libretto
Americannoun
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librettos,
plural
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libretti
plural
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the text or words of an opera or similar extended musical composition.
-
a book or booklet containing such a text.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of libretto
1735–45; < Italian, diminutive of libro book < Latin liber; see -et
Explanation
In opera, the libretto is the words or lyrics, as distinct from the music. Mozart composed the music to his operas, but the librettos were written by someone else. The life of the librettist is often a thankless one. If the opera is a success, nobody mentions the libretto. Often, the libretto of an opera or musical is called the "book" and refers to all the parts of the script except the music. This can be helpful in remembering what the word means, because libr- is Latin for "book" (as in "library").
Vocabulary lists containing libretto
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Felice Romani’s libretto also has an unusual—rather meta—construction: It includes a poet who is trying to write an opera buffa and narrates the events, a nod to Mozart’s “Così fan tutte.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
The opera was composed by Still with a libretto from the Missouri-born poet, playwright, novelist and social activist Langston Hughes, who connected Haiti’s struggle for freedom to his home country’s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Pushkin’s text eventually became the libretto that Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov employed in his opera of the same name.
From Salon ● May 16, 2026
Sofi Oksanen’s crystalline Finnish libretto, translated into multiple languages by Aleksi Barrière, Saariaho’s son, takes place on two levels that gradually meld into one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
The offending piece was Theodora, a setting of a libretto by his friend Thomas Morell, which itself was based on an account of the early Christian martyr by Robert Boyle, the founder of modern chemistry.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
“I spent a great deal of my time during my college career in creative writing, so the idea of writing my own libretti seemed no stretch at all for me.”
From Washington Post ● Oct. 3, 2021
In social media postings, New York composer Daniel Roumain said Sunday he was commissioned to write one of four libretti for a “Greenwood Overcomes” concert scheduled for a May 1 performance by the Tulsa Opera.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 22, 2021
In addition to poetry, she has written essays, criticism and libretti.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2016
He has collaborated on two libretti, an operatic sideline resulting from a misapprehension.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 8, 2013
To these he prefixed an essay advocating the claims of English libretti, and insisting on the value of recitative.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 8 "Hudson River" to "Hurstmonceaux" by Various
He would grab a bunch of different librettos and “Wicked” was one of them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2024
Italian soprano Carmela Remigio told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that it was thanks to the opera and its librettos that Italian language was still known in the world.
From BBC ● Dec. 7, 2023
So she taught herself to write English librettos by studying Wagner and contemporary artists like poet Alice Goodman and composer Kaija Saariaho.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
The theatrical genius of Shakespeare often nests a play within the play, and Verdi captures this brilliantly in “Otello” and “Falstaff,” both with librettos by Arrigo Boito.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2021
As he talks he holds in his hand the thick volume of Wagner's collected librettos, with his forefinger on the title-page of 'Parzifal,' impatiently awaiting the moment when he can begin to read aloud.
From 'O Thou, My Austria!' by Ossip Schubin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
