Last updated: Mar. 31, 2000
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Annotated Bibliography of Sources about Libretti and Other Texts

(Check also the bibliography under "Libretto" in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera)

• History and Bibliography
• General Study and Analysis
• Individual Composers and Works
• Poetics and Versification
• Translation Issues
• Translation Aids
• Other

• Fuld, James J. The book of world-famous libretti : the musical theater from 1598 to today. Rev. ed. New York : Pendragon Press, 1994.
• O'Grady, Deirdre. The last troubadours : poetic drama in Italian opera, 1597-1887. London : Routledge, 1991.
• Smith, Patrick J. The tenth muse : a historical study of the opera libretto. New York : A. A. Knopf, 1970.
• Deals with only Italian, French, and German.
• Includes bibliography

• Clement, Catherine. Opera, or, The undoing of Women / translated by Betsy Wing ; foreword by Susan McClary. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c1988.
• This book has been criticized for having virtually nothing to do with the music of operas, and little even with the libretti, but mainly the plots.
• Conrad, Peter. Romantic opera and literary form. Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, c1977.
• Gianakaris, C.J. "Teaching drama and opera," in Ars Lyrica, v6 (1992) p25-33.
• Herman, Mark and Ronnie Apter. "Words and music: a theatrical partnership," in Opera Journal, v. 25 no. 4 (1992) p. 3-24.

MacDonald, Hugh. "The prose libretto", in Cambridge Opera Journal, v.1, no.2 (1989), p. 167-194.
• Pascoe, David. "Taking liberties with English libretti," in Essays in Criticism,  v. 44 no. 2 (Apr. 1994), p. 81-
• Reading opera / edited by Arthur Groos and Roger Parker. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1988.
• Mostly essays from a conference held at Cornell University, Oct. 1986.
• Schmidgall, Gary. Literature as opera. New York : Oxford University Press, 1977.
• Yellin, Victor Fell. "Sullivan and Thomson, Gilbert and Stein," in Journal of Musicology,  v. 11 no. 4 (Fall 1993), p. 478-

 Adams, John

• Griffiths, Eric. "Words for Music," in TLS. Times Literary Supplement,  no. 4607 (July 19, 1991), p. 12.
• Alice Goodman's libretti for Nixon in China and Death of Klinghoffer.

• The Ghosts of Versailles
• Hoffman, William M. "Confessions of a librettist: how Rossini's Barbiere influenced The Ghosts of Versailles," in Opera News, v.59, no.15 (Apr. 15, 1995) p8-

• Madama Butterfly
• Groos, Arthur. "The lady vanishes: the lost act of Madama Butterfly," in Opera News,  v. 59, no. 8 (Jan. 7, 1995), p. 16-

• The Barber of Baghdad (unfinished)
• Gozenpud, A.A. "Neosushchestvlennyi opernyi zamysel." Muzykal'noe nasledstvo. Rimskii-Korsakov : issledovaniia, materialy, pis'ma. T. II. Moskva : Izd-vo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1954; p. 253-260.
• Includes prose and versified renderings of the libretto of Act I.
• Christmas Eve
• Taylor, Philip. Gogolian interludes : Gogol's story "Christmas Eve" as the subject of the operas by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. London : Collets, 1984.
• Includes transliterations and translations for the two libretti, as well as translations of the original story and of music reviews by contemporaries of the composers.
• Edmunds, Catherine J. Puskin and Gogol as sources for the librettos of the fantastic fairy tale operas of Rimskij-Korsakov. Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Harvard University, 1985.
• Gozenpud, A.A. "Iz nabljudenii nad tvocheskim protsessom Rimskogo-Korsakova. II. Rimskii-Korsakov v rabote nad opernym libretto". Muzykal'noe nasledstvo. Rimskii-Korsakov : issledovaniia, materialy, pis'ma, v dvukh tomakh. Moskva : Izd-vo Akademiia nauk SSSR, 1953; T.I, p. 208-251.
• Neff, Lyle K. "Close to Prose, or Worse than Verse? Rimsky-Korsakov's Intermediate Type of Opera Text," in Opera Quarterly, v. 15, no. 2, Winter 1998.

• Oedipus Rex
• Bauschatz, Paul. "Oedipus: Stravinsky and Cocteau recompose Sophocles," in Comparative Literature, v. 43 no. 2 (Spring 1991), p.150-

• Cherevichki
• Taylor, Philip. Gogolian interludes : Gogol's story "Christmas Eve" as the subject of the operas by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. London : Collets, 1984.
• Includes transliterations and translations for the two libretti, as well as translations of the original story and of music reviews by contemporaries of the composers.

•  Unbegaun, B.O. Russian versification. Corrected ed. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1963.

• Apter, Ronnie. "The impossible takes a little longer: translating opera into English," in Translation Review, no. 30/31 (1990), p27-37.
• -------. "Questions of quantity: some difficulties in translating opera for performance in English," in Ars Lyrica, v. 4 (1989), p19-28.
• Copyright Database (at Library of Congress)
• Graham, Arthur. "A new look at recital song translation," in Translation Review, n29 (1989) p31-37.
• Machlis, Joseph. "On translating a Russian opera." Russian and Soviet music : essays for Boris Schwarz / edited by Malcolm Hamrick Brown. (Russian Music Studies ; no. 11) Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Research Press, c1984; p. 221-227.
• On the author's English version of Prokofiev's War and Peace.
• King, Martha. "An interview with William Weaver," in Translation Review, no. 14 (1984), p. 4-9.
• Merkling, Frank. "Opera in English?" in Musical America, v. 76 (Feb. 15, 1956) p. 18-19, 137, 226.
• Pippin, Donald. Turning Opera into English.
• Stapp, Marcie. The singer's guide to languages. 2nd ed. San Francisco, Calif. : Teddy's Music Press, 1991.
• "The source of choice for lyric diction and translating" -- newsnet recommentation from a singer.
• Publisher's address: Teddy's Music Press, 3425 Taraval St., San Francisco, CA 94116, Fax/Telephone 800-41-TEDDY
• Stracher, Cameron, A. "An introduction to copyright law for translators," in Translation Review, no. 36/37 (1991), p. 12-14.
• Zatlin, Phyllis. "Observations on theatrical translation," in Translation Review, no. 46 (1994) p. 14-18.

• Resources for Translators
• English & Foreign Language Dictionaries Online
• La ricerca dell'infinito. San Francisco : Centro Studi Italiani, 1988. Information below from the publisher:
• 99p. Introduction and Tables in English
• An alphabetical list to identify the infinitives of over 9,000 poetic, archaic and irregular Italian verb forms, including homographs and homophones. It contains comparative tables of standard endings and poetic variants, and the indication of word stress and the closed or open pronunciation of vowels.
• $10 plus tax and shipping charges. Please request a free catalog and order form from: Centro Studi Italiani, P.O.Box 591581, San Francisco, CA 94159-1581
• Wood, Clement. Clement Wood's unabridged rhyming dictionary. Introd. by Ted Robinson. New York : New World Dictionaries/Prentice Hall Press, [1984], c1943.

• Thomson, Robert. Italian for the Opera. Vancouver, BC : Godwin Books, 1993.
• From the author: "We are now in Palm Springs, CA. Tel. 760 328 0834. 150 pp. Lots of photos, and a bibliog. Came out in 1993. Retails for $12.95 (U. S.)." rthomson@gte.net