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Librettist
A librettist is the author of a libretto (a little book), the text of a vocal work, particularly opera. 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...
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Ottavio Rinuccini
Ottavio Rinuccini (January 20, 1562 – March 28, 1621) was an Italian poet, courtier, and opera librettist at the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. In collaborating with Jacopo Peri to produce the first opera, Dafne, in 1597,...
Date of birth:
- Jan 20, 1562
Date of death:
- Mar 28, 1621 (age 59 years)
Pietro Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, (January 3, 1698 – April 12, 1782) was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.
Metastasio was born in Rome, where...
Date of birth:
- Jan 3, 1698
Date of death:
- Apr 12, 1782 (age 84 years)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (February 1, 1874 – July 15, 1929), was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.
Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, the son of an upper-class Austrian mother...
Date of birth:
- Feb 1, 1874
Date of death:
- Jul 15, 1929 (age 55 years)
Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito (24 February 1842 – 10 June 1918), aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his opera libretti and his own opera, Mefistofele.
Born in Padua...
Date of birth:
- Feb 24, 1842
Date of death:
- Jun 10, 1918 (age 76 years)
Francesco Maria Piave
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 Austrian...
Date of birth:
- May 18, 1810
Date of death:
- Mar 5, 1876 (age 65 years)
Felice Romani
Felice Romani (January 31, 1788 — January 28, 1865) was an Italian poet and scholar of literature and mythology who wrote many librettos for the opera composers Donizetti and Bellini. Romani was considered the finest Italian librettist between...
Date of birth:
- Jan 31, 1788
Date of death:
- Jan 28, 1865 (age 77 years)
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe (24 December 1791 – 20 February 1861), was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" (pièce bien faite). This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater...
Date of birth:
- Dec 24, 1791
Date of death:
- Feb 20, 1861 (age 69 years)
Giuseppe Giacosa
Giuseppe Giacosa (21 October 1847 – 1 September 1906) was an Italian poet, playwright and librettist.
He was born in Colleretto Parella, now Colleretto Giacosa, near Turin. His father was a magistrate. Giuseppe went to the University of Turin and...
Date of birth:
- Oct 21, 1847
Date of death:
- Sep 1, 1906 (age 58 years)
Luigi Illica
Luigi Illica (9 May 1857 – 16 December 1919) was an Italian librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini (usually with Giuseppe Giacosa), Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano and other important Italian composers. His most famous opera librettos are those...
Date of birth:
- May 9, 1857
Date of death:
- Dec 16, 1919 (age 62 years)
Giuseppe Adami
Giuseppe Adami (4 November 1878 in Verona – 12 October 1946 in Milan) was an Italian librettist, known for his collaboration works with Puccini for La rondine (1917), Il tabarro (1918) and Turandot (1926).
Adami also wrote several plays such as I...
Date of birth:
- Nov 4, 1878
Date of death:
- Oct 12, 1946 (age 67 years)
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (help·info) (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (help·info); 10 February 1898–14 August 1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally...
Date of birth:
- Feb 10, 1898
Date of death:
- Aug 14, 1956 (age 58 years)
Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was a celebrated Venetian playwright and librettist, whom critics today rank among the European theatre's greatest authors. His works, along with those of the modernist Luigi Pirandello,...
Date of birth:
- Feb 25, 1707
Date of death:
- Feb 6, 1793 (age 86 years)
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Along with other Surrealists of his generation (Jean Anouilh and René Char for...
Date of birth:
- Jul 5, 1889
Date of death:
- Oct 11, 1963 (age 74 years)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau (Geneva, 28 June 1712 – Ermenonville, 2 July 1778) was a major Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development...
Date of birth:
- Jun 28, 1712
Date of death:
- 1778 (age 65 years)
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spanish pronunciation: [miˈɣel ðe θerˈβantes saˈβeðɾa] in modern Spanish; September 29, 1547 – April 23, 1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, often considered the first...
Date of birth:
- Sep 29, 1547
Date of death:
- Apr 23, 1616 (age 68 years)
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion...
Date of birth:
- Nov 21, 1694
Date of death:
- May 30, 1778 (age 83 years)
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973, pronounced /ˈwɪstən ˈhjuː ˈɔːdən/) who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet, born in England, later an American citizen, regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of...
Date of birth:
- Feb 21, 1907
Date of death:
- Sep 29, 1973 (age 66 years)
William Congreve
William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright and poet.
Congreve was born in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, England (near Leeds). His parents were William Congreve (1637–1708) and his wife, Mary (née Browning; 1636?–1715);...
Date of birth:
- Jan 24, 1670
Date of death:
- Jan 19, 1729 (age 59 years)
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli (born 12 February 1923) is a celebrated Italian director of films and operas. He has also been a noted opera designer and producer of operas, theatre, film and television, as well as a politician.
Internationally, he is well known...
Date of birth:
- Feb 12, 1923 (age 86 years)
Gabriele D'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio (born Gaetano Rapagnetta, and ennobled by the King of Italy in 1924 as Principe di Montenevoso; 12 March 1863 – 1 March 1938) was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, dramatist, and daredevil. His role in politics is...
Date of birth:
- Mar 12, 1863
Date of death:
- 1938 (age 74 years)
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson (pseudonym Anthony Burgess) (25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic.
His dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange, is by far his most famous novel, and...
Date of birth:
- Feb 25, 1917
Date of death:
- Nov 22, 1993 (age 76 years)
Aleksandr Pushkin
Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Пу́шкин, pronounced [ɐlʲɪˈksandr sʲɪˈrɡʲejevʲɪtɕ ˈpuʃkʲɪn] ( listen)) (June 6 [O.S. May 26] 1799–February 10 [O.S. January 29] 1837) was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is...
Date of birth:
- Jun 6, 1799
Date of death:
- Feb 10, 1837 (age 37 years)
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first...
Date of birth:
- Feb 3, 1874
Date of death:
- Jul 27, 1946 (age 72 years)
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan (pronounced /ˈreɪf ˈvɔːn/) Williams OM (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song; this...
Date of birth:
- Oct 12, 1872
Date of death:
- Aug 26, 1958 (age 85 years)
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Edward Nyman, CBE (born 23 March 1944, Stratford, London) is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, perhaps best known for the many movie scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with...
Date of birth:
- Mar 23, 1944 (age 65 years)
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II (German: Friedrich II.; 24 January 1712 – 17 August 1786) was a King of Prussia (1740–1786) from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was Frederick IV (Friedrich IV.) of Brandenburg. He...
Date of birth:
- Jan 24, 1712
Date of death:
- Aug 17, 1786 (age 74 years)
Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig (November 28, 1881, Schottenring 14, Innere Stadt, Vienna, Austria – February 22, 1942, Petrópolis, Brazil) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer.
Zweig was the son of Moritz Zweig, a wealthy Jewish textile...
Date of birth:
- Nov 28, 1881
Date of death:
- Feb 22, 1942 (age 60 years)
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than eight decades.
Abbott was born in Forestville, New York,...
Date of birth:
- Jun 25, 1887
Date of death:
- Jan 31, 1995 (age 107 years)
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard, Count Maeterlinck (Dutch pronunciation: [moˈʁis ˈmaˑtəʀlɪŋk]; 29 August 1862 - 6 May 1949) was a Belgian playwright, poet and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The...
Date of birth:
- Aug 29, 1862
Date of death:
- May 6, 1949 (age 86 years)
Alexander Sumarokov
Aleksandr Petrovich Sumarokov (Russian: Александр Петрович Сумароков) (November 25, 1717 – October 12, 1777) was a Russian poet and playwright who single-handedly created classical theatre in Russia, thus assisting Mikhail Lomonosov to inaugurate...
Date of birth:
- Nov 25, 1717
Date of death:
- Oct 12, 1777 (age 59 years)
Philippe Quinault
Philippe Quinault (3 June 1635 – 26 November 1688), French dramatist and librettist, was born in Paris.
He was educated by the liberality of Tristan L'Hermite, the author of Marianne. Quinault's first play was produced at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in...
Date of birth:
- Jun 3, 1635
Date of death:
- Nov 26, 1688 (age 53 years)
Barthold Heinrich Brockes
Barthold Heinrich Brockes (September 22, 1680 - January 16, 1747), was a German poet.
He was born at Hamburg. He studied jurisprudence at Halle, and after extensive travels in Italy, France and the Netherlands, settled in Hamburg in 1704. In 1720 he...
Date of birth:
- Sep 22, 1680
Date of death:
- Jan 16, 1747 (age 66 years)
Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka (March 1, 1886 – February 22, 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes.
Oskar Kokoschka was born in Pöchlarn as the second son of Gustav Josef Kokoschka ...
Date of birth:
- Mar 1, 1886
Date of death:
- Feb 22, 1980 (age 94 years)
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca (17 January 1600 – 25 May 1681), was a writer, poet and dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age. Born when the Spanish Golden...
Date of birth:
- Jan 17, 1600
Date of death:
- May 25, 1681 (age 81 years)
Jean-François Marmontel
Jean-François Marmontel (July 11, 1723 – December 31, 1799) was a French historian and writer, a member of the Encyclopediste movement.
He was born of poor parents at Bort-les-Orgues, in Corrèze. After studying with the Jesuits at Mauriac, Cantal,...
Date of birth:
- Jul 11, 1723
Date of death:
- Dec 31, 1799 (age 76 years)
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti (July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the...
Date of birth:
- Jul 7, 1911
Date of death:
- Feb 1, 2007 (age 95 years)
Robert Craft
Robert Lawson Craft (born October 20, 1923) is an American conductor and writer. He is best known for his intimate working friendship with Igor Stravinsky, a relationship which resulted in a number of recordings and books.
Craft was born in Kingston...
Date of birth:
- Oct 20, 1923 (age 86 years)
Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie
Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie (3 December 1840 – 23 December 1913) was a French literary figure and director of the Théâtre Français.
He was born at Limoges. After studying at the lycée Bonaparte in Paris, he became a journalist, achieving great...
Date of birth:
- Dec 3, 1840
Date of death:
- Dec 23, 1913 (age 73 years)
Sylvano Bussotti
Sylvano Bussotti (born 1 October 1931) is an Italian composer of contemporary music whose work is unusually notated and often brings up special problems in interpretation.
Born in Florence, Bussotti learned to play the violin as a child, becoming a...
Date of birth:
- Oct 1, 1931 (age 78 years)
Casimir Delavigne
Jean-François Casimir Delavigne (4 April 1793 – 11 December 1843) was a French poet and dramatist.
Delavigne was born at Le Havre, but was sent to Paris to be educated at the Lycée Napoleon. He read extensively. When, on 20 March 1811 the empress...
Date of birth:
- Apr 4, 1793
Date of death:
- Dec 11, 1843 (age 50 years)
Henri Meilhac
Henri Meilhac (21 February 1831 – 6 July 1897), was a French dramatist and opera librettist.
He was born in Paris in 1831. As a young man, Meilhac began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier...
Date of birth:
- Feb 21, 1831
Date of death:
- Jul 6, 1897 (age 66 years)
Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy (1 January 1834 - 7 May 1908) was a French author and playwright. He was of Jewish ancestry, however his father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth.
Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris. His father, Léon Halévy (1802–1883),...
Date of birth:
- Jan 1, 1834
Date of death:
- May 8, 1908 (age 74 years)
Michel-Jean Sedaine
Michel-Jean Sedaine (July 4, 1719 – May 17, 1797) was a French dramatist, was born at Paris.
His father, who was an architect, died when Sedaine was quite young, leaving no fortune, and the boy began life as a mason's labourer. He was at last taken...
Date of birth:
- Jul 4, 1719
Date of death:
- May 17, 1797 (age 77 years)
Guy Bolton
Guy Reginald Bolton (November 23, 1884 – September 6, 1979) was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies.
Born Guy Reginald Bolton to American parents in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, Bolton studied architecture before...
Date of birth:
- Nov 23, 1884
Date of death:
- Sep 6, 1979 (age 94 years)
Giovanni de' Bardi
Giovanni de' Bardi (February 5, 1534 – September 1612), Count of Vernio, was an Italian literary critic, writer, composer and soldier.
Giovanni de' Bardi was born in Florence.
While he received a deep classical education, becoming proficient in...
Date of birth:
- Feb 5, 1534
Date of death:
- Sep 1612 (age 78 years)
Victor Joseph Etienne de Jouy
Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy (October 19, 1764 – September 4, 1846), French dramatist, was born at Versailles.
At the age of eighteen he received a commission in the army, and sailed for South America in the company of the governor of Guiana. He...
Date of birth:
- Oct 19, 1764
Date of death:
- Sep 4, 1846 (age 81 years)
Dorothy Hewett
Dorothy Coade Hewett (21 May – 25 August 2002) was an Australian feminist poet, novelist, librettist, and playwright. She was also a member of the Communist Party of Australia, though she clashed on many occasions with the party's leadership.
Hewett...
Date of birth:
- May 21, 1923
Date of death:
- Aug 25, 2002 (age 79 years)
Ludwig Rellstab
Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Rellstab (April 13, 1799–November 27, 1860) was a German poet and music critic. He was born and died in Berlin. He was the son of the music publisher and composer Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab.
The first seven songs of...
Date of birth:
- Apr 13, 1799
Date of death:
- Nov 27, 1860 (age 61 years)
William Plomer
William Charles Franklyn Plomer C.B.E. (he pronounced the surname as ploomer) (1903–1973) was a South African author, known as a novelist, poet and literary editor. He was educated mostly in the United Kingdom. Plomer edited several of Ian Fleming's...
Date of birth:
- 1903
Date of death:
- 1973 (age 70 years)
Catulle Mendès
Catulle Mendès (22 May 1841 – 8 February 1909) was a French poet and man of letters.
Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, he was born in Bordeaux. He early established himself in Paris, attaining speedy notoriety by the publication in the Revue...
Date of birth:
- May 22, 1841
Date of death:
- Feb 8, 1909 (age 67 years)
François Benoît Hoffmann
François Benoît Hoffmann (July 11, 1760 – April 25, 1828) was a French playwright and critic, best known today for his operatic librettos.
Hoffmann was born in Nancy, and studied law at the University of Strasbourg. However, a slight hesitation in...
Date of birth:
- Jul 11, 1760
Date of death:
- Apr 25, 1828 (age 67 years)
Boris Blacher
Boris Blacher (19 January [O.S. 6 January] 1903 - 30 January 1975) was a German composer.
Blacher was born when his parents were living within a Russian-speaking community in the Manchurian town of Niuzhuang (hence the use of the Julian calendar on...
Date of birth:
- 1903
Date of death:
- Jan 30, 1975 (age 72 years)
Antonio Ghislanzoni
Antonio Ghislanzoni (25 November 1824 – July 16, 1893) was an Italian journalist, poet, and novelist who wrote librettos for Verdi, among other composers, of which the best known are Aida and the revised version of La forza del destino.
Ghislanzoni...
Date of birth:
- Nov 25, 1824
Date of death:
- Jul 16, 1893 (age 68 years)
Giuseppe Parini
Giuseppe Parini (May 23, 1729 – August 15, 1799) was an Italian Enlightenment satirist and poet of the neoclassic period.
Parini was born in Bosisio (later rechristened Bosisio Parini in his honour) in Lombardy. His parents, who owned a small farm...
Date of birth:
- May 23, 1729
Date of death:
- Aug 15, 1799 (age 70 years)
Adolphe d'Ennery
Adolphe Philippe d'Ennery or Dennery (17 June 1811 – 25 January 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...
Date of birth:
- Jun 17, 1811
Date of death:
- Jan 25, 1899 (age 87 years)
Temistocle Solera
Temistocle Solera (December 25, 1815 – April 21, 1878) was an Italian opera composer and librettist.
He was born at Ferrara.
Date of birth:
- Dec 25, 1815
Date of death:
- Apr 21, 1878 (age 62 years)
Emanuel Schikaneder
Emanuel Schikaneder (Straubing, 1 September 1751 – 21 September 1812, Vienna), born Johann Joseph Schickeneder, was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, and singer. He was the librettist of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute and the builder of the...
Date of birth:
- Sep 1, 1751
Date of death:
- Sep 21, 1812 (age 61 years)
Francis Burnand
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), often credited as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and dramatist.
Burnand was a contributor to Punch for 45 years and its editor from 1880 until 1906. He was also a prolific...
Date of birth:
- Nov 29, 1836
Date of death:
- Apr 21, 1917 (age 80 years)
Julius Zeyer
Julius Zeyer (April 26, 1841, Prague – January 29, 1901, Prague) was a Czech prose writer, poet, and playwright.
Zeyer was born into a father of German-French (Alsatian) nobility, and mother of Jewish family, and learned the Czech language from his...
Date of birth:
- Apr 26, 1841
Date of death:
- Jan 29, 1901 (age 59 years)
Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
Jean-Nicolas Bouilly (24 January 1763 – 14 April 1842) was a French playwright, librettist, children's writer, and politician of the French Revolution.
Bouilly was born near Tours, and was briefly a lawyer for the parlement of Paris. At the outbreak...
Date of birth:
- Jan 24, 1763
Date of death:
- Apr 14, 1842 (age 79 years)
