Preface
 
My translation is neither meant to be poetic in itself nor is it singable. It is an attempt to underlie the Spanish meanings with English, and match somewhat the syllabification of the musical setting of the play. If it catches any of the power and the beauty of Federico García Lorca's remarkable poetry, that should be considered accidental. If it results in an increased attention to the overwhelming depth and force of his play in the original Spanish, then it will have accomplished something good and beautiful.
 

 

Spanish Textural Note for the Libretto

 

I have based the Spanish text as closely as I know how to what I think must have been Federico García Lorca's intention, working from an early 1936 edition and comparing that to various later editions, there were inconsistencies which I've attempted to iron out.

 

I have made alternations of Lorca's text in the ensembles where sometimes two or more passages are presented simultaneously or in a different order or with some repetitions and once, in Act II Scene 1, I traded a brief passage between the CRIADA and a MUCHACHA in order to give the more "soaring" musically telling line to the dramatically more important personality.