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Biography
About|the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte|the Bishop of the same name|Vittorio Veneto Lorenzo Da Ponte (10 March 1749 - 17 August 1838) was a Republic of Venice|Venetian opera libretto|librettist and poet. He wrote the librettos for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart 's greatest operas, Don Giovanni , The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte .
Early career
Lorenzo Da Ponte was born Emanuele Conegliano in Vittorio Veneto|Ceneda , in the Republic of Venice (now Vittorio Veneto , Italy). He was Judaism|Jewish by birth, the eldest of three sons. In 1764, his father, the widower Geronimo Conegliano, converted himself and his family to Roman Catholicism in order to remarry. Emanuele, as was the custom, took the name of Lorenzo da Ponte from the Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Vittorio Veneto|Ceneda who baptism|baptised him. Thanks to the bishop, the three brothers studied at the Ceneda seminary. The bishop died in 1768, after which Lorenzo moved to the seminary at Portogruaro , where he took the Minor Orders in 1770 and became Professor of Literature, and was ordain ed a priest in 1773. He began at this period writing poetry in Italian and Latin, including an ode to wine, Ditirambo sopra gli odori .Angermüller(1990)
In 1773 moved to Venice, where he made a living as a teacher of Latin, Italian and French. Although he was a Catholic priest, the young man led a dissolute life, . While priest of the church of San Luca, he took a mistress, with whom he had two children. At his 1779 trial, where he was charged with "public concubinage" and "abduction of a respectable woman", it was alleged that he had been living in a brothel and organizing the entertainments there. He was found guilty and banished for fifteen years from Venice.Holden (2006), 34-9
Vienna and London
Lorenzo da Ponte moved to Gorizia , then part of Austria, where he lived as a writer, attaching himself to the leading noblemen and cultural patrons of the city. In 1781 he believed (falsely) that he had an invitation from his friend Caterino Mazzolà, the poet of the Kingdom of Saxony|Saxon court, to take up a post at Dresden , only to be disabused when he arrived there. Mazzolà however offered him work at the theatre translating libretti and recommended that he seek to develop writing skills. He also gave him a letter of introduction to the composer Antonio SalieriHolden (2006), 50-5
With the help of Salieri, da Ponte applied for and obtained the post of librettist to the Italian Theatre in Vienna. Here he also found a patron in Mozart's benefactor, the banker Raimund Wetzlar. As court librettist in Vienna, he collaborated with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Antonio Salieri , and Vicente Martín y Soler . Early successes were Le Nozze di Figaro and Soler's Una cosa rara . Da Ponte wrote the libretti for Mozart's most popular Italian operas, Le Nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790). All of Da Ponte's works were adaptations of pre-existing plots, as was common among librettists of the time, with the exceptions of '' L'arbore di Diana with Soler, and Così fan tutte , which he began with Salieri, but completed with Mozart. However the quality of his elaboration gave them new life.
In the case of Figaro da Ponte included a preface to the libretto which hints at his technique and objectives in libretto writing, as well as his close working with the composer:
... I have not made a translation of Pierre Beaumarchais|Beaumarchais , but rather an imitation, or let us say an extract ... I was compelled to reduce the sixteen original characters to eleven, two of which can be played by a single actor and to omit , in addition to one whole act, many effective scenes ... In spite, however, of all the zeal and care on the part of both the composer and myself to be brief, the opera will not be one of the shortest ... Our excuse will be the variety of development of this drama,... to paint faithfully and in in full colour the divers passions that are aroused, and ... to offer a new type of spectacle ...cited in Einstein (1962), 430
With the death of Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1792, Da Ponte lost his patron - her had already been formally dimissed from the Imperial Service in 1791, due to intrigues. He received no support from the new Emperor, Leopold. He could not return to Venice, from which he had been banished until the end of 1794. In 1792 Da Ponte travelled via Prague to London, accompanied by his companion Nancy Grahl (with whom he eventually had four children); in 1803 he became librettist at the King's Theatre, London. He remained based in London undertaking various theatrical and publishing activities until 1805, when debt and bankruptcy caused him to flee to the United States in 1805 with Grahl and his children.Angermüller (1990)
American career
In the United States, Da Ponte settled in New York first, then Sunbury, Pennsylvania , where he briefly ran a grocery store and gave private Italian lessons. He returned to New York to open a bookstore. He became friends with Clement Clarke Moore , and, through him, gained an appointment as the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia University|Columbia College . He was the first Roman Catholic priest to be appointed to the faculty, and he was also the first to have been born a Jew. In New York he introduced opera and produced a performance of Don Giovanni (1825).Angermuller (1990) He also introduced Gioachino Rossini 's music in the U.S., through a concert tour with his niece Giulia da Ponte.
1n 1807 he began to write his Memoirs (published in 1823), described by Charles Rosen as 'not an intimate exploration of his own identity and character, but rather a picaresque adventure story.'Da Ponte (2000), ix-x
In 1828, at the age of 79, Lorenzo da Ponte became a naturalization|naturalized United States nationality law|U.S. citizen . In 1833, at the age of eighty-four, he founded the first opera house in the United States, the New York Opera Company. Owing to his lack of business acumen, however, it lasted only two seasons before the company had to be disbanded and the theater sold to pay the company's debts. It was, however, the predecessor of the New York Academy of Music (New York City)|Academy of Music and of the New York Metropolitan Opera .
Lorenzo da Ponte died in 1838 in New York; an enormous funeral ceremony was held in New York's old St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, New York|St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street. Some sources state that Da Ponte is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens|Calvary Cemetery in Queens , but that cemetery did not exist before 1848. Other sources say da Ponte was buried in lower Manhattan. Calvary Cemetery does contain a stone marker to serve as a memorial to Da Ponte. Find A Grave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr& GRid=11764
In 2009 the Spanish director Carlos Saura released his Italian film Io, Don Giovanni , a somewhat fictionalized account of Da Ponte, which attempted to link his life with his libretto for Don Giovanni .
Da Ponte's Libretti
The nature of da Ponte's contribution to the art of libretto-writing has been much discussed. In the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , it is pointed out that 'the portrayal of grand passions was not his strength', but that he worked particularly closely with his composers to bring out their strengths, especially where it was a matter of sharp characterization or humorous or satirical passages.Angermuller (1990) Richard Taruskin notes that Mozart, in letters to his father, had expressed concern to secure da Ponte, but was worried that the Italian composers in town (e.g. Salieri) were trying to keep him for themselves. He specifically wished to create a opera buffa|buffa comedy opera which included a opera seria|seria female part for contrast; Taruskin suggests that 'da Ponte's special gift for was that of forging this virtual smorgasbord of idioms into a vivid dramatic shape.'Taruskin (2010), 476-7 David Cairns examines da Ponte's reworking of the scenario for Don Giovanni , (originally written by Giovanni Bertati and performed in Venice as Don Giovanni Tenorio , with music by Gazzaniga ), in 1787). Cairns points out that 'the verbal borrowings are few', and that da Ponte is at evey point 'wittier, more stylish, more concise and more effective.' Moreover da Ponte's restructuring of the action enables a tighter format giving better opportunities for Mozart's musical structures.Cairns (2006), 147-151 David Conway suggests that da Ponte's own life 'in disguise' (as a Jew/priest/womaniser) enabled him to infuse the operatic cliche of disguise with a sense of Romanticism|Romantic irony.Conway (2012), 52-3
Works
Opera libretti:
* ''La Scuola de' gelosi (1783) — composer Antonio Salieri
* '' Il ricco d'un giorno (1784) — composer Antonio Salieri
* Il burbero di buon cuore (1786, from the play by Carlo Goldoni ) — composer Vicente Martín y Soler
* Il Demogorgone ovvero Il filosofo confuso (1786) — composer Vincenzo Righini
* Il finto cieco (1786) — composer Giuseppe Gazzaniga
* The Marriage of Figaro|Le nozze di Figaro (1786, from the play by Pierre Beaumarchais ) — composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
* Una cosa rara (1786, from the comedy La Luna della Sierra by Luis Vélez de Guevara ) — composer Vicente Martín y Soler
* Gli equivoci (1786) — composer Stephen Storace
* '' L'arbore di Diana (1787) — composer Vicente Martín y Soler
* Il dissoluto punito o sia Il Don Giovanni (1787, from the opera by Giuseppe Gazzaniga) — composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
* '' Axur, re d'Ormus (1787/88, translation of the libretto Tarare by Pierre Beaumarchais) — composer Antonio Salieri
* Il Talismano (1788, from Carlo Goldoni) — composer Antonio Salieri
* Il Bertoldo (1788) — composer Antonio Brunetti
* ''L'Ape musicale (1789) — Pasticcio of works by various composers
* Il Pastor fido (1789, from the pastoral by Giovanni Battista Guarini ) — composer Antonio Salieri
* La Cifra (1789) — composer Antonio Salieri
* Così fan tutte (1789/90) — composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
* La Caffettiera bizzarra (1790) — composer Joseph Weigl
* La Capricciosa corretta (1795) — composer Vicente Martín y Soler
* Antigona (1796) — composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
* Il consiglio imprudente (1796) — composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
* Merope (1797) — composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
* Cinna (1798) — composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
* Armida (1802) — composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
* La grotta di Calipso (1803) — composer Peter Winter
* ''Il trionfo dell'amor fraterno (1804) — composer Peter Winter
* Il ratto di Proserpina (1804) — composer Peter Winter
Cantatas and Oratorios:
* Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia (1785) — composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri and "Cornetti" (lost)
* Il Davidde (1791) — Pasticcio from works by various composers
* Hymn to America — composer Antonio Bagioli
Poetry:
* Letter of complaint in blank verse to Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor Anthony Holden, pp. 113–6
* 18 sonnets in commemoration of his wife (1832)
Other
* translations from English into Italian.
* several books of elementary instruction in the Italian language
* Memorie (aurobiography)
* History of the Florentine Republic and the Medici (2 vols., 1833).Cite Appletons'|Da Ponte, Lorenzo|year=1900
References
;Notes reflist|2 ;Sources
Angermüller, Rudolph, 'Da Ponte, Lorenzo', in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , ed. S. Sadie, London: Macmillan, 1990 ISBN 0333231112
Cairns, David, Mozart and his Operas . London: Penguin, 2006. ISBN 9780713994919
Conway, David, Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2012). ISBN 9781107015388
Da Ponte, Lorenzo, tr. E. Abbott, intr. Charles Rosen, ed. A. Livingstone Memoirs . New York: New York Review of Books, 2000. ISBN 9780940322356
Einstein, Alfred, tr. A. Mendel and N. Broder, Mozart: His Charcter, His Work . Oxford: Oxford University Press (1962). ISBN 0195007328
Holden, Anthony, The Man Who Wrote Mozart: The Extraordinary Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte , London: Orion Publishing Company, 2007 ISBN 0-7538-2180-X
Taruskin, Richard, Music in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries . Oxford: Oxford University Press (2010) ISBN 9780195384826
;Other reading
Bolt, Rodney, ''The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte — Mozart's Poet, Casanova's Friend, and Italian Opera's Impresario in America , New York: Bloomsbury, 2006 ISBN 1-59691-118-2
Hodges, Sheila, ''Lorenzo Da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozart's Librettist , Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002 ISBN 0-299-17874-9
Jewish Museum, Vienna (pub.), Lorenzo Da Ponte — Challenging the New World , exhibition catalogue from the Jewish Museum ISBN 978-3-7757-1748-9, ISBN 3-7757-1748-X
Steptoe, Anthony, Mozart–Da Ponte Operas: The Cultural and Musical Background to "Le nozze di Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "Cosi fan tutte" , New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 1988 ISBN 0-19-313215-X
External links
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/01/08/070108crbo_books_acocella Acocella, Joan, "Nights At The Opera: The Life of the Man who put Words to Mozart", The New Yorker , 8 January 2007
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/mozart/story/0,,1683327,00.html Holden, Anthony, “The phoenix”, ‘’The Guardian’’ (London), 7 January 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/13/AR2006071301033.html Keats, Jonathan, "Lorenzo's Toil: How the Son of an Impoverished Leatherworker Came to Write Mozart's Libretti", Washington Post , 16 July 2006 — book review
CathEncy|wstitle=Lorenzo Da Ponte
Authority control|PND=118678841|LCCN=n/80/57191|VIAF=41838569Persondata | NAME = Da Ponte, Lorenzo | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Conegliano, Emanuele (real name) | SHORT DESCRIPTION = Venetian opera librettist and poet | DATE OF BIRTH = 10 March 1749 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Vittorio Veneto|Ceneda , Republic of Venice | DATE OF DEATH = 17 August 1838 | PLACE OF DEATH = New York DEFAULTSORT:Da Ponte, Lorenzo Category:1749 births Category:1838 deaths Category:18th-century Roman Catholic priests Category:Italian Roman Catholic priests Category:American Roman Catholic priests Category:Italian writers Category:Italian opera librettists Category:American opera librettists Category:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's librettists Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Italian expatriates in Austria Category:Italian emigrants to the United States Category:American people of Italian descent Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Italian Jews Category:American Jews Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Category:Italian Roman Catholics Category:American Roman Catholics Category:People from Vittorio Veneto Category:Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Queens, New York)
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