# Best librettist?



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Who is the best librettist, in your opinion?
Wagner and Berlioz wrote their own... and they are very good.
Other major composers have relied on some outstanding librettists, like Mozart and Da Ponte; Verdi and Arrigo Boito / Piave, R. Strauss and Hofmannsthal. Another great collaboration, Offenbach and the witty libretti by Ludovic Halévy.

Who is your preferred one?

The "others" category calls for other nominations from the floor.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I will need to go with Hugo von Hofmannsthal... probably the only librettist whose librettos actually hold up as literature and are actually read as such. I have a volume of Hofmannsthal's writings that I was familiar with before I actually knew of him through Strauss' operas. Wagner is surely a close second.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

It's very difficult to tell because most of XIXth century librettos were re-worked dramas of other authors. So if we have great libretto of Norma by Romani how can we say if our favourite ideas are not simply copied from the French play after which it was made? 

I'll vote for Wagner because his self-sufficiency was almost as groundbreaking as freeing composers from their patrons which took place in Beethoven's times.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

Boito. As the librettist of my favourite opera of all time, he can't not get my vote. Although Hofmannsthal, Wagner and Da Ponte all come in second.
Halèvy at a somewhat distant third.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I haven't got an overall preference but I'd probably opt for von Hofmannsthal at a push. If getting a little closer to our own time then I may have gone for Myfanwy Piper for her work with Benjamin Britten on The Turn of the Screw, Owen Wingrave and Death in Venice.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

My vote goes to Wagner, though I'd rank Hofmannsthal as a very close second.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Boito

Just started reading this. Fascinating.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Schigolch has voted "other" but didn't specify the librettist he was thinking about.
Since everything that schigolch tells us is highly instructive, I'm waiting for a clarification so that we can learn about another outstanding librettist.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Felice Romani.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

schigolch said:


> Felice Romani.


Oh yes, good one!


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

There's a major name omitted from this list.

How can you ignore Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi--aka Metastasio? His librettos dominated an age, appearing in over 800 operas during the 18th century. In a very real sense he *was* opera seria, to the extent that even today the genre is also known as Metastasian opera.

Perhaps not the best, and probably few people's favorite any more. But definitely worth a nod for historical importance.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Yes, Metastasio, Romani, and Boito were probably the greatest Italian librettists. But when I designed the categories, I didn't recall everybody, therefore I placed the "other" category and asked for other nominations from the floor. Somehow, though, I suspect that Metastasio wouldn't have won even if I had remembered to include him.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Almaviva said:


> Somehow, though, I suspect that Metastasio wouldn't have won even if I had remembered to include him.


Well, since he wouldn't even get *my* vote, you're probably right. 

I suppose I would give the nod to Wagner--though my assessment of the texts is probably swayed by the entire _gesamtkunstwerk_ surrounding them. Hard for me to consider a libretto in isolation from what it ultimately becomes in the hands of a great composer.


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