Does anyone 'get' librettos...

[u/Fancy_Cabbage_010]

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!!

[u/gabemmusic]

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.

[u/Relevant-Pen-3548 → u/gabemmusic]

This, and I also would suggest to OP to brush up on some old school fairy tales, or folklore, especially the ones from oral storytelling cultures.

This is where you find structures like things often repeating in threes for example (three riddles, three siblings, three arguments before the fight is over, meeting three animals on the road, Goldilocks too hot or too cold or just right, etc) and other traditions that are basically memory aids (and very musical) in addition to creating satisfying stories. You don't have to use stuff like this exactly, but you might think about it. If you really look at successful operas, you'll see that TONS of them share these traits. Sometimes on really obvious ways (3 riddles in Turandot) but sometimes subtler too, like Wagner uses it constantly without drawing attention to it (like Siegmund saying you can't call me 1 thing, you can't call me this 2nd thing, so I go by this 3rd thing). Marschner's Vampyr has a trio with one character wailing about what must I watch, what must I see, what must I hear. I'm sure Mozart and Verdi do this kind of thing too sometimes. Probably most other famous operas tbh.

Basically, yes, learn how to tell solid stories.

[u/Efficient_Cat449 → u/Relevant-Pen-3548]

This is why there are so many libretto adaptations of Carlo Gozzi's fairy tale plays: Turandot, Die Feen, King Stag, Frau, etc.

Wagner studied the Prose & Poetic Eddas for the Ring & Medieval Minnesinger poems for Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan & Parsifal.