Comment by cjfd

The most important rules seem to be missing here. Most important is that most Italian words have emphasis on the second-to-last syllable. Some Italian words have emphasis on the third-to-last syllable, e.g. 'il semAforo' (the traffic light) but that is the exception. Putting emphasis in the right place is the most important thing that makes Italian sound like Italian. If you do just this it already starts to sound like Italian. Another important thing in pronouncing Italian is that the words have to flow together. It is like you should ignore that there are spaces between words. I suppose that already would come more or less naturally to singers. The rules that the article mentions about c and g are also quite important.