Libretto

Libretto (Italian libro, “book”), the text of an opera or other staged musical work. The term sometimes also refers to the text of an oratorio or to a ballet scenario. In the libretto of a musical, the spoken dialogue is called the book, and the song words, the lyrics. A successful libretto must be effective theatrically while also conforming to musical requirements. A few stage plays have been taken directly as librettos, but usually a libretto is an original work or a free adaptation of a play or novel. In the 18th century the librettos of Pietro Metastasio of Italy were set hundreds of times by many composers. In other eras individual librettists often worked in close collaboration with composers. They include the French poet Philippe Quinault, with the Italian-French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully; Ranieri di Calzabigi of Italy, with Christoph Willibald Gluck of Austria; Lorenzo da Ponte of Italy, with W. A. Mozart; A. Eugène Scribe of France, with the German-French composer Giacomo Meyerbeer; and Hugo von Hofmannsthal of Germany, with Richard Strauss of Germany. Notable collaborations in operetta and musical comedy include those of Sir W. S. Gilbert with Sir Arthur Sullivan, of Great Britain, and Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II with Richard Rodgers of the United States. Among composers who have successfully written their own librettos are Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Michael Tippett, and Gian-Carlo Menotti.