How important is good diction?
Sounding authentic in a foreign language, communicating with an audience, and avoiding major embarrassment (more on that later!) — certainly these suggest that good diction should be a goal of every singer. Consider also the words of Pierre Bernac: “Obviously the literary text deserves the same care, the same scrupulous accuracy, in short the same respect that is demanded by the musical text. This respect will be manifested in the first place on the purely technical level, by means of the concern with articulation and pronunciation. In so far as the vocal difficulties and the tessitura permit, the poetic text must be perfectly intelligible. This is a matter of elementary politeness to the listener, and of fundamental honesty to the poet”(Pierre Bernac, The Interpretation of French Song, p.3).
