Librettists again…
Recently I had a chance to hear a successful, working librettist talk shop. It was a very helpful and informative conversation and I felt lucky to be able to listen in. Among many other things, two statements were made. First, the amount of time and labor that it takes a composer to complete the score is overwhelmingly greater than the amount of time and labor it takes a librettist to complete their work on the respective piece. This statement came up in connection with the question whether it'd be a good practice for a librettist to form a team with a composer and work together exclusively, and the answer was “no” since working with multiple composers would increase said librettist’s productivity and, subsequently, income. Because, you see, it takes a lot longer for a composer to write the music than it takes the librettist to write the text.
Yet, when the commission split question came up, the same person (a lovely and highly accomplished person, I hurry to add) lamented the 75/25 and 66/33 split and said that it should be at least 60/40 and, ideally, 50/50, and definitely 50/50 when it comes to royalties. There was some concession that the composer should be paid extra for orchestration, but still, not clear how that would work out since the 50/50 split is being advocated on principle. So, in the hypothetical situation, where we have multiple composers and librettists working in the opera industry full time (utopian, I know), the librettists would make several times as much money as the composers would since, due to the nature of their work, they’d be able to complete and get paid for a lot more operas than the composers would.
Full disclosure—I may be biased as I am primarily a composer, but I have also written one complete libretto (that I am currently setting to music) as well as multiple fragments, sketches, translations, treatments, proposals of libretti etc.; I have also worked with other librettists, in most cases very successfully and in one less so. So I can confirm based on my own experience as both a composer and a librettist and on observation of several other librettists and composers that it indeed takes a great deal less time and labor to write a libretto than it takes to set it to music. This is not even a point of contention—everyone will agree. So, given that the collaborators’ status in the industry is equal, does it make any sense for them to be paid equally given that the amount of labor involved is nothing but? The word “equity” has rightfully been one of the major buzzwords in the recent years, so isn’t this an obvious case where equality and equity are two very different things?? Just sayin’… I mean, I know it sounds like a rhetorical question, but I think I’d like an answer. Anyone? Buehler?