Rolling your Rs in English and opera

Cafe Society
1

I’ve noticed that in my Gilbert & Sullivan CDs recorded by the D’oyly Carte company, they always roll their Rs if it is an R leading the first syllable but following another consonant. For instance, in the lines

Then Frederick, let your escort lion-hearted
be summoned to receive a general’s blessing
ere they depart upon their dread adventure.

The first R in Frederick and the R in dread are rolled, all others are pronounced in the usual English manner. This is done consistently throughout the opera and the other G&S recordings I have. I have since heard it elsewhere.

Since in English we don’t normally roll any of our Rs, why is it done in opera? Is there a story behind it?

2

I’m not an opera scholar, but I do belong to a men’s chorus. We are repeatedly told how ugly the “R” sound is in American English, and that it sounds better to roll it when it is in the beginning of a word (particularly if it’s an older work we are singing.) We also tend to leave it off the ending of words (think of a Bostonian or Southern pronunciation) for the same reason. I believe very proper English people tend to roll their “R’s” slightly when they speak, giving an almost aristocratic sound.

3

I tend to lightly roll my Rs when speaking. It’s a holdover from two years of Spanish class.

4

the O-man has it right. The sung American “R” is very ugly sounding. RRRRRRRRRRRR. See? It sounds like a dog growling or a very rednecky person holding the “uhr” sound too long. The voiced R (ie, the American R) is also one of the biggest signs that a given singer or singing group is from America.

I am not a singer but took some diction for singer’s classes. The reason for the difference is that some R’s are harder than others. Typically, when R is followed by a vowel it functions more as a consonent and rolled but when it is preceded by a vowel it takes on more vowel like characteristics and is pronounced softer. It has been a very long time since I took that class but that seems to still be proper.

5

I would say maybe becaus Opera is originally from Italy (right?) and in Italian, R’s are rolled quite often in the language itself.

6

What everyone else said, plus Gilbert & Sullivan is “campy” opera, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were overdoing the R’s for comic effect.

7

I’ll buy that.

8

Hello - Classically trained Mezzo-Soprano here.

the O-man is right about singing Opera in English. We’re trained to roll Rs at the beginning of words and leave them out all together at the end of words. It’s more pronounced in some works.

Rs are just plain ugly sung in English.

9

Not so fast, diva DeVena.

Look at the example quote I gave in my first post. You have to sing the R at the end of both “your” and “adventure” or it sounds ridiculous. The singer on my CD doesn’t sing advent-cha. He sings advent-yoor.