Salome: Libretto (G. Schirmer's Collection of Opera Librettos)

I recently acquired Strauss' Salome. Note that this is Richard Strauss, not Johann. I am a music nerd, and don't understand German. Therefore before I listened to it I wanted the libretto. I found this libretto to be perfectly accurate. The English translation is great; no awkward passages that were roughly translated or anything like that. There were two typos, but I didn't mind as I could still tell what the word was supposed to be. I thought it maintained the poetry quite well also, though without understanding of German I am not an authority on that subject. The book was small and doesn't take up much space (this is good for me as a college student in a dorm room). If you have a recording of Salome and don't understand German then you need this. If you are going to the Opera to see it and they don't hand out libretti, get it. It's a great price as well.

How do you review a libretto? Unless there are pages missing or it's in really terrible condition, neither of which is applicable in this case, if it contains the words, and most often, their translation into English, of the opera that's all you want. If you want to get the whole opera experience, you want to read the libretto. It's becoming less important nowadays as there are supertitles or other methods of translating or showing in real time what is being sung. Nevertheless, I still enjoy reading the opera ahead of time.

Salome knows what she wants!

Libretto. German one side, English on the other side of spread. EZ reading.