In a footnote on 'The Magic Flute' thread Dave Lampson writes: >[Wouldn't it be far easier and more expedient (not that we all aren't >fascinated with the "is too" "is not" nature of the discussion so far) >to simply list any librettos that aren't crazy? Should be an awfully >short list. -Dave] Should it? Most of the librettos that have been smugly dismissed by opera buffs down the years turn out on examination to be perfectly serviceable for their purpose - plays for music. If, though, we want quality libretti absorbing in themselves, we might start with Da Ponte's for Mozart; the many beautiful texts written for Charpentier, Rameau and Lully; Charpentier's "Louise; Maeterlinck's "Pelleas" and "Ariane"; Calderon's for 17th century Spain; Krasnahorska's "The Kiss" and "The Secret"; Kvapil's "Rusalka"; Fauchois's "Penelope"; Hofmannstahl's for Strauss; Pushkin's "Mozart & Salieri"; Auden's "Rake's Progress"; Forster's "Billy Budd"; Elsa Bernstein's "Konigskinder" ... and that's for starters! When, as is usual, the jibes are aimed at Italian repertoire, they misfire as badly. Leaving to one side such brilliant examples as Boito's libretti for Verdi and himself; Forzano's "Gianni Schicchi"; Giacoso and Illica's "La Boheme"; it may be worth focussing briefly on one, much-derided example - Cammarano's "Il Trovatore". It is an interesting one to take, because the poet died before the work was quite finished, and many of the more highly compressed verbal exchanges upon which ridicule has focussed were supplied by another hand at Verdi's own direction. As spoken drama it would be ludicrous - unless staged in the absurdist style of Ionesco. But then, to apply the criteria of spoken drama to "Il Trovatore" is equally absurd. Viewed as a structure and text for musical drama, it is dramatically coherent in every important way. Taut, lean, offering superbly balanced opportunities for the 4 principals, shorn of nearly all narrative ballast, densely packed with strong situation and emotional thrust, "Il Trovatore" gives Verdi precisely what he wanted, an archetype of the old-fashioned opera conventions, which produced a massively direct emotional power in his dramatic music. These writers and composers - Verdi especially - knew what they were doing when fashioning texts. Many people are content to airily dismiss Italian opera libretti, with the caveat that "luckily, it doesn't matter anyway". Well, of course it does matter - and, equally luckily, they're generally wrong. Christopher Webber, Blackheath, London, UK. http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm "ZARZUELA!" [I agree with Christopher. As texts to be set to music, many librettos are brilliant. But if we are to dissect the political correctness and/or storyline of most libreetos, they become ridiculous. -Dave]