The fine, lucid libretto is by Rudolph Wurlitzer (1 15).
Her interspersing of speeches and fragments from Kafka's journals and letters (spoken by Mr. Perez) within Mr. Wurlitzer's fine, lucid libretto sometimes blurs the line between narrative and commentary in ways that simply befuddle.
On the other hand, the libretto includes fine lyrics of many kinds: martial, distressed, enraged, devoted, sensual.
(David Ives's concert adaptation conflates different versions of the libretto to fine effect, but I prefer the less trite final line of the original.) Ms. Baldwin feels like a discovery as Sharon, although she has a modest list of Broadway credits.
"We have to find a fine poet for this libretto, a person with a real lyric gift.
(That screening starts at 8 p.m). "The Enchanted Island" (Saturday at 7 30 p.m ., a Baroque pastiche, featured some fine performances but a sluggish, cloying libretto.
An excerpt via From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging by Evan Baker Composers frequently involved themselves in the frenetic activities at the theater leading up to the first performances of their new operas, constantly fine-tuning the score and the libretto during the rehearsals.
Hensher also wrote the libretto for one of the finest chamber operas of the last 50 years, Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face – a work that carries many traces of Lulu.
His opera Les dialogues des Carmélites (1953 56, libretto by Georges Bernanos) is considered one of the finest operas of the 20th century.
Verdi's librettist was Arrigo Boito, a composer as well as an eminent man of letters, and his libretto is often held up as one of the finest in opera.
