of great stuff in several languages. Anneke even makes Dutch sound beautiful! (it's her native language). Any metal fans out there may recognize Anneke from her collaborations with Devin Townsend.
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