Famous Librettists

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spanish: [miˈɣel de θeɾˈβantes saaˈβeðɾa]; 29 September 1547 – 22 April 1616) was a Spanish writer. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language. He is one of the world's top novelists. His novel Don Quixote has seen translation into over 140 languages and dialects. It is the most-translated book globally after the Bible. Don Quixote, a classic of Western literature, is sometimes the first modern novel or the best fiction ever written. Cervantes' work shaped the Spanish language.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (UK: , US: ; French: [ʒɑ̃ˈʒak ʁuˈso]; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy shaped the Enlightenment across Europe. It influenced the French Revolution and the growth of modern political, economic, and educational ideas. His *Discourse on Inequality* and *The Social Contract* form the basis of modern social thought. Rousseau's novel *Julie, or the New Heloise* (1761) helped develop preromanticism and romanticism in fiction.

François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃swa maʁi aʁwɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known as Voltaire (; also US: , French: [vɔltɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. He became famous for his wit. He criticized Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church. He also argued for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separating church and state. Voltaire wrote many works in almost every form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote over 20.

Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. She was born in the Allegheny West neighborhood of Pittsburgh and grew up in Oakland, California. Stein moved to Paris in 1903 and made France her home until her death. She hosted a Paris salon. Leading modernists in literature and art met there, such as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, and Henri Matisse. In 1933, Stein published *The Autobiography of Alice*, a quasi-memoir of her Paris years.

John Anthony Burgess Wilson (25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published as Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Burgess wrote mostly comic stories. His dystopian satire *A Clockwork Orange* remains his most known novel. Stanley Kubrick adapted it into a highly controversial film in 1971. Burgess claimed Kubrick caused the book's popularity. Burgess also wrote other novels, including the Enderby quartet and *Earthly Powers*. He wrote librettos and screenplays, including the 1977 TV mini-series *Jesus of Nazareth*.

Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973) wrote poetry. Auden's poetry showed technical skill and style. It addressed politics, morals, love, and religion. He wrote love poems like "Funeral Blues," political poems such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles," cultural poems like The Age of Anxiety, and religious poems like "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae." He was born in York and grew up there.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (October 12, 1872 – August 26, 1958) composed music. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, vocal pieces, and orchestral compositions. He wrote nine symphonies over sixty years. Tudor music and English folk-song strongly influenced him. This output broke British music from the German style of the 19th century. Vaughan Williams came from a wealthy family with strong morals and a forward-thinking social view. He sought to help his fellow citizens.

Craig Lucas was born on April 30, 1951. Lucas works as an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.

Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears (June 22, 1910 – April 3, 1986) was an English tenor. Pears worked closely with composer Benjamin Britten for almost forty years. Pears began his musical career slowly. He first doubted whether to focus on playing or singing. He started singing wholeheartedly after meeting Britten in 1937. Once their partnership formed, the composer wrote many concert and opera works with Pears's voice in mind.

This producer and stage director wrote lyrics for three Disney animated blockbusters in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These films include "The Little Mermaid" (1989) and "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Howard Ashman started his career as a book editor at Grosset & Dunlap. He became artistic director of the WPA Theatre in New York in 1977. Ashman found time to write and direct despite his administrative jobs. His first two efforts, "'Cause Maggie's Afraid of the Dark" and "Dreamstuff" (both 1976), received mixed results after a dire

Sir Stephen Harold Spender (born 28 February 1909, died 16 July 1995) wrote poetry, novels, and essays. His work focused on social injustice and class struggle. The United States Library of Congress appointed him Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry in 1965.

Terrence McNally has been a mainstay on the New York stage since the mid-1960s. He gained recognition on and off Broadway as a playwright and, less so, a screenwriter. McNally built his reputation by writing many comedies. These ranged from a satire on psychiatry ("Bad Habits") to a broad physical farce ("The Ritz") and a drawing-room comedy ("It's Only A Play"). Critics like Harold Clurman found these early plays more intelligent and witty than deep in character.

Gian Franco Corsi, known as "Franco" Zeffirelli (Italian: [fraŋko ddzeffiˈrɛlli]; February 12, 1923 – June 15, 2019), directed operas, films, and television. He served as a senator for the Italian centre-right Forza Italia party from 1994 to 2001. Many of his operatic designs and productions became world classics. Zeffirelli directed several movies. He received an Academy Award nomination for the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet. His 1967 version of The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remains the best.

Alexander Pushkin wrote "Carmen," "Onegin," and "The Eagle."

Edward Morgan Forster (January 1, 1879 – June 7, 1970) wrote novels, short stories, essays, and librettos. His novels examined class differences and hypocrisy. These include A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910), and A Passage to India (1924). A Passage to India brought him his greatest success. Forster received the Nobel Prize in Literature nomination 16 times.

Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) wrote lyrics and libretti in America. He worked with Frederick Loewe and later Burton Lane. Together, they made many of the world's most popular and lasting musical theater works for the stage and film. Lerner earned three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, plus other honors.

Raymond Murray Schafer, CC, is a Canadian composer, writer, music educator, and environmentalist. He is best known for his World Soundscape Project, his focus on acoustic ecology, and his book The Tuning of the World. Schafer became the first recipient of the Jules Léger Prize in 1978.

Luigi Pirandello (Italian: [luˈiːdʒi piranˈdɛllo]; June 28, 1867 – December 10, 1936) wrote plays, novels, poems, and short stories. His plays were his main contribution. He won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for his ability to turn psychological analysis into good theatre. Pirandello wrote novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces often serve as early examples of the Theatre of the Absurd.

Warren Casey (April 20, 1935 – November 8, 1988) was an American theatre composer, lyricist, writer, and actor. He wrote and composed the stage musical Grease with Jim Jacobs.

Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (October 30, 1751 – July 7, 1816) was an Irish satirist, playwright, poet, and owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He wrote plays like The Rivals, The School for Scandal, The Duenna, and A Trip to Scarborough. Sheridan served as a Whig MP for 32 years in the British House of Commons for Stafford (1780–1806), Westminster (1806–1807), and Ilchester (1807–1812). Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey holds his burial place. His plays remain central to the canon; people perform them globally.

Gian Carlo Menotti (Italian: [dʒaŋ ˈkarlo meˈnɔtti]; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian-American composer and librettist. He kept his Italian citizenship even though he called himself an American composer. Menotti wrote the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, plus more than two dozen other operas for popular appeal. He won a Pulitzer Prize twice: for The Consul (1950) and for The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955). He started the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in Spoleto in 1958 and its American version, Spol.

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (German: [ˈbɛɐ̯tɔlt ˈbʁɛçt] (listen); 10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Living in Munich during the Weimar Republic, his theatre plays often featured themes from his Marxist thought. He championed epic theatre, which he called "dialectical theatre." During the Nazi period and World War II, Brecht lived in exile, first in Scandinavia and then in the United States, returning to East Berlin.

Oscar Greeley Clendenning Ritter von Hammerstein II (July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director for musicals for nearly 40 years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard for vocalists and jazz musicians. Hammerstein co-wrote 850 songs. Hammerstein wrote the lyrics and plays; his partners wrote the music. Hammerstein worked with many composers, including Jerome Kern, on Show Boat and Vincent Youmans' work.

Sylvano Bussotti (born October 1, 1931) is an Italian composer of contemporary music. His work uses unusual notation and often creates interpretation issues.

Chester Simon Kallman (January 7, 1921 – January 18, 1975) was an American poet, librettist, and translator. Kallman gained fame collaborating with W. H. Auden on opera librettos for Igor Stravinsky and other composers.

Jack Larson, a famous TV face from the 1950s and '60s, worked as an actor, writer, and producer. Larson played Jimmy Olsen, Superman's bowtie-wearing sidekick, in "The Adventures of Superman" (Syndicated, 1952-58). Larson made "Golly jeepers, Mister Kent!" a phrase people used. The show's end and George Reeves' early death affected the rest of Larson's acting career. Later, Larson found success producing films.

Dick Scanlan, born in 1960, is an American writer, director, and actor.

Dorothy Fields (July 15, 1904 – March 28, 1974) wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Her work includes "The Way You Look Tonight" (1936), "A Fine Romance" (1936), "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (1930), "Don't Blame Me" (1948), "Pick Yourself Up" (1936), "I'm in the Mood for Love" (1935), "You Couldn't Be Cuter" (1938), and "Big Spender" (1966). Fields worked with key figures in American musical theater, including Jerome Kern, Cy Coleman, Irving Berlin, and Jimmy McHugh.

Frederick II (German: Friedrich II.; 24 January 1712 – 17 August 1786) ruled the Kingdom of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, a 46-year reign. He held the longest reign for any Hohenzollern king. Frederick II achieved military victories, reorganized Prussian armies, sponsored the arts and the Enlightenment, and won the Seven Years' War against great odds. Frederick became the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia and claimed the title King of Prussia after gaining control over most historically Prussian lands in 1772.

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Моде́ст Ильи́ч Чайко́вский; 13 May [O.S. 1 May] 1850–15 January [O.S. 2 January] 1916) was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist, and translator.

Michael Nyman composed unique soundtracks for films like "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" (1991), and Jane Campion's "The Piano" (1993). Nyman studied at the Royal Academy of Music and King's College in the early 1960s. He served as a music critic, lecturer, writer, and performer. He gradually earned small composing jobs. In 1977, he started his own permanent group, The Michael Nyman Band. He composed music for many international media and artists.

Dorothy Coade Hewett (1923–2002) was an Australian feminist poet, novelist, and playwright. People called her "one of Australia's best-loved and most respected writers." She joined the Communist Party for some time, but she fought the party leadership often. She got the Order of Australia for 20 published books. A Writer's Walk plaque sits at Circular Quay. Canberra has a street named for her. UWA Publishing started the Dorothy Hewett Award for unpublished manuscripts in 2015.

William Congreve (1670–1729) wrote plays and poetry during the Restoration period in England. His clever, satirical dialogue shaped the comedy of manners style of that time. He served as a minor political figure in the British Whig Party.

Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681) was a dramatist, poet, and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. He sometimes served as a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest. He developed the Spanish Golden Age theatre, which Lope de Vega started, making his work the peak of Spanish Baroque theatre. He is considered one of Spain's top dramatists.

George Furth often played slight, anxious, and reserved characters. He portrayed Mr. Pettis, the cranky banker who refused Warren Beatty's hairdresser George a loan in "Shampoo." Furth was significant on the Great White Way. His second Broadway role was in the musical satire "Hot Spot," which featured music by Stephen Sondheim, who was becoming a Broadway powerhouse. Furth also wrote the book for the conceptual musical.

Betty Comden worked with writing partner Adolph Green to create acclaimed musicals on film and stage. They started working together in 1939 by forming "The Revuers" with Judy Holliday, a cabaret act. Their success at venues like the Village Vanguard and the Blue Angel brought TV appearances. In 1944, Comden and Green wrote their first stage musical, "On the Town," adapting a Jerome Robbins' ballet that showed three sailors' day in NYC. They later wrote the lyrics for

At 96, George Abbott became newlywed for the third time and directed a Broadway show. At 102, he wrote a libretto for an off-Broadway "Frankenstein" production. George Abbott, the producer, writer, director, and actor, kept going for nine decades until his death at 107. People called him "Mr. Broadway" for his stage influence, though he also wrote and directed films. He produced "Broadway" (1926) and a 1994 revival of "Damn Ya."

David Adam Javerbaum, born 1971, is an American comedy writer. Javerbaum won 13 Emmy Awards; 11 came for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He runs the Twitter account @TheTweetOfGod, known for anti-establishment-religion tweets. This account reached 6 million followers as of August 2019. This account inspired his play An Act of God, which opened on Broadway in the spring of 2015 starring Jim Parsons, and again in the spring of 2016 starring Sean Hayes.

Rosa Mayreder (born 30 November 1858 in Vienna; died 19 January 1938 in Vienna) was an Austrian freethinker, author, painter, musician, and feminist. Franz Arnold Obermayer, a wealthy restaurant operator and barkeeper, was Rosa's father, and Marie was his second wife. Rosa had twelve brothers and sisters. Though her conservative father did not support formal education for girls, he let her take Greek and Latin lessons from one of her brothers. She also got private training in French, painting, and the piano.

General Gabriele D'Annunzio, Prince of Montenevoso, Duke of Gallese (UK: , US: , Italian: gabriˈɛːle danˈnuntsjo; March 12, 1863 – March 1, 1938), was an Italian poet, journalist, playwright, and soldier in World War I. He held a prominent spot in Italian literature from 1889 to 1910 and in politics from 1914 to 1924. People called him Il Vate ("the Poet") or Il Profeta ("the Prophet"). D'Annunzio linked his literary works to the Decadent movement, which mixed with French Symbolism and British A

Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (August 29, 1862 – May 6, 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist. He was Flemish but wrote in French. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 for his many-sided literary work, especially his dramatic works. These works show great imagination and poetic fancy. They reveal deep inspiration, sometimes like a fairy tale, and appeal to readers' feelings, stimulating their imagination.

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (November 18, 1836 – May 29, 1911) wrote plays, libretti, poems, and illustrations. He worked with composer Arthur Sullivan, creating fourteen comic operas. H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado stand as his most famous works. The repertory company—Gilbert, Sullivan, and producer Richard D'Oyly Carte—performed these works year-round in Britain and overseas for over a hundred years.

Stefan Zweig (November 28, 1881 – February 22, 1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer. During the 1920s and 1930s, Zweig became one of the world's most popular writers.

David Henry Hwang, born August 11, 1957, is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City.

Doris May Lessing (née Tayler; October 22, 1919 – November 17, 2013) wrote novels as a British-Zimbabwean (Rhodesian). Her family lived in Iran until 1925, then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she stayed until moving to London, England, in 1949. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983). The 2007 Nobel was awarded to Lessing.

Franz Blei (pseudonyms included Medardus, Dr. Peregrinus Steinhövel, Amadée de la Houlette, Franciscus Amadeus, Gussie Mc-Bill, Prokop Templin, Heliogabal, Nikodemus Schuster, L. O. G., Hans Adolar; born January 18, 1871, Vienna – died July 10, 1942, Westbury, Long Island, New York) wrote essays, plays, and translations. Blei also acted as a bibliophile, critic, editor in chief, publisher, and witty conversationalist. He was a friend and collaborator of Franz Kafka.

Arrigo Boito (Italian: [arˈriːɡo ˈbɔito]; February 24, 1842 – June 10, 1918), originally Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, wrote essays under the pseudonym Tobia Gorrio. Boito was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, librettist, and composer. He gained fame for his libretti, especially for Giuseppe Verdi's final operas Otello and Falstaff, Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda, and his own opera Mefistofele. Boito is regarded as a prominent figure alongside Emilio Praga and his brother Camillo Boito.

James Elliot Lapine, born January 10, 1949, is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. Lapine won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times for *Into the Woods*, *Falsettos*, and *Passion*. He frequently worked with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.

Tony Harrison, born April 30, 1937, is an English poet, translator, and playwright. He grew up in Leeds, getting his Classics education from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University. Tony Harrison remains one of Britain's top verse writers. Many of his works have appeared at the Royal National Theatre. People cite his controversial poem "V" and his dramatic versions of works: ancient Greek tragedies like the Oresteia and Lysistrata, French Molière's The Misanthrope, and Middle English The Mysteries. Harrison also shared his outspoken views.

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero lived from May 24, 1855, to November 23, 1934. Pinero started as an English playwright and actor. He became a professional actor at age 19. Pinero gained experience as a supporting actor in British provincial theatres. From 1876 to 1881, he worked with Henry Irving's company at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Pinero wrote his first play in 1877. Seven years later, he wrote 15 more plays, three of which succeeded greatly. Pinero left acting to become a full-time playwright. He first gained fame with a series of farces.