Three Mozart Libretti: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così Fan Tutte, Complete in Italian and English

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart composed three of his greatest operas in collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. The librettos of these brilliant works are presented here in a format opera enthusiasts will excellent line-for-line English translations on pages facing the Italian text. The translators have attempted to present the three operas "as readably and as dramatically as possible, finding the natural or colloquial English phrase" to convey the essential spirit of each work.
The result is a handy, readable reference ideal for following a recorded performance or to refresh one's memory before or after a live performance. Introductions, plot synopses, and lists of characters for each opera complete this indispensable companion for any opera-goer or lover of Mozart's music.

Genres: Music

307 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 2013

About the author

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, the Austrian composer, toured Europe with his son, child prodigy, noted Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who gracefully and imaginatively refined the classical style with symphonies, concertos, operas, Masses, sonatas, and chambers among his 626 numbered works.

The comic plays of French writer Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais inspired Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to operas.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart prolifically influenced the era. Many persons acknowledged this pinnacle of piano and choral music. His popularity most endures.

Mozart showed earliest ability. From the age of five years in 1761 already competently on keyboard and violin performed before royalty. At seventeen years in 1773, a court musician in Salzburg engaged him, who restlessly traveled always abundantly in search of a better position.

Mozard visited Vienna in 1781; Salzburg dismissed his position, and he chose to stay in the capital and achieved fame but little financial security over the rest of life. The final years in Vienna yielded his many best-known Requiem . People much mythologized the circumstances of his early death. Constanze Mozart, his wife, two sons survived him.

Mozart always learned voraciously and developed a brilliance and maturity that encompassed the light alongside the dark and passionate; a vision of humanity, "redeemed through art, forgiven, and reconciled with nature and the absolute," informed the whole. He profoundly influenced all subsequent western art music. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote on his own early in the shadow of Mozart, of whom Franz Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

Reviews

[Nullifidian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite claiming to be "complete in Italian and English", this is actually quite incomplete as anyone listening to a full recording of Don Giovanni or Così fan tutte while attempting to use this book for its intended purpose will be able to attest. Only Le nozze di Figaro appears to be complete. And they don't just cut recitative, which is bad enough from the perspective of following the opera, but even arias! For example, in the second act of Così, they cut Ferrando's aria "Ah, lo veggio, quell'anima bella", which should be the missing number 24 between 23's "Il core vi dono" (pp. 280-3) and 25's "Per pietà, ben mio, perdona" (pp. 284-5).

Where the translation actually exists for the text of the libretto, it's frequently quite insipid. For example, in Act I of Le nozze di Figaro when Susanna is attempting to keep Cherubino and the Count concealed from each other, her heart cry "Ah, crude stelle!" ("Ah, cruel stars!") is rendered as "Good Lord!".

On the whole, you're better off looking up libretti of these operas online. I'm conceding one star for having the complete text of the opera for one of the operas, but it doesn't deserve more.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the libretto for Cozi Fan Tutte in preparation prior to attending the performance at the Santa Fe opera. I’ve seen this opera many times but this is the first time I’ve read the libretto. It helped enormously in keeping the characters, their “doubles in dusguise” and their interactions straight. The superscripts at the operas are helpful but brief-too brief. Reading this story brings out a subversive message about “true love” that you usually don’t get at the performance which is often played as a happy ending story. The notes indicate that Mozart May have been influenced by his marriage to Constanze following rejection by her sister, and Mozart’s doubts about Constanze’s faithfulness while away at the spa at Baden.

[E7boehm · Rating 5 out of 5]

The libretti are not as good as the original plays but they will convey what they are missing in Mozart's lyric and score. They are simplified and made to convey through music rather than verse. Also the repeat and overlap of opera do not come out in the libretto. that said Cosi is pure genius and so much fun.

[Erik Rostad · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun seeing the Italian and English side by side. I listened to the opera while reading the Italian.