The music of this work was excellent, but the libretto lacked action, and no stage performance was ever given.
In the meanwhile I completed the libretto of Tristan und Isolde, and at the same time Hans made me a fair copy of each act.
As only Italian was sung in that country, it would be necessary to translate my libretto, which the Emperor regarded as a very easy matter, and actually an improvement to the libretto itself.
In order to get an impression of the work, I was particularly anxious to hear the libretto Berlioz had written himself, and he spent an evening reading it out to me.
The reading of my librettoput us all into excellent humour, but I was very sorry I could not shake Cornelius's determination to start on his return journey the next day.
I therefore composed the libretto of the Rheingold in the October and November of that year, and with that I brought the whole cycle of the Nibelungen myth as I had evolved it to a conclusion.
He placed his journal at my disposal, and made me give him the first act of the libretto of Meistersinger for his feuilleton.
My friends all agreed in thinking that Hanslick looked on the whole libretto as a lampoon aimed at himself, and had felt an invitation to the reading to be an insult.
It was during this journey that the music of the Meistersinger first dawned on my mind, in which I still retained the libretto as I had originally conceived it.
Charnal and to get information from him about the translation of the libretto of my Rienzi with which he had been entrusted.
One of his most happy, most memorable inspirations, he suddenly drew one day from the libretto of the "Freischuetz.
We have already spoken of his speech against the imperial crown offered by the parliament of Frankfort, of the ingenious allusion borrowed from the libretto of the "Freischuetz.
Beethoven's love for classic literature led him to express a desire for a libretto based on some story of the antique world.
Beethoven's copy of the libretto has been preserved, and in it there are indications that he made some heroic excisions.
The conversation about the libretto of "Euryanthe" is said by Max Maria von Weber to have taken place at the dinner in Baden; but Benedict's is the likelier story.
He hesitated at first about accepting a libretto which Paisiello had treated so successfully, but having obtained that composer's permission he wrote the entire score in a fortnight.
This method was interestingly applied in the German courts, when it was held as to the opera "Carmen" that Bizet's music was out of copyright, but that the libretto was protected because one of its three joint authors was still living.
The text of the libretto is weak and spiritless as compared with that of the poetical versions.
The May Queen," a pastoral cantata, the libretto by Henry F.
The libretto was prepared by the composer himself, who has shown great skill in making his selections in such manner as not to disturb the continuity of the story.
The Story of Sayid," a dramatic cantata in two parts, the librettoby Joseph Bennett, was first produced at the Leeds Triennial Festival, Oct.
The librettoshows numerous variations from the original text.
To make the text of the libretto intelligible, the incidents leading up to it must be briefly told.
The librettois a manufacture, not, like Tristan, a growth.
He was a member of a coterie that met at Angell's restaurant, and there on November 17 he read the complete libretto to his friends and acquaintances.
For the present it is sufficient to say that out of Bulwer Lytton's novel Rienzi he took material to weave a libretto that would afford opportunities for a great spectacular opera; and set to work and wrote two acts of the music.
We, knowing the kind of music Wagner had in his mind when he wrote the libretto of Lohengrin, can easily understand Schumann's dismay when this scene was read to him: nothing of the sort had been composed before.
Schumann was amongst them, and he bluntly asserted that such a libretto could not be set.
In a word, then, we must take the Dutchman libretto as it is, unreasonable, false: only a series of occasions for writing some fine music.
The bits of Schopenhauer's broken brickbats embedded in the libretto of Tristan serve their turn, though a finer and more poetical way of saying the same things might have been found.
In point of structure the libretto of Lohengrin closely resembles that of its predecessor.
But Mozart never had a libretto to compare with Wagner's; and Fidelio, though serious enough in all conscience, is not an opera at all.
The beautiful Celestine Coltellini (second daughter of the poet Coltellini, who had written the libretto of Mozart's first opera) was engaged in 1783 by the Emperor Joseph II.
For the paradox that a librettoif it is to be musical cannot be poetical, but can only have certain external forms of poetic delivery, is certainly false.
When the libretto was ready, and part of the music composed, Mozart repaired to Munich, according to custom, to finish the opera on the spot.
We have seen that the librettounites the characteristics of Italian and French opera as far as style is concerned, but that the determining element is the Italian style.
Footnote 12: The recitative preceding this aria was originally (as the libretto shows) much longer and more fully composed; many pages were cut out for performance and some small alterations were made.
Schachtner's libretto is truly insufferable, but it is indispensable to the critical examination of Mozart's music.
The original libretto is arranged for a genuine vaudeville.
The revival of Italian opera had suggested to him to look about for a libretto for an opera buffa, and even before he came to Salzburg he had entered into negotiations with Varesco through his father.
He composed sketches for an overture and chorus to libretto by J.
The composer wrote his own libretto for this, and it is an ingenious one.
Mr Sturgis touched no phrase of Shakespeare's that he did not degrade; there is really no reason why the libretto of a modern opera should be written in rhyming couplets.
Boito did the libretto for Faccio's Hamlet, produced in Genoa 1865, but I cannot get a copy.
All Shakespeare's principal characters are present, and the libretto is very ingenious.
Wilhelm Taubert's+ opera Macbeth was produced in Berlin in 1857, libretto by F.
As he was unable to produce his opera in his native country, he had the libretto translated into German, and the work was performed with success at Bonn in 1881, and subsequently at Weimar.
About the middle of October Mendelssohn was in communication with Lumley, lessee of Her Majesty's, for an opera, libretto by Scribe, on the same subject.
We now come to the third opera founded on The Merry Wives of Windsor, +Verdi's+ Falstaff, librettoby Boito.
Nevertheless he began himself to write the libretto at Riga in the summer of 1838.
His friend Heinrich Laube[3] had offered him a libretto on the subject of Kosciuszko, but he refused it, saying that he was engaged wholly on instrumental music.
Therefore his conception of Bulwer's "Rienzi" was wholly as material for the libretto of a grand opera of the Meyerbeerian school.
These are the petty puppets of libretto machinists, who cut and fit more or less dramatic stories according to the specifications of the Meyerbeerian plan.
He could not construct a libretto with the regularly recurring duets, trios, and ensembles, if he meant to be true to dramatic art.
He went so far as to make a prose sketch of a libretto entitled "Wieland the Smith.
The entertainment was to consist of the performance of an opera, on the subject of the Duc de Guise, the libretto written by "a noble amateur and set to music by the young Flotow.
There were good reasons for this, for, despite an excellent foundation for the music, the librettohad serious faults.
The authorship of this amazinglibretto is unknown, but it is not strange that Meyerbeer soon abandoned it.
The extravagance of thelibretto led the musician into many unfortunate things.
He made some justifiable criticisms of the libretto of the last work, although he admitted that the composer had contrived to write beautiful passages.
From this detail it is easy to imagine that the libretto is bizarre.
They did not give it to me on the ground that I didn't need it, but the day after the award, Auber, who was very fond of me, asked Carvalho for a libretto for me.
Mendelssohn, when he agreed to compose an opera on the Tempest, stipulated that the libretto should be confided to Scribe, who willingly undertook it, and afterwards declared that he knew few subjects so well adapted for music.
The libretto which occupied his attention was that of his opera, Guntram, the first and least known of his productions for the lyric stage.
The convalescent, with a finished operalibretto in his baggage went to repair his health in Italy, Greece and Egypt.
With regard to the libretto of Der Rosenkavalier he wrote to the poet "the first act is excellent, the second lacks certain essential contrasts which it is impossible to put off till the third.
I have always understood that Oxenford wrote the libretto of that--a fine one as librettos go--but Grove's Dictionary says that Boucicault helped him.
To be sure, it goes without saying, from a purist point of view it is a patent truth, that no libretto is ever so fine after it has been translated.
Grimani wrote for Handel the libretto of the opera Agrippina, of which Handel probably composed part of the music at Naples.
The libretto was inspired by the Theodore vierge et martyre of Corneille.
Alessandro Scarlatti set to music his libretto of Statira, and composed for him his Rosaura, and his Christmas Oratorio.
The old-time opera libretto was so stupid that Voltaire was justified in saying, "What is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
The libretto was preserved among Schindler's papers in the Royal Library in Berlin.
Treitschke had provided the libretto of "Romulus"; it does not appear that Beethoven ever began its composition.
A question having arisen some years ago, as to the origin of the libretto of "Aida," the author of it, M.
More significant still are the words which Weber wrote to Fran von Chezy when she was writing the libretto for "Euryanthe;" which he intended to make better than all his previous works.
Whether she was impressed with the libretto or its author we do not know.
During his sojourn he held a reading of his libretto to "The Ring of the Nibelung" at Mme.
Auber has an opera on the subject (1831), the libretto by Scribe.
Libretto by Calzabigi, who also wrote for Glück thelibretto of Alceste (1767).
Not satisfied with these composers, he cast his eyes on Mozart, to whom he had promised a libretto as early as 1783.
The libretto differs neither in design nor execution from that of an ordinary opera buffa.
The time at which Mozart was at work on this libretto falls within that during which Nancy Storace performed as Signora Fischer.
That it was a libretto which had already been made use of follows from the fact that Mozart made some corrections from the original of inaccuracies as to names committed by the ignorant Italian copyist.
But whatever merit Da Ponte's libretto may claim, it claims chiefly as having given occasion to Mozart's music; (527 K.
Footnote 77: The usual title of opera buffa is given to "Don Giovanni" by Mozart in his Thematic Catalogue; in the librettoit is called "dramma giocoso.
He then either obtains the services of a librettist or himself arranges a libretto setting forth the chosen story.
But the great achievement of British music during the past fifty years has been the Gilbertian operas, in which Sir Arthur Sullivan matched with a perfect musical counterpart the kind of libretto furnished by W.
Verga's powerful story of love and revenge, on which the libretto is based, counted for much, but the crude emotional vigour of the score is not to be denied.
If it interests you, I will send you the new libretto together with the old, and I think you will approve of the change and of the combination of the two last tableaux in one.
A libretto of Scribe or Dumas I cannot set to music.
How very lucrative this generally acknowledged right is may be seen from the fact that in one winter six thousand copies of the libretto of "Tannhauser" were ordered for Breslau alone.
LISZT Herr von Zigesar will write to you direct about the sale of the libretto of "Lohengrin.
As I should like you to dispose of the pianoforte score, made by Uhlig in Dresden, to a music-publisher, the best way would be to offer the libretto to the same man whom you have in your eye for the pianoforte arrangement.
My asking you to send me a proof of the libretto (now too late).
The passage is therefore to be omitted in the libretto as well.
A newly revised libretto intended for the printer I send at the same time with this.
Adapted from the operetta after the libretto by R.
Adapted from the operetta of Franz Lehár, withlibretto by A.
Adapted from the opera, music by Michael William Balfe, libretto by Alfred Bunn.
From the opera, music by Michael William Balfe, libretto by Alfred Bunn.
