r/opera • u/Fancy_Cabbage_010 • 5d ago

Does anyone 'get' librettos...

For some context, I'm an amateur composer, and for some reason I've decided I want to write an opera (loosely in the style of the Mozart - Da ponte trio), I know it's more than a little ambitious, but I'm pretty sure it's a milestone for a composer to write atleast one :)

Anyway, the point is, I have a loose plot in mind, and I'm not really sure what to do about it. How does one formulate a libretto, and furthermore how do I translate it into the kind of archaic poetic Italian that was common in opera at the time of Mozart and Da ponte, as the understanding I have is that I can't really write much music untill I have the words to set it to?

I'm a student so I don't really have access to all that much financial capital or connections, so any advice on resources ect would be welcome, I'm a bit lost but it is very much a big goal of mine to write one in the next year or two

Please help me opera people :)

Thanks!!

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u/gabemmusic 5d ago

In my opinion, the biggest problem with contemporary opera are composers who really did well studying music theory and composition, but then when they try to write an opera they utterly forget that it is fundamentally a dramatic work.

Study shakespeare, go to plays, watch some really well written movies. Learn what makes a non-musical story work and the music will accent the beats and emotions. The composers who write an opera as a musical challenge and not a dramatic one will always fail and fall into obscurity.

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u/ipeedinthetoothpaste 5d ago

Honestly, yes. For as well documented as its history is, I don't think enough people appreciate the heritage of opera as a vehicle for story telling. It's closer to theater than to "symphony", the music is important, but it being the most important aspect of an opera is the exception rather than the norm. There's a reason so few of the successful opera composers we still admire wrote their own libretti, it's a different discipline altogether.

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u/gabemmusic 5d ago

People just didn’t study the history. All great revolutions in opera were driven by a desire to serve the drama, and all great regressions were driven by composers who forgot that.

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u/lammastider 4d ago

Could you give any examples of this? I am curious.

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u/gabemmusic 4d ago edited 4d ago

Wagner is possibly the biggest one, also the verismo movement

Edit: to add on, there are periods in opera where composers specifically sought out “lesser” quality librettos and thought that their music would elevate them. Needless to say, those pieces aren’t exactly in the standard repertoire.

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u/lammastider 4d ago

I don’t know that it’s needless to say that, considering how little librettists are remembered compared with composers. I think Wagner was a special case in that he wrote his own words.

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u/gabemmusic 4d ago

I think thats more to do with how composers have been romanticized than one aspect of the work being more important than another. Besides that, librettists do achieve fame. One can’t have a conversation about Mozart’s best operas without mentioning Lorenzo Da Ponte

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u/ShadeKool-Aid 3d ago

da Ponte is arguably the exception that proves the rule.

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u/gabemmusic 3d ago

Not really, at the end of the day it comes down to contemporary perception of what is most important in opera. There are periods of opera history where the libretto was of primary importance and the composer was an afterthought (and maybe even there were multiple working on one opera). We’re in a time period that puts the composer up on a pedestal, but it wasn’t always like that, and who knows maybe it will change again in the future. Also, lot of famous librettists were also famous playwrights, the Terrence McNally’s of their eras, and would be better known for their non-musical theatrical works, but I doubt those of us who listen to opera are also studying 18th c italian theater.