List of opera librettists
This is an incomplete list of authors who have written libretti for operas . Only librettists with their own articles in Wikipedia are listed. The name of the composer of each opera is also given.
List of operas by librettist's last name
A
Giuseppe Adami (1878–1946)
Jules Adenis (1823–1900)
Franco Alfano (1875–1954)
Louis Anseaume (1721–1784)
George Antheil (1900–1959)
Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918)
W. H. Auden (1907–1973)
B
Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973)
Béla Balázs (1884–1949)
Luigi Balocchi (1766–1832)
Henri Auguste Barbier (1805–1882)
Jules Barbier (1825–1901)
Pierre Beaumarchais (1732–1799)
Vladimir Belsky (1866–1946)
Sem Benelli (1877–1949)
Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)
Giovanni Bertati (1735–1815)
Thomas Betterton (1635–1710)
Robin Blaser (born 1925)
Édouard Blau (1836–1906)
Arrigo Boito (1842–1918)
Jean-Nicolas Bouilly (1763–1842)
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)
Georg Büchner (1813–1837)
Francis Burnand (1836–1917)
Giovanni Francesco Busenello (1598–1659)
Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924)
C
Massimo Cacciari (born 1944)
Louis de Cahusac (1706–1759)
Henri Caïn (1859–1937)
alone:
with de Croisset – see Francis de Croisset
Italo Calvino (1923–1985)
Ranieri de' Calzabigi (1714–1795)
Salvadore Cammarano (1801–1852)
for Gaetano Donizetti : L'assedio di Calais , Belisario , Lucia di Lammermoor , Maria de Rudenz , Maria di Rohan , Pia de' Tolomei , Poliuto , Roberto Devereux
for Giuseppe Verdi : Alzira , La battaglia di Legnano , Luisa Miller , Il trovatore (with Leone Emanuele Bardare )
for Giuseppe Persiani : Ines de Castro
for Saverio Mercadante : Elena da Feltre , La vestale , Orazi e Curiazi , Virginia , Il reggente
for Giovanni Pacini : Saffo
Mark Campbell
Michel Carré (1821–1872)
alone:
with Eugène Cormon:
with Barbier – see Jules Barbier
Nick Cave (born 1957)
Ernest Chausson (1855–1899)
Helmina von Chézy (1783–1856)
Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808–1872)
Guelfo Civinini (1873–1954)
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)
J. M. Coetzee (born 1940)
Colette (1873–1954)
Marco Coltellini (1719–1777)
Jeremy Commons (born 1933)
William Congreve (1670–1729)
Eugène Cormon (1810–1903)
with Michel Carré
with Hector-Jonathan Crémieux
with Lockroy
Thomas Corneille (1625–1709)
Hector-Jonathan Crémieux (1828–1892)
Michael Cristofer (born 1945)
Francis de Croisset (1877–1937)
Eric Crozier (1914–1994)
César Cui (1835–1918)
D
Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863–1938)
Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838)
William Davenant (1606–1668)
Giovanni de Gamerra (1743–1803)
Constance DeJong (born 1950)
Casimir Delavigne
Germain Delavigne
Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
Philippe Néricault Destouches (1680–1754)
Eduard Devrient (1801–1877)
Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848)
John Dryden (1631–1700)
E
Gottfried von Einem (1918–1996)
Adolphe d'Ennery (1811–1899)
Victor Erofeyev (born 1947)
Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871–1943)
F
Mohammed Fairouz (born 1985)
Duncan Fallowell (born 1948)
Charles-Simon Favart (1710–1792)
Lorenzo Ferrero (born 1951)
Jacopo Ferretti (1784–1852)
Ferdinando Fontana (1850–1919)
E. M. Forster (1879–1970)
Giovacchino Forzano (1884–1970)
Frederick the Great (1712–1786)
Christopher Fry (1907–2005)
G
Kate Gale (born 1965)
Louis Gallet (1835–1898)
John Gay (1685–1732)
Richard Genée (1823–1895)
Ira Gershwin (1896–1983)
Antonio Ghislanzoni (1824–1893)
Giuseppe Giacosa (1847–1906) and Luigi Illica (1857–1919)
W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911)
for Arthur Sullivan : The Gondoliers , The Grand Duke , H.M.S. Pinafore , Iolanthe , The Mikado , Patience , The Pirates of Penzance , Princess Ida , Ruddigore , The Sorcerer , Thespis , Trial by Jury , Utopia, Limited , The Yeomen of the Guard
for Thomas German Reed : Eyes and No Eyes , No Cards , Our Island Home , A Sensation Novel
for Frederic Clay : Ages Ago , Happy Arcadia , Princess Toto , The Gentleman in Black
for Alfred Cellier : The Mountebanks , Topsyturveydom
for George Grossmith : Haste to the Wedding
for Frank Osmond Carr : His Excellency
for Edward German : Fallen Fairies
for Alberto Randegger : Creatures of Impulse
Philippe Gille (1831–1901)
Alvise Giusti (1709–1766)
Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852)
Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793)
Edmond Gondinet (1828–1888)
Alice Goodman (born 1958)
Vincenzo Grimani (1652/1655–1710)
Sydney Grundy (1848–1914)
Nicolas-François Guillard (1752–1814)
H
Daron Hagen (born 1961)
Thomas Hales (c.1740–1780)
Ludovic Halévy (1834–1908)
Christopher Hampton (born 1946)
David Harsent (born 1942)
Georges Hartmann (1843–1900)
Nicola Francesco Haym (1678–1729)
Philip Hensher (born 1965)
DuBose Heyward (1885–1940)
Ernest Hilbert (born 1970)
for Stella Sung: The Red Silk Thread, an Epic Tale of Marco Polo , The Book Collector
for Daniel Felsenfeld : Summer and All it Brings , The Last of Manhattan
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963)
Russell Hoban (born 1925)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1925)
François-Benoît Hoffman (1760–1828)
Basil Hood (1864–1917)
Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
David Henry Hwang (born 1957)
I
Luigi Illica (1857–1919)
see also Giuseppe Giacosa
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1894–1980)
J
Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
Scott Joplin (1868–1917)
Étienne de Jouy (1764–1846)
K
Georg Kaiser (1878–1945)
Chester Kallman see Auden
Johann Friedrich Kind (1768–1843)
Kenneth Koch (1925–2002)
Eliška Krásnohorská (1847–1926)
Clemens Krauss (1893–1954)
L
Antoine Houdar de la Motte (1672–1731)
Ferdinand Lemaire (1832–1879)
Kasi Lemmons (born 1961)
Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919)
Doris Lessing (1919–2013)
M
Amin Maalouf (born 1949)
Daniel MacIvor (born 1962)
Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949)
Andrea Maffei (1798–1885)
Albéric Magnard (1865–1914)
Jean-François Marmontel (1723–1799)
Henri Meilhac (1831–1897)
Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélesville (1787–1865)
Guido Menasci (1867–1925)
with Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti:
Catulle Mendès (1841–1909)
Gian Carlo Menotti (1911–2007)
for his own music: Amahl and the Night Visitors , The Boy Who Grew Too Fast , The Consul , The Island God , The Last Savage , The Medium , The Old Maid and the Thief , The Saint of Bleecker Street , The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois
for Samuel Barber : A Hand of Bridge , Vanessa
Joseph Méry (1798–1866)
Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782)
used by J. C. Bach , Riccardo Broschi , Johann Adolph Hasse , Josef Mysliveček , and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi , among others: Adriano in Siria
used by Christoph Willibald Gluck , Hasse, Mysliveček, and Tommaso Traetta , among others: Antigono
used by J. C. Bach, Gluck, Hasse, Mysliveček, and Leonardo Vinci , among others: Artaserse
used by Hasse, Vinci, J. C. Bach, and Antonio Vivaldi , among others: Catone in Utica
used by Gluck, Hasse, and Mysliveček, among others: Demetrio
used by Gluck, Hasse, Niccolò Jommelli , Mysliveček, Traetta, and Vinci, among others: Demofoonte
used by Hasse, Nicola Porpora , and Vinci, among others: Didone abbandonata
used by Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , among others: Il re pastore
used by Gluck, Hasse, Jommelli, and Mysliveček, among others: Il trionfo di Clelia
used by Gluck, Hasse, and Porpora, among others: Issipile [de ]
used by Gluck, George Frideric Handel , Mysliveček, and Porpora, among others: Ezio
used by Handel, Hasse, Porpora, and Vinci, among others: Alessandro nelle Indie , also known as Poro, re dell'Indie
used by Gluck, Hasse, and Mysliveček, among others: Ipermestra
used by Mozart and Mysliveček, among others: La clemenza di Tito
used by Hasse, Mysliveček, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi , Traetta, and Vivaldi, among others: L'Olimpiade
used by Hasse, Giacomo Meyerbeer , Mysliveček, Porpora, Antonio Salieri , and Vinci, among others: Semiramide riconosciuta
used by Handel, Hasse, Porpora, Vinci, and Vivaldi, among others: Siroe rè di Persia
Madeleine Milhaud (1902–2008)
Suzie Miller
Nicolò Minato (ca. 1630–1698)
Paul Muldoon (born 1951)
Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881)
N
Émile de Najac (1828–1899)
Charles Nuitter (1828–1899)
O
Meredith Oakes (born 1946)
Marc Okrand (born 1948)
Martin Opitz (1597–1639)
John Oxenford (1812–1877)
P
Francesco Maria Piave (1810–1876)
for Luigi Ricci and Federico Ricci : Crispino e la comare
for Verdi : Aroldo (1857), Il corsaro (1848), I due Foscari (1844), Ernani (1844), La forza del destino (1862 first version), Macbeth (1847 first version), Macbeth (1865 second version), Rigoletto (1851), Simon Boccanegra (1857 first version), Stiffelio (1850), La traviata (1851)
Arthur Wing Pinero (1855–1934)
Myfanwy Piper (1911–1997)
James Robinson Planché (1796–1880)
William Plomer (1903–1973)
David Pountney (born 1947)
Alexander Preis
Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)
Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837)
Q
Philippe Quinault (1635–1688)
for Jean-Baptiste Lully : Acis et Galatée , Amadis , Armide , Atys , Cadmus et Hermione , Isis , Persée , Phaëton , Proserpine , Roland , Thésée
used by Gluck : Armide
used by Piccinni : Roland
R
Jean Richepin (1849–1926)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908)
Ottavio Rinuccini (1562–1621)
Michael Symmons Roberts (born 1963)
Felice Romani (1788–1865)
for Bellini : Adelson e Salvini , Beatrice di Tenda , Bianca e Fernando , I Capuleti e i Montecchi , Norma , Il pirata , I puritani , La sonnambula , La straniera , Zaira
for Donizetti : Alina, regina di Golconda , Anna Bolena , L'elisir d'amore , Gianni di Parigi , Lucrezia Borgia , Parisina , Rosmonda d'Inghilterra , Ugo, conte di Parigi
for Giacomo Meyerbeer : L'esule di Granata , Margherita d'Anjou
for Rossini : Aureliano in Palmira , Bianca e Falliero , Il turco in Italia
for Verdi : Un giorno di regno
Giulio Rospigliosi (later Pope Clement IX) (1600–1669)
Gaetano Rossi (1774–1855)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)
Pierre-Charles Roy (1683–1764)
Alphonse Royer (1803–1875)
S
Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges (1799–1875)
Emanuel Schikaneder (1751–1812)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
Eugène Scribe (1791–1861)
alone
for Auber : Le cheval de bronze , Le domino noir , L'enfant prodigue , Fra Diavolo , Gustave III , Haydée , Manon Lescaut , La muette de Portici , La part du diable
for Boieldieu : La dame blanche
for Donizetti : Dom Sébastien
for Halévy : Guido et Ginevra , La Juive
for Meyerbeer : L'Africaine , Les Huguenots , Le prophète , Robert le diable , L'étoile du nord
with Germain Delavigne
with Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson
with Charles Duveyrier
with Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges
Sandra Seaton
for William Bolcom's From The Diary of Sally Hemings
Michel-Jean Sedaine (1719–1797)
Peter Sellars (born 1957)
Elkanah Settle (1648–1724)
Thomas Shadwell (c. 1642–1692)
William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816)
Renato Simoni (1875–1952)
Montagu Slater (1902–1956)
Temistocle Solera (1815–1878)
Antonio Somma (1809–1864)
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
B. C. Stephenson (1838–1906)
Cesare Sterbini (1784–1831)
Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Alessandro Striggio (1573–1630)
John Millington Synge (1871–1909)
T
Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti (1863–1934)
Nahum Tate (1652–1715)
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1850–1916)
Emmanuel Théaulon (1787–1841)
Michael Tippett (1905–1998)
Andrea Leone Tottola (?–1831)
Étienne Tréfeu (1821–1903)
V
Albert Vanloo (1846–1920)
with William Busnach: L'oeuf rouge
Giambattista Varesco (1735–1805)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Royce Vavrek
Paul Verlaine
Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges (1799–1875) – see above under S
Voltaire (1694–1778)
W
Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
for his own music: Die Feen , The Flying Dutchman , Götterdämmerung , Die Hochzeit , Das Liebesverbot , Lohengrin , Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Parsifal , Das Rheingold , Rienzi , Der Ring des Nibelungen , Siegfried , Tannhäuser , Tristan und Isolde , Die Walküre
Camillo Walzel (1829–1895) pseudonym F Zell
Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)
Albert Willemetz (1887–1964)
Ernst von Wolzogen (1855–1934)
Y
Arthur Yorinks (born 1953)
Z
Carlo Zangarini (1873–1943)
Franco Zeffirelli (1923–2019)
Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871–1942)
Apostolo Zeno (1668–1750)
Julius Zeyer (1841–1901)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918–1970)
Peter Zinovieff
Émile Zola (1840–1902)
Stefan Zweig (1881–1942)
General sources
See also
History and national traditions Opera components Types of opera Voice types Participants Role types Singing concepts and techniques List articles Miscellaneous