Librettist

Ranieri de' Calzabigi (december 23 1714 - July 1795) was an Italian poet and librettist, most famous for his collaboration with the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck on his "reform" operas. Born in Livorno, Calzabigi spent the 1750s in Paris, where he became a close friend of Casanova. Here he explored his interest in opera, producing an edition of the works of Metastasio, the most famous librettist of opera seria. However, Calzabigi was also impressed by French tragédie en musique, and...

Adolphe Philippe d'Ennery or Dennery (June 17, 1811 – January 25, 1899) was a French dramatist and novelist. Born in Paris, his real surname was Philippe. He obtained his first success in collaboration with Charles Desnoyer in Emile, ou le fils d'un pair de France (1831), a drama which was the first of a series of some two hundred pieces written alone or in collaboration with other dramatists. Among the best of them may be mentioned Gaspard Hauser (1838) with Anicet Bourgeois; Les Bohemiens de...

Sydney Grundy (March 23 1848 – July 4 1914) was an English dramatist. Most of his works were adaptations of European plays, and many became successful enough to tour throughout the English-speaking world. He is, however, perhaps best remembered today as the librettist of several comic opera, notably Haddon Hall. Grundy was born in Manchester, England, the son of Alderman Charles Sydney Grundy. He was educated at Owens College, Manchester, and practiced at the bar from 1869 until 1876. His...

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813, Leipzig, Germany - 13 February 1883, Venice, Italy) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist and essayist, primarily known for his opera (or "music drama", as they were later called). Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote the scenario and libretto for his works. Wagner's compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for contrapuntal texture, rich chromaticism, harmonies and orchestration, and elaborate use of...

Francesco Maria Piave (18 May 1810 – 5 March 1876) was an Italian librettist who was Verdi's life-long friend and collaborator. Like Verdi, Piave was an ardent Italian patriot, and in 1848, during Milan's "Cinque Giornate," when Radetsky's Austria troops retreated from the city, Verdi's letter to Piave in Venice was addressed to "Citizen Piave." Piave was born in Murano in the lagoon of Venice, during the brief Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. He followed Salvatore Cammarano as Verdi's main mid...

Catulle Mendès (22 May 1841 – 8 February 1909) was a French poet and man of letters. Of Jewish extraction, he was born in Bordeaux. He early established himself in Paris, attaining speedy notoriety by the publication in the Revue fantaisiste (1861) of his Roman d'une nuit, for which he was condemned to a month's imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs. He was allied with the Parnassians from the beginning of the movement, and displayed extraordinary metrical skill in his first volume of poems,...

Hugo von Hofmannsthal (February 1, 1874 – July 15, 1929), was an Austria novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. Hofmannsthal was born in Vienna, the son of an upper-class Austrian mother and an Austrian-Italian bank manager. His great-grandfather, Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, from whom his family inherited the noble title "Edler von Hofmannsthal," was a Jewish merchant ennobled by the Austrian emperor. He began to write poems and plays from an early age....

Mikhail Alexeyevich Matinsky (Russian: Михаил Алексеевич Матинский, 1750 Pavlovskoe – c1820 St Petersburg) was a Russian scientist, dramatist, librettist and opera composer. Matinsky originated from the serfs of Count S. P. Yaguzhinsky. He studied in the gymnasium for the "raznochintsy" (people not belonging to the gentry) at Moscow University and also in Italy. Later he taught mathematics at the Smolny Institute in St Petersburg. He published the following books: The Description of Measures...

Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (November 29, 1836 – April 21, 1917), often credited as F. C. Burnand, was an editor of Punch, taking over from Tom Taylor in 1880, until 1906, when he was succeeded by Sir Owen Seaman. He was also a prolific humorist and writer, creating almost 200 burlesques, farces, pantomimes and other works. He was knighted in 1902. Burnand studied at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (where he founded the Amateur Dramatic Club) and studied first to become a priest and then...

Pope Clement IX (January 28, 1600 – December 9, 1669), born Giulio Rospigliosi, was Pope from 1667 to 1669. Born Giulio Rospigliosi to a noble family of Pistoia, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, he was a pupil of the Jesuit. After receiving his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Pisa, he taught theology there. Later Rospigliosi worked closely with Pope Urban VIII (1623–1644), a Barberini Pope, where he worked in the Papal diplomacy as nuncio to Spain, among other posts. He was also made...

Cesare Sterbini (Rome 1784 – January 19th, 1831) was an Italian writer. He is known for two libretti for opera by Gioacchino Rossini: Torvaldo e Dorliska (1815) and The Barber of Seville (1816).

Father Varesco (1735-1805) was a chaplain, musician, poet and (most famously) librettist to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.His given name variously appears as Giambattista, Gianbattista, Giovanni Battistaand Girolamo Giovanni Battista. He is sometimes referred to with the Italian titleAbate or the French Abbé, both used for priests:he was chaplain at the Salzburg court chapel from 1766. Varesco's only familiar work with Mozart is the libretto to Idomeneo;the abortive L'oca del Cairo is little-known...

Michael Korie (born Michael Korie Indick) is an American librettist and lyricist. Korie's works include Grey Gardens (Lyrics. Music by Scott Frankel, book by Doug Wright), Harvey Milk (opera) (Libretto. Music by Stewart Wallace) and The Grapes of Wrath (opera) (Libretto. Music by Ricky Ian Gordon). It was recently announced that Korie would be writing the lyrics to a musical adaptation of the 2004 film Finding Neverland. Korie grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and attended Teaneck High School.

Salvatore Cammarano (born Naples, 19 March 1801 - died Naples 17 July 1852) was a prolific Italian librettist and playwright perhaps best known for writing the text of Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) for Gaetano Donizetti. For Donizetti he also contributed the libretti for L'assedio di Calais (1836), Belisario (1836), Pia de' Tolomei (1837), Roberto Devereux (1837), Maria de Rudenz (1838), Poliuto (1838), and Maria di Rohan (1843), while for Giuseppe Persiani he was the author of Ines de Castro. ...

Louis Gallet (1835–1898) was an inexhaustible French writer of operatic librettos, plays, romances, memoirs, pamphlets, and innumerable articles, who is remembered above all for his adaptations of fiction—and Scripture to provide libretto of cantata and opera, notably by composers Ambroise Thomas (Mignon), Georges Bizet, Camille Saint-Saëns and Jules Massenet. By day Gallet supported himself by a minor post in the Administration of Assistance to the Poor and positions, first as treasurer then...