Two-part answer to the question about opera.

First part first. I grew up in upstate New York (the only part of the U.S. where nobody has an accent, by the way<g> ), and took German in high school; our German teacher was an upstate New York native. We had the luck to get a couple of exchange students in my second year--from Germany, of all places. And they had trouble understanding the German teacher's German because of her accent. The teacher was smart enough to give the exchange students the lead in teaching her and us how German was really supposed to be spoken, and that was how we learned German for most of that year.

Should a Texan sing Italian opera with a Texas accent? In my opinion, no--not if he or she wants to be understood. The understanding (my opinion, again) is market-driven; that's why the Beatles "sang American" even if they spoke Brit--they were selling to Americans, and they wanted Americans to understand them. I recall a number of British Invasion groups (second wave, mostly) didn't--and one complaint heard constantly about them was you couldn't understand what they were saying.

Second part second. If I'm trying to emulate how my Hero of the Month uses words, some of what they *sound* like is going to come out when I sing it. A song from a Tom Paxton Period is going to sound a little like Tom Paxton, one from an Elvis Period like Elvis, and so forth. The Beatles did it, too (my opinion). They were trying to imitate American singers--and they succeeded.

It's not a "fake twang," in other words--it's just part of how the person I'm trying to imitate used words. Some of 'em got more twang than others.

Findl thought. If it were a Texas opera (instead of an Italian one), yes, I sure would expect the people performing it to sound like they were from Texas. Wouldn't (in my opinion) sound authentic if they didn't.

Joe

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