Phantoms of the Opera

Jeremy Axelrod has an article for Poetry Foundation on poets working as librettists which features our very own J. D. McClatchy:

Like many poets, McClatchy landed his first commission with a bit of serendipity. In 1987, the composer William Schuman asked Richard Wilbur to write a libretto for his next project, A Question of Taste, adapted from a Roald Dahl story. Wilbur, overscheduled at the time, suggested that Schuman call McClatchy instead. But while a libretto calls on a poet’s gifts, it uses those gifts differently. To master the libretto form, McClatchy first had to adjust his priorities. “Poetry—or at least the kind of poetry I write—solicits a density of texture and a range of allusion and nuance that are largely useless in a libretto,” McClatchy says. “Of course I try for as much pathos or wit or elegance as possible in a libretto, but I am also keenly aware that the words have to be sung and understood, both very difficult operations in a large opera house. So I have to strive for a kind of clarity, a kind of ‘build,’ and an economy that would almost be handicaps in the writing of a poem.”

Read the full article.

June 11, 2009, 11:05am · daniel mark epstein, david yezzi, kate gale, libretti, opera, our town