Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/359

 345 REVIEW. Library of Congress. Catalogue of Opera Librettos printed before 1800. Prepared by O. G. T. SonnecJ^ Chief of the Division of Music. 2 vo/s. Washington Government Printing Office. 1914. i T is only in recent years that the im- portance of opera and oratorio librettos has been realised. In old days the libretto question was dismissed off-hand with a repetition of the often-quoted witticism that what is too stupid to be spoken should be sung. But nowadays we are beginning to discover a good many things about librettos which our forefathers never suspected. No one who has worked seriously at the history of opera or oratorio can have failed to perceive the enormous historical value of librettos, which are often the sole means of settling the dates of different versions of the same work, and of reconstituting their re- spective texts. Had Dr. Chrysander been able to consult the librettos of Handel's operas, which were often revised and rewritten, his edition of those little known and little appreciated works would have been much more valuable than it actually is. Nor is the purely artistic side of the matter to be ignored. The literary value of a great many librettos is no doubt not very high, but it must be