Tim Sullivan

I’m a massive classical music nerd. I always have been one, but until recently my relationship with opera was always a bit strained, to put it mildly. The taste for operatic vocal technique took a while to acquire. That’s a story for another time, but I digress.

My personal music collecting and listening habit consists of gathering a composer’s complete catalogued works. I’ve set up a Plex server for organizing and streaming it all – over 25,000 tracks for nearly 40 different composers, most of them complete – and maybe someday I’ll write a blog about that project as well.

Regardless, listening to a composer’s complete works involves listening to their operas. Until I’ve mastered another half-dozen languages, if I want to really enjoy an opera that isn’t in English or French, I’ll have to follow the plot through a libretto. And I’ve found that libretto quality varies widely. In fact, in many cases – especially with the most obscure operas – no English libretto exists at all. And while operas can be rewarding on a solely musical + visual level, it feels like neglecting the work’s raison d’être.

All this to say, I’ve been mulling over a personal project to publish a series of librettos, consistent in quality, to satisfy my own need for an elegant reference set. See Librettos for details of the project. Right now, there are none 😒 but check back for updates! Or subscribe to the blog if you so yearn.