Editing Libretto (section)

==Literary characteristics==

The opera libretto from its inception ({{Circa|1600}}) was written in verse, and this continued well into the 19th century, although genres of musical theatre with spoken dialogue have typically alternated verse in the musical numbers with spoken prose. Since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. Much of the [[recitative]]s of [[George Gershwin]]'s opera ''[[Porgy and Bess]]'', for instance, are merely [[DuBose Heyward|DuBose]] and [[Dorothy Heyward]]'s play ''[[Porgy (play)|Porgy]]'' set to music as written – in prose – with the lyrics of the [[aria]]s, [[duet]]s, [[trio (music)|trio]]s and [[refrain|choruses]] written in verse.

The libretto of a musical, on the other hand, is almost always written in prose (except for the song lyrics). The libretto of a musical, if the musical is adapted from a play (or even a novel), may even borrow their source's original dialogue liberally – much as ''[[Oklahoma!]]'' used dialogue from [[Lynn Riggs]]'s ''[[Green Grow the Lilacs (play)|Green Grow the Lilacs]]'', ''[[Carousel (musical)|Carousel]]'' used dialogue from [[Ferenc Molnár]]'s ''[[Liliom]]'', ''[[My Fair Lady]]'' took most of its dialogue word-for-word from [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'', ''[[Man of La Mancha]]'' was adapted from the 1959 television play ''[[I, Don Quixote]]'', which supplied most of the dialogue, and the 1954 musical version of ''[[Peter Pan]]'' used [[J. M. Barrie]]'s dialogue. Even the musical ''[[Show Boat]]'', which is greatly different from the [[Show Boat (novel)|Edna Ferber novel from which it was adapted]], uses some of Ferber's original dialogue, notably during the [[miscegenation]] scene. And [[Lionel Bart]]'s ''[[Oliver!]]'' uses chunks of dialogue from [[Charles Dickens]]'s novel ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', although it bills itself as a "free adaptation" of the novel.