Talk:List of opera librettists

Note:additions needed

• Salvatore Cammarano - wrote lots of libretti for famous 19th century Italian operas

--Folantin 17:56, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Now done. --Kleinzach 07:58, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

What to do for Metastasio? Possibly list the libretti he wrote along with the particularly notable composers - Handel, Gluck, Mozart - that set them? Moreschi ^Talk 10:05, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Yep. Give the titles first, then the composers who set them. The same problem arises with Zeno (e.g. both Scarlatti and Vivaldi set La Griselda) but let's deal with Metastasio first. Maybe we can add an explanation at the top or in Metastasio's entry. --Folantin 10:11, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Composers who wrote some of their own libretti: --Folantin 08:48, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Excellent!

I'm delighted to see this and I like the layout which makes the permutations really clear. This will be a real credit to the project. - Kleinzach 02:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it's coming on nicely. If we limit the librettists to those who already have their own articles, we can keep the page in proportion. It also helps us identify which major librettists still need bios. --Folantin 07:20, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Notes

I've introduced a subtle distinction between libretti written "for" a composer and libretti "used by" a composer (often long after the author was dead). This allows us to add Georg Büchner et al..

Also, celebrity librettists? Do we add Frederick the Great, Victor Hugo and Emile Zola, even though the operas for which they wrote libretti are fairly obscure?--Folantin 10:30, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

And the Duc de Morny! We haven't discussed whether this list is inclusive/open ended like the Opera Corpus, but perhaps there is a problem if the operas in question will never have articles. -Kleinzach 10:35, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

I think candidates need to fulfill two criteria: (a) they have their own bio article; (b) at least one of their operas is bluelinked. There are a few librettists I've noticed who fail (a) who really should be here: Handel's librettist Nicola Francesco Haym being the most obvious. We should probably create a list of red links either here or at the Project main page for librettists in need of articles (assuming one doesn't exist already). --Folantin 10:47, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

I think including celebrity librettists is quite a good idea: it's good PR and they add a bit of spice - providing, of course, they have their own article already. I've been meaning to get round to Haym for ages: I've got time today, so later on I'll put up something for him. Moreschi ^Talk 11:09, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

A fairly brief article is now up for Nicola Francesco Haym. I'll keep on expanding it. Cheers, Moreschi ^Talk 14:23, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Alphabetic order?

Are we listing the operas in alphabetic order as on the Opera corpus? - Kleinzach 13:07, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

We probably should... these Metastasio ones are a nightmare. I'm currently using a rather arbitrary notability criterion of inclusion based on whether one or more of big guns - Handel, Gluck, Mozart, Vinci, Hasse, Porpora, maybe Traetta - set it. Cheers, Moreschi ^Talk 13:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

It's a bit haphazard at the moment. Some of them are definitely in alphabetical order, since I copied and pasted them from the Opera Corpus. --Folantin 13:19, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Librettists (and libretti) in Grove

I've been looking in Grove (which is remarkably librettist-friendly) and find there are about 500 biographies of librettists (listed on page 1224 of the print edition). This includes articles on literary sources (one removed) such as Shakespeare, Beaumarchais etc. There are also about 60 or 70 articles on libretti (almost all Italian, and probably largely Metastasio), and 'libretto subjects'. This is maybe worth considering if we remember that the Opera corpus coverage is gradually catching up with Grove (now 1,450 titles to 1,800 in Grove). -- Kleinzach 07:57, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

"English libretti for continental operettas"

I see Basil Hood is quaintly credited with "English libretti for continental operettas". I think it might be better to delete this unless we are going to include libretto translators. What do other people think? -Kleinzach 10:46, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Delete. It would widen the scope too much. --Folantin 10:53, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

OK. Done. --Kleinzach 10:59, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges

A couple of things relating to him: First, is he a V or an S? He's not in the Oxford Dictionary and the Viking has him under both, under V for the Bizet and S for the rest! Where is he in Grove? And should his name include the words "Marquis de"? Second, I wasn't sure what to do about Les diamants de la couronne, which also appears under Scribe - should it appear under both librettists or what? --GuillaumeTell 11:07, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Grove has him under S (no Marquis de).--Kleinzach 02:33, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

More French librettists

Are we at the stage when we might add a few names in red? I have Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, Etiene Tréfeu, Louis-Adolphe Jaime and Louis Anseaume in mind. Perhaps someone would like to do stubs for them? --Kleinzach 02:37, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Shouldn't the Hector-Jonathan Crémieux ones be indented under each composer for clarity? I'll try it. Feel free to revert, Voceditenore 13:20, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

That looks better, but it conflicts with the layout elsewhere in the list when there are multiple librettists, where the first indent is "with" and the second indent is "for", even where different combinations of librettists wrote for the same composer - see Blau, Saint-Georges and Scribe. It seems to me to be right that "with" is the first indent, as this is a list of librettists, not composers. If no-one objects, I'll alter it to conform.--GuillaumeTell 16:46, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

No-one has objected, so I've done it. --GuillaumeTell (talk) 21:34, 17 November 2007 (UTC)