Libretto

Explanation

The first thing that you need when planning an opera, even a hypothetical one, is lyrics, or as they are called in the opera world, the libretto. I chose to write the lyrics for the Act II scene where the three goddesses, Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera each tell Paris why they deserve to get the golden apple - but I only wrote the lyrics to Athena’s aria. I wrote it in the da capo structure, which means that the verses are in the ABA pattern with an ABAB rhyme scheme. Since I am not someone who writes rhyming poetry easily, I wrote the first draft in the stream of consciousness style so that I could work out the gist of what I wanted to say in the aria, and then I went back over it and made it rhyme. Scroll down to read it!