Christopher Goldsack's Mélodie Treasury

Art song and language resources are a useful addition to anyone's coaching arsenal, and I was glad to make the acquaintance of Christopher Goldsack's Mélodie Treasury. It would be well worth your time to spend a few hours looking through these resources, including a sizeable index of art song translations, a concise and well worded guide to singing in French, and Christopher's own publications for sale.

On French as a legato language:

One of the big differences between French and English – and German and Italian for that matter – is how stresses are handled in French. In English the rhythm of the language takes you from one stressed syllable to the next, and this rhythm is called a metre. In French stresses are generally created by lengthening a syllable without extra weight. This results in a far greater fluidity in the spoken language. There is an imperative when singing in French above all other languages, which is to create a legato line.

Christopher's quick rundown on the vowels of French: