# What does it mean to compose an opera?



## Queequeg (Feb 12, 2014)

I'm trying to gain a solid of understanding of operas; for example, Mozart composed Le Nozze Di Figaro, but does that mean that he just wrote the orchestral music along with others like Wagner, Puccini, etc? I understand that he didn't write the libretto though, is that because he didn't have the time or it wasn't his job and is a task relegated to someone other than the composer?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Writers are usually not also composers, the craft of each, to be good, usually taking an early lifetime of preparation.

Not all writers are at all versed in or good at playwriting, screenwriting, which are another set of skills apart.

Librettists are writers who understand theater, scripting, and also the real strategic problems, of timing, the actual machinery of the theater, set and costume changes, all the other nitty-gritty, of how to write a stage work which is actually effective in the theater.

Most composers have nowhere near that set of skills.

In pop songwriting, though there are enough singer-songwriters who write _all_ their material, there are plenty of teams, one writing good lyrics, the other setting them to music. In either the pop or classical genres, the pairing of the skills of the lyric writer and the musician who writes the music is most common.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

There have been famous opera composers who have written their own libretti. Wagner of course is the best-known and most successful as a writer, but Schoenberg (in Moses und Aron, but not Erwartung or Von Heute) and Messiaen among others wrote as well as composed their operatic works.

There is also the middle ground of adapting a previously existing stage play into an opera libretto. Strauss's Salome and Berg's operas take this route.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Mahlerian said:


> There is also the middle ground of adapting a previously existing stage play into an opera libretto. Strauss's Salome and Berg's operas take this route.


In an earlier era, that middle ground typically consisted of reusing *librettos* in multiple operas. The great eighteenth-century figure in this regard was Metastasio, the king of _opera seria_. His libretto for _Adriano in Siria_, for instance, appeared in settings by some fifty composers, including Pergolesi, Galuppi, Hasse, J. C. Bach, and Cherubini.


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## JohnGerald (Jul 6, 2014)

There is a need, I think, to differentiate between "source materials" and Libretti (the textual side). Verdi liked Shakespeare, hence Macbeth and Otello. But the words for the operas were written by Piave and Boito, respectively. Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini generally composed to a comissioned text, which they had in hand as they composed; they composed "to" the libretto. Rossini had several librettists, some quite good and some less so. Bellini liked Felice Romani, who was described as "lazy" and who was notoriously late in delivering the text. Bellini broke with him when i Puritani was in composition for this reason. Donizetti employed Romani and Salvadori Cammarano, among others.


Librettists like Cammarano and Romani were poets, and one can see this in the text if one can read Italian.

As Verdi's career progressed, he became far more involved in the textual aspects of a work in progress than did his predecesors, although there are instances when the "bel canto three" had to get involved, as well.

The speed with which both Rossini and Donizetti were said to have composed is a bit more understandable when one realizes that they were working from the texts in hand. And, in Italy, at least, were allocated a short rehearsal period (one reason why both went to Paris late in their careers, where more liberal rehearsal policies existed).

Not having an interest in Wagner or contemporary operas, I cannot comment on the compositional aspects of their composers.


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## Queequeg (Feb 12, 2014)

Thanks for replies. Lastly, does the libretto play a significant role in the quality in the prestige of the opera i.e are the words just as important as the music? I just almost never hear of the librettist when I read about great operas and it seems like they don't receive much credit.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Queequeg said:


> are the words just as important as the music?


the age old question! a number of operas have been written on the subject, the best known probably being Strauss' _Capriccio_. Some librettists are considered very good (like Strauss' collaborator Hofmannstahl, Mozart's DaPonte, Felice Romani, Verdi's Boito etc.) and even though you might not usually hear about them, opera lovers will know and care who wrote the words  I'm a very big fan of Hofmannstahl's, I think his libretti wonderfully compliment Strauss' music.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Queequeg said:


> Thanks for replies. Lastly, does the libretto play a significant role in the quality in the prestige of the opera i.e are the words just as important as the music? I just almost never hear of the librettist when I read about great operas and it seems like they don't receive much credit.


Operas can survive without good libretti, but not without good music. Of course, the ideal opera has both elements working together, complementing each other.


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## JohnGerald (Jul 6, 2014)

One problem with understanding opera, especially the ones with which I am familiar, is that the way folks thought and expressed themselves in the 19th Century are at odds with the way we do that today. If one reads US Civil War letters and diaries, for example, the sentimentalism expressed there can be a bit off putting to the casual reader. Reading Dickens, Stevenson, Doyle or other 19th Century writers can have a similar effect.

19th Century Librettos are similar. Some translations are less than perfect. The Romantic Movement stressed the emotions; the composer and librettist wanted the audience to be moved by the combination of music and words. Donizetti is supposed to have said, "Give me love, but let it be violent love". The success that opera enjoyed in the 19th century seems to attest to the reactions of audiences.

Since our world view is so different now from then, it is not surprising that opera struggles quite a bit for audiences. We have stage directors who do intellectual violence to the original works to sensationalize them under the rubric of relevance. Folks who view music in terms of MTV or a kid singinging through his/her nose into a microphone with a total absence of true vocal production cannot be expected to understand, let alone bond with opera.

But if one has a well translated libretto and a decently staged and sung DVD of an opera, or, better yet, can attend a live performance, one can at least get a sense of why opera was the number 1 entertainment in most of the 19th century, and still has artistic and theatrical validity for many today.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

What does it mean? What does it mean?

It means you have a lot of spare time to kill.


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2014)

JohnGerald said:


> One problem with understanding opera, especially the ones with which I am familiar, is that the way folks thought and expressed themselves in the 19th Century are at odds with the way we do that today. If one reads US Civil War letters and diaries, for example, the sentimentalism expressed there can be a bit off putting to the casual reader. Reading Dickens, Stevenson, Doyle or other 19th Century writers can have a similar effect.
> 
> 19th Century Librettos are similar. Some translations are less than perfect. The Romantic Movement stressed the emotions; the composer and librettist wanted the audience to be moved by the combination of music and words. Donizetti is supposed to have said, "Give me love, but let it be violent love". The success that opera enjoyed in the 19th century seems to attest to the reactions of audiences.
> 
> ...


I don't find the reading to be off-putting, but hearing old English is a little strange (as is hearing flamboyant Italian even though I can't understand it...).

Thank God for modern opera!


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