"Sir John in Love" by Ralph Vaughan Williams is based on Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor."  It was lan Judge's intention to bring dialect to the production where normally there would be none. In the past it has been usual to perform opera in a well established type of Received Pronunciation, since this is the most available form of pronunciation to singers and audiences alike.  To break with this tradition, it would seem, is to challenge the very structure of operatic performance in English and to some critics seemed an insurmountable -- if not irreverent -- task.

With all this in mind, it was my job to bring to the singers some kind of rural dialect that would give a flavour of Shakespearean England and the early nineteen hundreds -- the modern day setting for the piece -- but also something that would provide an easy transition into dialect for the artistes.  For me, the dialect of choice with its lack of urban influence, its innocence, rural sounds, and easy to reproduce vowels and consonants -- is Gloucestershire.  Somewhat similar, though less strong, and for all the same reasons for its selection, to the sound we chose for the hobbits in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Approaching the Chorus with this very different idea proved to be a most pleasant experience.  Having rarely had to coach singers -- let alone operatic singers -- they made my task very easy.  I think, like dancers, they have such discipline in their work that every aspect is approached with dedication and enthusiasm.  Unlike actors, where the idea of a 'line reading' is completely out of the question, singers will ask "Just do it for me, and I'll copy you".  The working structure of the music and the lyrics must remain unchanged so, unlike the flexibility of the spoken word, "doing it for them" becomes more of a possibility --uncomfortable as it may feel to the coach who has spent an entire career avoiding doing just this.

Some of the singers, particularly the principals with whom I did most of the one-to-one work, found some of the diphthongs difficult to produce.  We found that elements of the double vowels were difficult to resonate, particularly on high notes and, dependent on the actual sound, we had to make adjustments to them to render the sound more intelligible.  The other slightly different aspect was to introduce a looser quality to the diction.  Singers tend to articulate to the n^th degree and this doesn't sit well with a rural dialect; so we discouraged the aspiration of some consonants to give the sound a more natural feel -- difficult to do when it's definitely a "No no" in a profession that they've been part of for many years.