During the past few years as a teacher of singing at the university level, I have found that singing in French has been one of the most difficult mountains to climb for young singers. Whether it is the complexity of harmony of some of the repertoire, the visual cluster of vowels to make one sound (think "aux", "eaux", etc), the frustration in dropping the [n] or [m] in a nasal sound or a general struggle to connect vowel sounds, French can be a nightmare to a young singer! It would seem that even in Canada where French is our other national language, we don't seem to have it in our ear.
Well, look no further for a wonderful source in the French Vocal Diction website created by French-American mezzo soprano Claudine Carlson. You can download 145 different french texts that are recited in a slow, easy to imitate manner.
I hope that with this site and other resources (like the Hal Leonard's The Vocal Library that include a CD of text and accompaniment tracks) singers will be better able to manage the challenges of the French language!
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