Although W.H. Auden, who ranks with Hugo von Hofmannsthal among the master librettists of the age, thought that the meaning of libretto's words were its least important component (at any rate, so far as the audience is concerned), and that a libretto is 'really a private letter to the composer', he also found that 'as an art-form involving words, opera is the last refuge of the High Style.' The syllables are the main thing, the singability. The poet-librettist's verses 'have their moment of glory', the moment in which they suggest 'a certain melody' to the composer; 'once that is over, they are as expendable as infantry to a Chinese general.' Yet opera is 'the only art to which a poet with a nostalgia for those times past, when poets could write in the grand manner all by themselves, can still contribute, provided he will take the pains to learn the métier and is lucky enough to find a composer he can believe in'.

LRB 19 August 1993 | PDF Download