As managing editor at Jugum Press, I’m working to publish translations by Enrique Prado of major opera librettos in Spanish.

My editorial and production tasks closely resemble my twenty years’ work on technical tomes for Windows driver developers. This content, however, is farm more emotionally charged. And proofreading Windows pseudo code never prompted as many laughs as proofreading Don Pasquale.

However, it may be that some of those old Windows programmer publication projects prompted as many tears as Tosca, though less blood on the floor.

Project background:
Dr. Prado has been translating librettos and privately publishing them as an opera aficionado who shares his enthusiasm with friends in Mexico. We’re collaborating to provide these translations in print and e-book format.

The translations are complete, but not digitized, so my tasks as editor and producer include:

OCR scanning — followed by typo correction in two languages
Print formatting and production
Rights clearance for original text and art
Ebook production
Publication and distribution

The first eight librettos are now available — you can find links on the Jugum Press web site at www.jugumpress.com/opera

• Gaetano Donizetti:
  Don Pasquale
• Giacomo Puccini:
  Madam Butterfly
  Tosca
  Il Tabarro
  Suor Angelica
• Giacchino Rossini:
  El Barbero de Sevilla
• Giuseppe Verdi:
  I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata
  Simon Boccanegra

Another two dozen librettos are forthcoming — we’re concentrating on completing the Puccini and Verdi librettos first. And then we’ll be launching a marketing plan.

These are the additional publications to be completed in 2014:

• Vincenzo Bellini: Norma
• Georges Bizet: Carmen
• Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena, Lucia de Lammermoor
• Ruggero Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci
• Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Las Bodas de Figaro, Don Giovanni, La Flauta Mágica
• Giacomo Puccini: La Boheme, La Fanciulla del West, Manon Lescaut, Turandot; Gianni Schicchi
• Giacchino Rossini: Cenerentola
• Giuseppe Verdi: Aida, Un Baile de Mascaras, Don Carlo, Ernani, Falstaff, La Forza del Destino, Macbeth, Nabucco, Otello, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Trovatore