The Meyerbeer Libretti

Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most important and influential opera composers of the nineteenth century, enjoyed a fame during his lifetime unrivalled by any of his contemporaries. This eleven volume set provides in one collection all the operatic texts set by Meyerbeer in his career. The texts are offered in the most complete versions ever made available. Each libretto is translated into modern English by Richard Arsenty; and each work is introduced by Robert Letellier. In this comprehensive edition of Meyerbeer's libretti, the original text and its translation are placed on facing pages for ease of use. The second volume presents Meyerbeer's first two Italian operas, written early in his decisive sojourn in Italy where for eight years (1816-24) he confronted and assimilated the operatic traditions of bel canto, all the while expanding his own rapidly developing dramatic instincts. His Italian operas divide themselves into three pairs of two. The first pair, Romilda e Costanza (Padua, 1817) and Semiramide (Turin, 1819), have a pure, naive, serene quality, and showed the young composer taking account of pre-Rossininian models while working within the formulae of contemporary melodramma.