This article gives a survey of current trends in librettology; it is based on the reviews published since 2001 in the Mitteilungen des Dokumentationszentrums für Librettoforschung (Bamberg). Some types of studies (for instance, the comparison of a libretto with its literary source, or monographs on themes and motives) are as popular as they have always been; rather new branches of librettology deal with translations, the linguistic (lexicological) analysis of the libretto, problems of literary genres and cultural transfer. Much work remains to be done in editing librettos; and there are no comprehensive studies of the libretto in the twentieth century.
