# Best original libretti



## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

What are the best libretti not based on other works? (Including things such as the Ring cycle which, though based on the Norse myths, is very original)


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

*Aida* has an original libretto, in that it is not based on any previous written work or historical event.


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

Two examples of _zeitoper_ spring to mind - Hindemith's _Neues vom Tage_ and Krenek's _Jonny spielt auf_. Then there are the libretti written in the 1920s for Kurt Weill by Georg Kaiser (e.g _Der Zar lässt sich photographieren_) and Bertolt Brecht (e.g _Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny_). As far as I'm aware, these four were written specifically for the operas they accompanied, rather then being adapted from other sources.


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## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

Hugo von Hofmannsthal's libretto's for several of Strauss' operas are full of beautiful poetry, allusion, word-play and symbolism. Works like _Der Rosenkavalier_ and _Arabella_ are almost completely original conceptions as far as I'm aware, but even some of the other librettos like _Elektra_ and _Die Frau ohne Schatten_ are original reworkings of the source material.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

The Consul. Powerful!!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Le siège de Corinthe, great opera. 
( bases in myths only)


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

One springs immediately to mind: *Pagliacci*

Love it!


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## Star (May 27, 2017)

Cosi fan Tutte was a da Ponte original. It is also one of the greatest libretti ever penned


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