Libretto Policy and Guidelines

At Mostly Modern Festival, we want our audiences to be impressed by everyone’s talent, and we also have many goals for our festival, including building our audience from season to season. With this in mind, we must be mindful of what we present, how we present it, and what audiences we are trying to reach and retain. We also post all works on our YouTube channel, so we need to consider what might get flagged and blocked. Therefore, we have a set of policies for librettos used for dramatic works, so there are no unexpected surprises down the line.

As indicated on the Modern Vocal Projects page, we reserve the right to approve or reject librettos for any reason whatsoever, especially if we feel we cannot present them publicly. In order to ensure that your libretto is approved, we offer a few suggestions and guidelines below.

Note regarding librettos written by our faculty librettists: If you are a composer working with one of our librettists (and this should apply to working with other librettists as well), once the final libretto is submitted and agreed upon, you will need to check with your librettist before making any changes to the libretto. Librettists are usually pretty accommodating, within reason, especially for repeated text, but for any other changes, you should always consult with the librettist first and allow them to come up with alternatives and changes with you. This is the same respect you would expect from conductors, performers, etc., not changing your music without asking you first and/or having you make the changes as the composer.

There are no limits with regard to the subject matter, but librettos need to be family-friendly. This means a few swear words are fine, and limited violence and allusions to drug use are allowed, but we will not allow nudity or constant, repetitive swear words. We suggest that if you need to use these in your work, these be used sparingly and not as the main focus of your work.

To be more specific, here is what is not allowed:

• Hate speech, predatory behavior, constant drug use, nudity, graphic violence, malicious attacks, and content that promotes harmful or dangerous behavior.

• Heavy profanity, frequent F-bombs, racial slurs, and other derogatory phrases.

• Using sexually suggestive terms or swear words in the libretto’s title.

• Swearing within the first 30 seconds of your piece. (YouTube often bans videos that do this.)

Composers may write their own librettos. This is specified on the MVP page, but to be clear, we do allow composers to write their own librettos, although we encourage composers to work with writers if for no other reason than to experience collaborating with others.

Modern Vocal Projects composers may not perform, direct, or conduct their own dramatic works. We believe that composers will get the most out of our MVP program if they are able to work with singers, instrumentalists, a director, and a conductor. If composers are involved with the performative aspects of the production, they won’t be able to step back and see what is happening as clearly, and they can’t review their scores from a more holistic perspective. Furthermore, we strongly believe that working with outside artists is in our composers’ best interests.

In addition, singers at Mostly Modern Festival are very eager to work with living composers, and we are excited to give as many opportunities as possible to our singers in a supportive environment such as Mostly Modern Festival.

Hopefully, these guidelines are helpful, but if you have any questions, please contact us, and we will be happy to answer any additional questions you may have.