Libretti
How to read an opera libretto: layout, cast list, stage directions and translation
How to read an opera libretto: what it contains, how a 1816 libretto is laid out, how it differs from a synopsis, and where to find a text with translation.
Diction Desk editors · Checked 19 October 2026 against 5 sources
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, oratorio, cantata or musical1. It contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis only summarizes the plot1. In the 1816 libretto of Il barbiere di Siviglia, a cast list precedes the scenes, speaker names introduce their lines, and stage directions are printed apart5.
- Word
- Italian diminutive of libro, meaning book1
- Contains
- All the words and stage directions1
- Not the same as
- A synopsis, which summarizes the plot1
- Form
- Verse, from about 1600 to well into the 19th century1
- Library call numbers
- Mostly ML47 to ML54.94
Contents
A libretto is the first thing a singer reads and the last thing an audience member opens. Read properly, it tells you who speaks, what they do, and what the poet wrote before the composer set it. The pages in the libretti section build on this one.
What a libretto is
A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical1. The word is the diminutive of libro1. Other languages use their own words: livret for French works, Textbuch for German and libreto for Spanish1.
It is not a synopsis. The libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot1.
Who wrote it, and in what form
Opera libretti of the 17th and 18th centuries were generally written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet1. The libretto was written in verse from its inception around 1600, and this continued well into the 19th century1. Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782) wrote 26-28 librettos which produced around 800 operas3. In pop music or musicals, by contrast, the words are often added second to fit the tune3.
Metastasio was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe1. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte1, the librettist for Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte3. His three librettos for Mozart fed upon Beaumarchais’s plays3. Even Mozart used a Metastasio libretto, La clemenza di Tito3.
The order of work varies. The libretto is not always written before the music1. Since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti1, and Alban Berg adapted Georg Buchner’s play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck1. For La boheme, Puccini and his publisher Ricordi chose a “book” and “lyrics” approach: Luigi Illica wrote the scenario and Giuseppe Giacosa the verse3.
For a singer, verse matters: line endings and rhymes are clues to phrasing.
Anatomy of a printed libretto
The 1816 libretto of Il barbiere di Siviglia, scanned by the University of Bologna, shows the pattern5.
- Title page. It states that the work is to be performed in the Teatro Torre Argentina in the carnival of 18165 and names the composer as maestro Gioacchino Rossini5.
- Preface. It says that Rossini asked for the text to be entirely versified anew5.
- Cast list. Headed ATTORI, it gives each role, followed by the singer and the voice type: for the Count, Manuel Garcia, principal tenor5.
- Setting. The scene is announced by a line that gives the place: Seville5. Act and scene follow, with the time of the action: the end of the night5.
- Speaker names and lines. Each line opens with the speaker’s name in capitals5.
- Stage directions. They are printed in a separate column beside the lines5.
| Original | Our translation |
|---|---|
| La scena si rappresenta in Siviglia5 | The scene is set in Seville. |
| ATTO PRIMO SCENA I Il momento dell’azione è sul terminar della notte.5 | Act One, Scene I. The moment of the action is as the night comes to an end. |
| ROSINA Ah me meschina! l’aria m’è caduta!5 | Rosina: Ah, poor me! The aria has fallen! |
| Si nasconde nella prima porta a sinistra e poi tratto tratto si fa vedere.5 | He hides in the first door on the left and then shows himself from time to time. |
The rows show the conventions: place, act and scene, then the speaker in capitals followed by the words, then the stage direction. The same scan has a stage direction that the paper is dropped into the street5. Read the directions with the lines: in this scan they tell Figaro when to hide and Rosina when the paper falls.
A reading routine
- Read the cast list and write each role’s voice type beside the name.
- Read the setting line and the act and scene heading.
- Read the verse aloud with the stage directions, not around them.
- Look for the line endings and rhymes that mark phrases.
- Compare your gloss with a literal, word-for-word translation.
Libretto versus translation
Libretti have their share of problems and challenges with translation1. Some foreign works with spoken dialogue were performed with the sung portions in the original language and the dialogue in the vernacular1. A literal gloss tells you what each word means, a literary translation tells you how it reads; use both and see Nico Castel’s libretti for a layout that adds the IPA as well.
An online library of IPA transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts is listed by the University of Kansas guide2. That guide also lists a libretto collection by Nico Castel with IPA transcriptions and word-for-word translations for Italian belcanto operas2. See IPA for singers for the symbols.
Where to find a libretto
- Search the opera title followed by the word libretto2.
- In a library catalog, search the opera title, the composer and the word libretto4.
- Librettos are published as standalone books, or inside CD liner notes4.
- Most libretto books have call numbers between ML47 and ML54.9; browse the shelves as well as the catalog4.
- The complete libretto and sometimes a translation can be found in the liner notes of recordings2. A libretto is commonly published separately from the music, and a booklet of this kind is usually included with sound recordings of most operas1.
- Princeton’s guide lists complete original-language texts with English translations and plot summaries4.
- It also lists a scanned collection of nearly 3,500 mostly Italian opera librettos4.
- Translations in that guide convey the meaning and nuances of the original texts as precisely as possible4.
For texts you can use freely, see public-domain libretti.
