Music/Words - wedded bliss

What is most noticeable about both Dawn Upshaw's and Kristen Chenoweth's commitment to their words in these particular clips is their wonderful acting.  They are so expressive with each word that they utter (Kristen almost over the top), that you are essentially pulled into what they are saying.  Also, both singers avoid any dark covering, with primarily forward placement of their words.  Kristen in particular sings almost in an American vernacular....which is most noticeable on the word "France".  She says it just an a mid-western American would say it, so that it is very understandable.  She does not cling to using tall vowels (as singers tend to do for tone) which oftentimes ends up sounding British.  This doesn't mean that she doesn't use a lot of space when creating her tone, but she has a way of doing so, while creating American sounding vowels.  In addition to good placement, and clear consonants (noticed a couple of Choral "Ts" on Dawn's Clip), but they sing the words as though they are talking.  They make it seem as though this is the first time they are singing this song because it is conversational, rather than a prepared piece.