sausage links

On bel canto:
Legato is achieved how? Vowels? Air? Dynamics? Direction?
What about Portamenti? yes? no? where? why?
I had a Sonnambula coaching today- just because I'm learning the role for my own personal use and hopefully future use as well.
Of course, as usual, when I feel like I'm doing nothing and getting nothing across and not really "singing", that's when the singing happens.
When I try to make a line, it gets to be sausage-y (you know what I'm talking about), I start accenting Italian that shouldn't be accented, bad habits from recordings listened to creep in, and in general, it sounds manufactured.

When will I learn to just say the words and the notes and feel them? Feel that emotion, feel that line, feel the direction, feel myself- as that character- being involved in the story?

Ok, yes, it's difficult to sing about how fast my heart is beating for a fourth verse in a row, but hey-that's what ornaments are for!

The recit is accompanied, but that doesn't mean that I need to breathe every time there is a rest! That doesn't mean I can't take my time, speed up, play inside the grid.
I know all of these things, but putting them together and letting them just "be" in the back of my head is harder than I think. Because to be able to "let go" and feel like I'm doing nothing, those things all need to be living within me already.

-g