French, opera and me

I have had a couple of days off in a row from my day job, so I am trying to get Carmen memorized. It's so hard. I have studied and studied, but still, it isn't there. The music part of the process isn't hard, but the language...and trying to memorize it....so difficult. But I think my pronunciation is pretty good. I sort of pride myself in having good diction and pronunciation. But I still tend to speak French with a Spanish accent. Who knew that the word "le", which is "lay" in Spanish, is "luh" in French. But the plural, les, is "lez". Why wouldn't it be "luhs". Every morning, I lay in bed with my iPod, listening and singing with the music. But I still need my book. By Monday, I need to be out of the book, but I may be using note cards. That is more acceptable at this point, but then, soon, no note cards, either.