A librettist is the author of a libretto (It.: small book), the text of a vocal work, particularly opera or oratorio. Among the notorious librettists have been Pietro Metastasio, Lorenzo Da Ponte, Eugene Scribe, Felice Romani, Francesco Maria Piave, Luigi Illica, Arrigo Boito, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Some composers wrote libretti for themselves or for other composers, for example Richard Wagner, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Frederick Delius, Michael ...
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A librettist is the author of a libretto (It.: small book), the text of a vocal work, particularly opera or oratorio. Among the notorious librettists have been Pietro Metastasio, Lorenzo Da Ponte, Eugene Scribe, Felice Romani, Francesco Maria Piave, Luigi Illica, Arrigo Boito, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Some composers wrote libretti for themselves or for other composers, for example Richard Wagner, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Frederick Delius, Michael Tippet, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gian Carlo Menotti who wrote two libretti for Samuel Barber's operas; others adapted plays for their own use, most notably Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss and Alban Berg. There are also librettists among the famous writers: Bertolt Brecht, Jean Cocteau, Miguel de Cervantes, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Carlo Goldoni, Aleksandr Pushkin, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and Stefan Zweig. And here are some people one would not expect as librettists: Frederick II of Prussia (the Great), Catherine II of Russia, Pope Clement IX, and Franco Zeffirelli.
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