How to Write a Libretto:
Suggestions and Guidelines
Robert Paterson
There are many great articles about how to write an opera, so I don’t need to go into that here. What’s less clear is how to write a libretto. What even is a libretto? From our most ubiquitous source of information in our current world, Wikipedia:
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet.
Although I have written a few of my own texts for vocal works, I would definitely not call myself a librettist, but I am fortunate to have worked with quite a few excellent librettists and writers. These suggestions and guidelines are perhaps a bit more from the perspective of a composer. At the risk of only hearing only one side of the story, I decided to ask for comments from a few experienced librettist colleagues who I’ve worked with.
Attend Live Opera performances and Listen to Opera
This seems obvious, but before you write a libretto or even an opera, spend as much time as possible studying not just librettos but also operas. The best way to study opera is to attend live opera productions or, at the very least, watch videos of operas. As you do this, if possible, you should have the libretto in hand and, if you read music, the musical score as well. One of the biggest mistakes writers make in creating a libretto (usually their first libretto) is not having a clue what an opera really is. Many writers think operas work like musicals or even plays; while there are some similarities, this is definitely not the case.
Operas are not musicals. Although there is a lot of overlap, and seemingly endless exceptions, there are a few key differences (and, of course, exceptions to each one of these rules):
Operas are usually not amplified. Part of the joy of opera is hearing singers project without amplification. In fact, most operatic singers would be insulted if you asked them to be amplified. They pride themselves on being able to project to the back of a hall and spend years of their lives learning how to do this, so microphones are usually not used in operas. One side note: if you do see opera singers wearing what look like microphones, they are probably headset microphones that are being used to help record their voice for a clearer-sounding recording, and they are most likely not being used for amplification. But why is this important for a librettist? Because amplification allows for certain liberties with sung text that purely acoustic settings don’t allow for as easily. and you need to take that into account. Sung words can project much more quickly and easily and be loud even when they are spoken, and that’s not quite as easy without amplification.
Opera singers generally sing fewer words in an opera than in a musical. Unlike musicals, more emphasis is placed on the beauty of the voice and vocal projection, and singers generally sing more long notes, so they will hold words and syllables longer. Of course, there are seemingly endless exceptions to all of this, but generally speaking, opera uses few words overall than musicals.
Arias (which are essentially songs embedded in operas) do not need to be segmented or are often not as segmented as they are in musicals. Plenty of composers and librettists create operas where the arias, ariosos, and recitative sections flow in and out of each other, so much so that oftentimes, you can’t tell the difference, or the composer chooses not to make a difference. Personally, I think distinct arias are a great tool when writing librettos and operas, but… to each their own. Every creative team will approach this differently.
Aria lyrics (i.e., songs) are usually written by the librettist, not a separate lyricist. In musicals, the libretto is called the “book,” and the songs are called “numbers.” The text for musical numbers is often written by lyricists, not the librettist who writes the book. In opera, the librettist is also usually the lyricist who writes words for the arias.
Unlike many musicals, all of the text in operas is usually sung. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, such as German singspiel, but operatic texts are usually sung and not spoken.
Study Great Librettos
It should go without saying that before you attempt to write a libretto, study librettos. Also, keep in mind that librettos for different styles of music are constructed differently. A libretto for a Classical-period opera may be constructed differently than one for a contemporary opera simply because the musical style is different. In this sense, it’s a great idea to get to know the music of the composer for whom you’re writing a libretto, as that can often inform how you approach writing a libretto for that composer. Otherwise, you can just write it and hope for the best, and perhaps the composer will adjust depending on how you write the text.
Know the Different Operatic Components
It is not necessary to spell everything out for composers, such as where you expect an aria might go or even when something will be sung as a duet, a trio, or by a choir, but it can be helpful. At the very least, discuss this with the composer if you are working with one. Atlanta Opera has a great page that outlines the various operatic components. Generally, composers like to know what librettists are thinking, especially with regard to whether characters are supposed to be singing together. Usually, all you have to do is indicate something as simple as “duet” or “trio,” and if the lines need to interact in a certain way, you can either alternate the character’s lines or have left and right columns.
Get to know the different voice types
Before writing a libretto, ensure you understand each voice type to the best of your ability. If you are not a musician, it might be a bit more difficult to understand, but at the very least, know the difference between a soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and bass. The best way to get to know the various voice types is to listen to operas with the libretto and/or score in hand and see which type of singer is singing which role. Even if you aren’t a musician, I am confident that with enough listening, you’ll eventually be able to tell the difference between a soprano and a mezzo-soprano in no time.
Know the Terminology
This is all available in numerous books and online, but make sure you know are familiar with operatic terminologies, such as aria, arioso, recitative, bel canto, and so on. Opera regularly uses many terms in Italian, and these are all terms that you’ll hear over and over again. You don’t want to look like a deer caught in the headlights when a director says to you, “See you later at the sitzprobe?”
Less is Often More
The biggest mistake writers make when attempting to write librettos—especially if they haven’t written one before—is being too wordy. In opera, the music does a lot of the heavy lifting. In a poem, story, or play, all of the emotion has to come from the words or, in the case of a play, the actors. More time passes when words are sung, so a sentence set to music will take much longer than when it is spoken. To highlight an important moment, a composer may write a long note for a word or even use what’s called a melisma, which is a group of notes for one syllable or single-syllable word. In essence, leave room for the music, and also remember that there will be transitional moments, especially if you have scene changes, a fight scene, etc., where there might be music without words.
When I asked Mark Campbell, one of the world’s most experienced librettists, if he had anything to say about the topic of “less is often more” with regard to librettos, here’s what he had to say:
A good libretto really only comes alive with music. That's why it's a libretto and not a play. If it works as a play, it will very likely fight with the music… and guess what will win? Music.
In addition, words in opera are sometimes repeated for dramatic or musical effect. Most of the time, the composer will choose whether they think a word should be repeated, but you can also indicate where you think this should occur. It’s usually a good idea for composers and librettists to discuss this, so there are no surprises. Some librettists are fairly open-minded about word repetition; others are more choosy.
Suggestions for Working With Composers
If you are a composer and writing you’re own libretto, you have yourself to blame if anything goes wrong, and you can pat yourself on the back if everything goes perfectly! If you are not writing your own libretto, there are a few steps you can take to ensure success when working with composers:
Decide early on what type of working relationship you and your composer like. This is critical: if your composer expects to talk every day, week, or month, you need to know this. Likewise, if you like to communicate via email or text, or raven, you should both get that out of the way early on, so no one is frustrated. Finally, figure out how you want to work. Some composers and librettists like to work by themselves and then present their work to each other, while others like to be in the same room and create together, Kander and Ebb style. There is no right or wrong way, but you should establish how you’ll work together early on.
Establish a schedule: this is also critical and will partially be based on what type of working relationship you’ll establish and also what you’re working on. A schedule for a libretto based on a pre-existing work might look different than one based on a completely original libretto. A typical composer/librettist schedule for a brand-new libretto for a full-length work might look something like this, with discussions at each meeting and minor necessary revisions made along the way (note that, of course, this doesn’t include operas companies/producers and/or directors, who might be involved depending on the situation):
Initial Meeting: discuss ideas, form (one or two acts?), duration, voice types or fach, instrumentation, timeline, etc.
Present the First Draft of the First Scene: discuss any ideas, duration, the number of words, what comes next, etc.
Present First Draft/First Rewrite
Present Second Draft/Second Rewrite
Present the completed libretto to the composer
Meet with the composer after the piano/vocal score for the first scene is completed
Meet with the composer after the piano/vocal score for the first act is completed
Meet with the composer after the piano/vocal score for the second act is completed
The composer orchestrates the music for the ensemble (be patient! This might take a while!)
Work from large to small: flesh out big ideas first, such as the story (if there is one), characters, scope (orchestra or chamber group?), duration, and so on. Later on, you can figure out details such as what happens in each scene, where the arias might go (if there are any), etc.
If your composer is open to it, feel free to mention musical ideas and or “muse” arias, i.e., if you are writing the text for an aria, if you have the sound of another aria in your head, sometimes it’s a good idea to mention it. If nothing else, the composer might better understand that you are really thinking a certain feel or even a certain time signature, whether you realize it or not.
If you are open to it, feel free to solicit ideas from your composer. Experienced composers will often have ideas for how the text will work with the music and can make suggestions for where they think various components can work, such as arias, duets, trios, choral sections, etc.
Be patient: there’s a reason composers are usually paid more than librettists; it’s because composing music is extremely time-consuming. For every sentence you write, there might be hundreds of individual musical notes and other notations on the page. One page of text might be 10-20 pages of orchestra score. There’s also often a piano/vocal score; then the composer has to orchestrate everything, meaning flesh out the piano part for an ensemble. If the ensemble is an orchestra, that takes even more time. Then, individual parts have to be made for all of the musicians. Sometimes composers do this themselves, or they hire someone (or better yet, the opera company hires someone else) to help them. Either way, this all adds up to a mountain of work. This isn’t to belittle the amount of time, craft, and skill that goes into writing a great libretto; this is only to say that composing takes an awful lot of time, comparatively speaking.
Suggestions for Working with A Dramaturg
Another colleague you may collaborate with at some point is a dramaturg. A dramaturg (or dramaturge) is a literary adviser or editor who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programs, consults authors, and sometimes does public relations work. Perhaps most importantly for a librettist, a dramaturg can be used as a consultant or to provide feedback during the creative process. You probably won’t work with dramaturgs unless you’re working with big companies. Just know that they are available if you need them.
Be Open to Changes
Opera, at its core, is a collaborative art form. You don’t create opera in a vacuum. This is exactly why some writers (and even many composers) never create operas: they don’t like to collaborate, and they feel like they will be giving something up if they do. To my mind, and in my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Collaborating, especially with people you can trust, can be one of the most freeing, rewarding, and exciting experiences of your life. There’s almost nothing more gratifying than seeing what brilliant ideas others can bring to something you’ve created.
With regard to the words themselves, you need to be ready to press the delete key for words or even entire scenes. It’s not uncommon to have to rework a section or even an entire scene of an opera—the music included—and certainly, single words are altered all the time. Of course, the more you create librettos, the better you’ll be at preventing large amounts of text (or music) from being abandoned, but be prepared to have this happen. Why would you change a word, might you ask? One great reason to change a word is because of how it’s sung. If you write a word during a climactic moment in your libretto that will be sung on a high note but doesn’t sing well, the composer might ask you to change it to another word with a more “open” sound. For example, the word “loud” (with an open vowel) sings well in a high register, but the word “teeny” does not.
Be Aware of Your Audience
There are obviously differences between writing an opera meant for adults versus one meant for young audiences. No creative artist wants their wings clipped, but remember, you are creating a work to be performed, in the real world, not just in your head. Many details need to be considered, such as whether an opera contains profanity or not. You can, of course, choose to create works in a vacuum; just be aware that you may limit future performances. On the other hand, you also don’t need to completely shave off all of the rough edges. Numerous operas are chock full of horrifying rape scenes, violence, death, and so on. Just be aware of your community, surroundings, and the potential audience you are creating for.
A couple of key points to remember are that an opera performed in your native language will usually come across as more visceral than when it’s being translated from a foreign language with supertitles, and what’s right in front of you will often be more powerful than something you see on a film screen.
Stage Directions: To Include or Not?
Here’s some sage advice from director and librettist John de los Santos:
I know it's tempting to be as specific as possible with stage directions, but keep in mind that the resources and time for each production will vary, so until an official premiere, I recommend keeping them as minimal as possible. A collaborative director, conductor, designer, and cast can sometimes realize your work in a way that expands your view of the piece and further illuminates your vision.
If you include stage directions, make them as clear as possible, and try to only include ones that are absolutely critical to the opera. Playwright, writer, and librettist David Cote offers this piece of wisdom: “Good stage directions are usually brief but to the point; bad ones try to control too much.”
Here are David’s examples:
Brief and to the point:
Jenny starts to leave the room, but stops and turns.
JENNY: I have something more to say.
Jenny picks up Alice's newspaper.
JENNY: Can I do the crossword?
Trying to control too much:
Uneasy, disturbed, and unsure of herself, Jenny starts to go. She pauses at the door, her hand on the doorknob. Taking a deep breath, she begins to turn, just as the lights isolate her in a cold blue wash. Jenny has turned, and now reveals her heart.
JENNY: I have something more to say.
Sometimes, stage directions can be helpful with emotional intention but should be used sparingly:
JENNY (heavily sarcastic): Oh sure, you'd make a great mayor.
Now, for a cold hard reality: be prepared for directors to completely ignore your stage directions. Sad but true. Personally, I’m against this practice, and I think that, if nothing else, directors should at least review what the creators were thinking, but either way, you should be prepared.
Also, remember: unless you are embarking on a one-person show, you are NOT the director, or for that matter, the set designer, choreographer, or conductor. As much as your libretto is your precious creation, and you’ve inevitably imagined every moment of every scene in your head, opera is a collaborative team effort. As John mentioned in his quote, directors need to be aware of a myriad of technical issues and considerations that you may not realize, so they’ll need to adjust accordingly. In fact, one reason creators are often not invited to staging rehearsals is that directors don’t want the creators to get in the way. My best advice here is: learn how to let go. Let directors and everyone else do their jobs and invite them into the creative process. If something is really wrong, feel free to mention it, but otherwise, learn how to trust others to do their jobs.
How to Format Text
If you are a writer who is not a musician, or you have never written text to be set to music before, there are a few technical considerations you may not be aware of that you need to keep in mind:
Multisyllabic words need to be hyphenated. When a composer sets words to music, if the word has multiple syllables, it will have to be broken up with hyphens. For example, the following sentence, “I absolutely love writing opera librettos,” will be hyphenated like this: “I ab-so-lute-ly love writ-ing o-pe-ra li-bret-tos.” If you are writing a libretto for a composer and want to be a composer’s best friend, give them a hyphenated version of your text! One of my favorite online tools for hyphenating text is Juicio Brennan’s Hyphenator. It’s not absolutely perfect, so you’ll need to review your text after your hyphenate it, especially if you use a few uncommon words, but it definitely saves a lot of time.
Numbers need to be written out: since words need to be set to music and broken up into syllables, they need to be written out as words. For example, the sentence, “They sailed the 7 seas in 1864 on August 4th at 4:00pm.” could be written, “They sailed the seven seas in eighteen sixty-four on August fourth at four in the afternoon.” If you choose to use actual Arabic numbers or Roman numerals in your libretto, just be aware that the composer (or you) will need to write all of that out for setting to music.
Lyrics are typically only written in plain type: italics, bold text, and underlines are not used when writing lyrics or opera librettos. Words in ALL CAPS are also not usually used in lyrics. If you want the words emphasized, the music can do that for you; the words themselves don’t have to scream.
Wordless vocalizations don’t often translate well on the operatic stage: in plays, written stories, or even musicals, wordless vocalizations are wonderful. Microphones can fix almost anything! In opera, they often don’t carry well, sonically speaking. Vocalizations like “mmm” and “ah” are OK; just be prepared for them not to project well, especially for operas meant for large halls. Remember: the music itself and the staging can achieve the effect for you if you let it.
Stage directions can use different types of formatting: if you really need it, stage directions can contain italics, bold text, and so on, but generally speaking, it’s a good idea to limit yourself to plain text for these as well.
Stage directions can be included in the musical score: it’s common to see stage directions in musical scores, especially at the beginning of acts and even scenes.
Libretto Formatting
There are several variations regarding formatting. There’s no right or wrong way, although there are a few time-tested practices. Clarity is key. In short, your libretto should contain the following, in this order:
Title page: this contains the name of the work, the composer and librettist’s names, and publisher/agent information if any. You could also include contact information here as well, such as your phone number or email address, but that’s optional.
Dramatis personae: this contains the following:
Character list: names, pronouns, voice types, and, if you wish, very minimal character descriptions
One-line setting indication: for example:
Time: 2023. Place: The local coffee shop.
Time: 2258. Place: Zorg’s spaceship.
Composer/librettist note: this could contain any contextual information from the creative team about the work that isn’t obvious in the libretto itself and perhaps even includes a brief synopsis.
Trigger warnings: these aren’t necessary unless you choose to include them or feel you need them, but they usually go before the libretto begins.
Libretto: this is the core of the text and contains the entire libretto.
Copyright: I know this may seem obvious, but it’s always a good idea to put a copyright notice at the end of your libretto, for example, © Copyright [year] [Full Name].
Sample Libretto Excerpts
There are plenty of places online to find public-domain librettos, so here are a few excerpts from more recent librettos. If a libretto is coupled with a music score, the title page and dramatis personae are usually at the front before the music, and the libretto is usually placed at the back of the score after the music.