Pavarotti:
He was hitting every word with almost perfect diction. His "e" and "a" vowels had the right placement in the mouth, not far back but bright. His "i" vowels were straight and all of his vowel sounds were constant. The word "notte" was beautiful, from his open "o" to the way he stuck that double "t". He's also not afraid of the consonants or "gn"; he uses them to build his sound instead. His voice carried a much different color and wider range of emotion, and diction definitely had a part in that. It was like his voice floated effortlessly out and was riding on his breath and vowel shapes. After the Burgess rendition, I had to listen to this recording to soothe my ears.
Burgess:
Where to begin...
Just at the second word "ti" his "t" was not dental, and when we get to "pace" his vowels are spread and sloppy. The "a" is not to bad in this word but throughout Burgess' rendition, he has his "a" vowels placed too far back in the throat, and his "e" sounds are too far back as well. It's like he's swallowing the notes instead of sending them out to us. His "o" sounds and "i" sounds are less dark but sound less pure than Pavarotti's. And who told him to say "notte" with a schwa instead of an "o" sound?????? It is a schwa, right? How would you IPA that without a schwa the way Burgess sings it? Either way, I've never heard that word pronounced like that. His "t" sounds are really bothersome, and he doesn't really hit the "i" in "dei" before "fiori". And "tuoi". How did he work an "a" sound into that? Second stanza, second word "te" sounds like "to". I could go on and on. His voice would carry much more smoothly if he could find the right placement for his sounds and change the shape of his mouth and stop singing from the back of his throat.
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