The edition of Tchaikovsky’s master opera with phonetic transcription based on the International Phonetic Alphabet: an invaluable aid for non-Russian speaking singers.
The Alkor edition of Peter Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” contains not only the original libretto text in Cyrillic and a singable German translation, but also a phonetic transcription based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is intended to make it easier for non-native-speaking singers to pronounce the Russian text. This transcription was created by ipipapa, a young company from Munich, which won the German Music Edition Award “Best Edition” of the German Music Publishers Association in 2023.
We have talked about this with Korbinian Slavik and Isaac Selya. Korbinian leads the project as one of the two managing directors of ipipapa. Isaac Selya provided congenial musical and linguistic expertise for the completion of the phonetic transcription.
What is meant by IPA?
Slavik: IPA stands for the International Phonetic Alphabet. It’s a universal system of phonetic notation that represents the exact sounds of spoken language. Unlike standard transliterations, which often focus on letter-to-letter and specific language-dependent conversions without reflecting precise pronunciation, IPA captures every sound as it is meant to be articulated. For “Eugene Onegin”, this means that every phoneme/phone is transcribed to represent how it should ideally be sung, ensuring both linguistic accuracy and performance authenticity.
Why is a phonetic transcription so important for singers?
Selya: Opera singers need to memorize and sing so much material in multiple languages. Throughout history, there have been trends to present operas in translation to the local vernacular (like translating Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” from the original Italian to German for performances in Germany), but the most common trend now is to present operas in the original language to preserve the complete sound world of the work, both musical and linguistic. It is not always possible to find singers who are native speakers of the language of the opera, for example, when presenting a German opera in Mexico, or a Russian opera in the United States. As a result, it is an incredible resource to have a phonetic transcription that allows singers who might not speak a language fluently to pronounce the sounds accurately, greatly expanding access to works in all languages to musicians from all over the world.
What should be taken into account when transcribing?
Slavik: Transcription requires balancing linguistic precision with musical practicality. Singing introduces specific demands that go beyond standard linguistic transcription. For example, syllable division in singing often differs from spoken language. Vowels, which play a central role in the transcription process due to their typical elongation in vocal music, are also often pronounced differently because of the lower larynx position required in classical singing. Melismas—where multiple notes are sung on a single syllable—are most often applied to vowels rather than consonants, which requires precise alignment in the transcription.
Our system captures these nuances, ensuring that the phonetic transcription reflects the unique requirements of singing. An especially interesting challenge during this project was the incorporation of stylistic details, such as the subtle characteristics of a French accent when singing in Russian (Triquet’s aria). These stylistic layers enrich the transcription and allow singers to embody the cultural and linguistic essence of the work authentically.
By combining advanced AI technology with a deep understanding of vocal and linguistic intricacies, we create transcriptions that are both highly precise and tailored to the art of singing.
How easy is it to learn and to read IPA?
Selya: Learning IPA is kind of like chess: easy to pick up, but difficult to master. There are many symbols, corresponding to the incredible breadth of sounds possible in human language. Learning the most common symbols necessary for singing Italian can be done very quickly, but a complete mastery of the subtleties on the level of a linguistic professional like Korbinian is a life-long project. At first all the squiggles and diacritics can look intimidating, but because the symbols correspond to consistent sounds in any language, singers can learn International Phonetic Alphabet once and apply it to any language. Moreover, learning IPA is a virtuous cycle that assists in the learning of new languages. When a singer who does not speak German fluently works on their first opera in German assisted by an IPA transcription, they begin to develop an understanding of the rules of the language, so they become less reliant on IPA transcriptions over time. When this same singer works on their fourth work in German, they do not need to check every word. They can instead consult a transcription for targeted questions.
At the beginning of Weber’s “Der Freischütz”, is the “V” in Viktoria pronounced like the IPA symbol [f], as in “Vater,” or is pronounced with the IPA symbol [v], as in “Vokal?” Non-native singers begin to develop a sense of the special situations and possible exceptions for which they need to consult an IPA transcription, the kind of things that a native speaker can intuit. But for large swaths of music and text, they will encounter words that they have already learned to sing through their study of IPA and other repertoire, enabling them to pronounce them correctly at first sight in their original form, unaided by a transcription.
How common is IPA already?
Selya: IPA is already fairly common. Nico Castel, a fantastic character tenor and vocal coach who spent most of his career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, published a series of transcriptions of many works in the standard repertoire, including operas by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Strauss, Wagner, and Bizet. Castel spoke Portuguese, Ladino, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and English at a native or near-native level. There is room to argue with some of the transcription choices he made, and IPA as a tool has developed since his time, but his volumes are still a landmark resource. Particularly in the United States, where many musicians are native speakers only of English, there is sometimes a sort of “inferiority complex” regarding diction in foreign languages that pushes singers to invest heavilty in learning IPA and working on sounding as native as possible when singing in foreign languages. I have degrees in music from three institutions in the United States, and at each one, there were special courses on lyric diction and IPA, and each library had a complete set of Nico Castel’s works, as well as other IPA resources.
What is ipipapa’s approach to creating a new transcription?
Slavik: At ipipapa, we emphasize that every phoneme/phone in our transcription matches how it will be sung. This sets our approach apart from transliterations, where such precision is often lacking. We start with a meticulous phonetic analysis of the source language and collaborate closely with vocal experts to refine the transcription for musical use.
To achieve this, we leverage an automated approach powered by artificial intelligence. This enables us to process text quickly and with exceptional accuracy, adapting to linguistic and musical complexities. Our process ensures that the transcription is not only linguistically accurate but also immediately practical for performers, bridging the gap between the language, speech and the music.
What aspects of transcription are particularly important to musicians?
Selya: Much like with Bärenreiter’s editions, a great transcription clearly presents objective information while at the same time highlighting areas of ambiguity or places that require a performer to make an interpretive decision. The objective elements are immediately apparent, like specific vowels, consonants, syllabic stress, and special qualities like palatalization in Russian. Once a singer knows the answers to these objective questions, it allows them to focus their interpretive energy on elements not captured by the transcription, such as decisions to make a particular vowel a little breathy to express suppressed yearning, or lingering on a consonant to react to a colleague’s surprising stage action. This allows singers to use the tools of language to fully commit to their characters, the drama, and the music.
Interview by Michael Haag
(from [t]akte 1/2025)