Nevertheless, the libretto provides the story, and the words.
But this is still an effective evening in the theatre: Thulani Davis's libretto provides revealing contrasts not only between black and white characters but between the mere mortals and the African deities who hover over the scene, all helped by Sam Helfrich's deft direction, which places this mythic story within a jarring contemporary context.
He envisaged the disappearance of the old type of opera, with its libretto provided by a hack versifier, as an opportunity for the composer to make a "set piece" opera out of purely musical forms separated by a recitative.
This libretto provided him with a string of opportunities to convey, through music of almost classical restraint and elegance, states of longing, anguish, fury and, a Rossini specialty, confusion.
Although not a grand opera, the new libretto provided Sullivan with the opportunity to write his most ambitious score to date.
Monteverdi was, at least initially, much taken with the potential of the plot, and the opportunities the libretto provided for a variety of musical effects.
In a preface published with the libretto, Torcigliani refers to "the sweetness of the music of the never-enough praised Monteverde", but the libretto itself provides no specific guides to the music's nature.
Though the plot is explained in detail in the program book, no libretto is provided (evidently because of legal hassles over rights).
There are drawbacks: no libretto is provided, and about 10 minutes of the 60-minute score are missing, though the cuts are fairly seamless.
No libretto was provided, and diction wasn't always clear, but there were plenty of colorful moments throughout, including the babble of voices narrating the story of the Prophet Elijah at Mount Horeb, jazzlike choral writing and a lively instrumental movement.
A libretto is provided, but it's best just to listen as she murmurs about a disturbing factory built to process human flesh, a grim march of prisoners and a walk on the beach that culminates in a grisly discovery: a severed leg, tucked under a blanket.
