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 third volume presents Meyerbeer's third and fourth Italian operas, written at the midpoint in his decisive sojourn in Italy where for eight years (1816-24) he made the operatic traditions of bel canto his own, while constantly expanding his own powerful dramatic instincts. His Italian operas divide themselves into three pairs of two. The second pair, Emma di Resburgo (Venice, 1819) and Margherita d'Anjou (Milan, 1820), show the young composer and his famous librettists Gaetano Rossi and Felice Romani opening up the Romantic impulses of romance and history. These works are characterized by a growing adventurousness of form and sound, with vigorous reinterpretation of the operatic language of the day. Both operas carried Meyerbeer's name over the Alps, and right across Europe.