Darcy wrote, in part:For this example, I would choose "o-p'ning". I don't know that I'd generalize that as a rule to always use apostrophe, though. In other contexts it might be clearer to spell out what looks like two syllables but is pronounced as one.
This is assuming that the melody is using the word in an ordinary way. If one is deliberately putting a space in the middle of the word with the "p" sound before the break -- as in "another ope-ning, another show..." -- then that's a special effect calling for a special hyphenation. In that case, I would use "ope-ning" -- or alternatively "op'-ning", but definitely not "op-'ning".
Hmmm... I'm not sure what you mean by "an ordinary way" -- for me, at least, the ordinary way of pronouncing "opening" *is* "ope-ning." It's one of those two-syllable words that the dictionary insists on rendering as three, even though you hardly hear anyone say "o-pen-ing" anymore.
to which I should say it seems to me that rather than being a two-syllable word that the dictionary insists on rendering as three, that "opening" is a three-syllable word that some persons insist on mis-pronouncing.
A review of my dictionary shows that all of the multi words which begin with a long "O", including among others, obey, open, over, onerous, and Otolaryngologyst, seem to have the long 'o' as a separate syllable, and those where the o is short, (obliterate, ocular, oligarchy, omniciscient, opera, oven) seem to include the following consonant in the intial syllable. I did not do an exhaustive search of this, and do not mean to solicit a long thread of "but how about..." messages, but I would say given the results of my cursory review, I would be inclined to use "o-p'ning" for opening, and reserve "op-'ratic" for operatic.
ns
But anyway, my preferences aren't really relevant here. In this example, the word goes by relatively quickly -- "opening" is two eighth notes at quarter=108. I can imagine the chorus doing it either as "op'-ning" or "o-p'ning" -- but the difference, at least to my ears, is slight.
Of course, "op'-ning" is easier to space...
The comparison to "ev-'ning" makes no sense to me. "Evening" is a two-syllable word to begin with, so it is properly "eve-ning" or, if you insist on an apostrophe, "ev'-ning".
To be fair, the dictionary hyphenation is "e-ven-ing," even for the time of day -- at least in my source. Maybe I need a more up-to-date dictionary.
- Darcy
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