Lorenzo Da Ponte, Librettist of Wolfgang A. Mozart

Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's librettist of some of the composer's greatest operas

Guest Writer:  (c) Agnes Selby
 
On 20th August 1838, while the trees in the Roman Catholic cemetery swayed gently in the breeze, a distinguished group of New York citizens gathered around an open grave bidding farewell to the scholarly old gentleman who had died peacefully in his ninetieth year. He had been the first Professor of Italian Literature at Columbia University and had endowed Columbia's library with a large collection of rare Italian books.

Exceedingly handsome even in his old age, he had looked patriarchal with a mane of glistening white hair and piercing eyes. He had been a popular citizen of New York, his children had married into the best American families, and his wife, who had died before him, was remembered as a gentle, ladylike creature of exquisite beauty.

The distinguished citizens did not mourn the old man too deeply. He had died of old age and had lived a long and fruitful life. Some even smiled to themselves as they remembered his little lies, boasting of writing librettos for the immortal Mozart, counting the Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire amongst his friends and knowing Casanova intimately. Oh, he could tell some stories... and added to his little fibs was the gossip that he had once been a practicing priest. This gossip, they believed, was spread by his Italian enemies. On top of all that, the gossips said he had been born a Jew.


A large laurel wreath, as befitted a poet, was placed on the freshly covered grave. The distinguished citizens departed the cemetery with the knowledge of having been blessed to meet such a remarkable man, a man whom they loved and whom they had known so well, and who had touched their lives with his own magical presence.

But they knew him not at all. Not even his name!

He was born in Ceneda, a solitary Venetian outpost, on 10th March 1749, in the Jewish ghetto. His name was Emanuele, the son of Geremia and Rachele Conegliano. He was the oldest child, soon to be followed by brothers Baruch and Anania. The family had a history of scholars and doctors amongst its members, notably a Dr. Israel Conegliano who was a physician and statesman involved in the Venetian and Turkish diplomatic sqabbles. He was rewarded for his services to the Venetian state by being exempted from their harsh anti-Semitic regulations. Emanuele's father, however, was a humble tanner by trade without any intellectual pretensions.

When Emanuele was five years old, his mother died. For the next nine years the child ran wild. He barely learned to read and write. He nonetheless became bar mitzvah (the Jewish rite of initiation into manhood); but soon thereafter, his father, now forty, fell in love with a sixteen-year-old gentile girl, Orsola Pasqua Paietta, and decided to marry her.

In order to get permission for the marriage, the father and his three sons were baptised into the Catholic faith on 29th August 1763. The ceremony was performed by Monsignor Lorenzo Da Ponte, and Geremia, according to the custom of the day, adopted the name of his sponsor and became Gaspare Da Ponte. His sons Buruch and Anania changed their names to Girolamo and Luigi respectively, while Emanuele took the bishop's name as well. From this moment on, he was known as Lorenzo Da Ponte. Despite his strong Jewish beliefs at this time, coming so soon after his bar mitzvah, he very seldom referred to his Jewish background. There were others, however, who were only too happy to remind him of it.

Lorenzo's father eventually sired ten more children with his new bride. He dedicated his three sons by his first wife to the Church in gratitude for the blessings brought to him by his conversion to Catholicism. Lorenzo never quite forgave his father for dedicating him to the Church. In his autobiography he said, that this decision led him "to embrace a way of life entirely opposed to my temperament, character, principles and studies, thus opening the door to a thousand strange happenings and perils, in the course of which the envy, hypocrisy and malice of my enemies made me a pitiable victim for more than twenty years". Nevertheless, he financially supported his father's ever-growing family until his move to the New World and his struggles in America distanced him from his family in Italy.

He was ordained a priest in the seminary of Portogruaro. Although the priesthood did not suit Lorenzo Da Ponte's temperament, he profited greatlyfrom his monastic education. Already in 1770 he was made instructor, in the following year professor of languages and in 1772 vice-rector of the seminary.

In 1773 he threw up his post and moved to Venice where he began a life of debauchery, fathering a number of children, gambling, and even running a dance hall which was merely a front for a brothel. Da Ponte was a man of conflicting personalities: on one hand he delighted in the life of pleasure which characterised Venice in her last years as a republic, on the other hand he loved poetry and literature and there is no doubt that he was a teacher of genius. His life of dissipation came to an end when the Venetian ruling Council of Ten finally expelled him.

During his sojourn in Venice he had met the great poet Caterino Mazzola, who was the official poet to the Dresden court. Mazzola promised Da Ponte to let him know if a similar position became available at the court, and when shortly thereafter Da Ponte received a letter from Mazzola inviting him to Dresden, Da Ponte arrived full of expectations at Mazzola's residence. To his astonishment, Mazzola denied ever having written a letter of invitation to him; Da Ponte then attributed the letter to the machinations of his enemies.

For a short time Da Ponte remained in Dresden, closely studying Mozzola's art of writing librettos for operas and even trying his hand at writing some librettos himself. Mazzola watched with growing trepidation Da Ponte's machinations at the Dresden court and made it clear to Da Ponte that his presence in Dresden was no longer welcome. Da Ponte decided to try his luck in Vienna. On the day of his departure from Dresden, Mozzola, perhaps feeling a little guilty, handed him a letter which was to change Da Ponte's life forever. It read: "Friend Salieri, my good friend Da Ponte will bring you these few lines. Do for him everything that you would do fo me. His heart and his talent merit whatever help you can give him..."

Da Ponte arrived in Vienna late in 1781. He could not have arrived at a better time nor chosen a better patron than Salieri. The Emperor, Joseph II, was personally involved with the daily running of the opera. An enlightened despot, Joseph II believed in intellectual freedom, religious tolerance and equal justice for all. Under the reign of his mother Maria Theresa, Da Ponte would not have had the chance to succeed in his chosen profession. Maria Theresa would not have tolerated a Jew as poet at her court, albeit a baptised one. Her Jewish advisers and financiers could speak with her only separated by a screen, for fear that she might be exposed to the evil in their eyes. Joseph II, however, considered all his citizens equal as long as their actions profited the state. Da Ponte's patron, Antonio Salieri, was influential at court, having been Joseph II's chamber music partner from the time he had come to Vienna at the age of forteen.

Through the good offices of Salieri, Da Ponte secured the position of poet to the Viennese Italian opera. Da Ponte's first interview with Joseph II was not to ask a favour but to thank him for the appointment. Da Ponte wrote: "He asked me how many plays I have written, and when I said frankly, 'None Sire', he replied with a smile, 'Good, good! We shall have a virgin muse'!"

When Da Ponte met the little man whose genius would inspire him to write his masterpieces is not known. They probably met at a dinner given by Baron Wetzlar von Pinkenstern, himself a baptised Jew. The young Mozarts when first married occupied an apartment in Baron Wetzlar's house and the family remained friends until Mozart's death and beyond.

Mozart and Da Ponte were two of the most unlikely collaborators in the history of music, yet together they created the most enduring and beautiful masterpieces of the operatic repertoire. History remains silent on the subject of their friendship and their artistic collaboration. In Da Ponte, Mozart found a poet whose mind was perfectly attuned to his own. Da Ponte responded to Mozart's music as he did to no other composer. Essentially, when it came to their collaboration they were kindred spirits. Mozart wrote to his father on 13th October 1781, well before his collaboration with Da Ponte had begun: "The best thing of all is when a composer, who understands the stage and is able to make suggestions, meets an able poet, that true phoenix; in that case no fears need be entertained as to the applause even of the ignorant. In Da Ponte, Mozart found such an "able poet".

Their first collaboration was on "The Marriage of Figaro". Beaumarchais' comedy had been banned in Paris for three years, as it quite openly attacked the "ancien regime". In Vienna the staging of the play was prohibited, although the play was freely available in bookshops and Mozart himself owned a copy, listed among his possessions at the time of his death. Mozart suggested the play as a possible text and the composer and librettist completed the opera in six weeks. (Da Ponte claimed this short period for the writing of the opera but historians formerly dismissed his claim as pure fantasy. Most modern scholars now agree that Da Ponte's claim was correct.)

At first, Baron Wetzlar offered to finance the production at some place other than Vienna but Da Ponte approached the Emperor in his charming manner and recorded the following conversation:The emperor: "I fobade the German Company to perform this 'Nozze di Figaro' Da Ponte: "Yes, but since I have written an opera and not a play, I have had to omit many scenes and shorten others, and I have omitted and shortened anything which might offend the delicacy and decency of spectacle at which Your Majesty would be present. As for the music, so far as I can judge it seems to me marvellosuly beautiful".

A carriage was sent for Mozart immediately so that the Emperor could hear the music. Soon after this thelibretto and the music were given to copyists. But the cabal within the theatre had just begun. According to Da Ponte, the Italians connected with the opera theatre did not want the opera to succeed.Joseph II had recently forbidden ballets to be performed at the opera and when the Italians found that "The Marriage of Figaro" contained a ballet scene, they ran to the director of the Opera House, Count Rosenberg who summoned Da Ponte and tore the libretto and music to shreds.

Mozart was in despair. Da Ponte, however, instructed the rehearsal to go ahead in the presence of the Emperor. With no music being played during the dance scene, Count Almaviva's and Susanna's gesticulations made the scene appear like a puppet show. The Emperor was mystified by such bizarre goings on, and when the situation was explained to him by Da Ponte, the Emperor immediately send for the dancers and re-instated the ballet.

Mozart's collaboration with Da Ponte continued with "Don Giovanni". The opera was commissioned by the Prague Opera House, where Mozart's music enjoyed immense popularity. The first perfomance of the operawas scheduled for mid-October 1787. Both Mozart and Da Ponte were in Prague for the rehearsals. Here Mozart met Casanova, Da Ponte's old gambling friend who no doubt offered advice on the persona of Don Giovanni as his handwriting appears on the original manuscript.

Da Ponte returned to Vienna before the premiere of "Don Giovanni". While writing the libretto for "Don Giovanni", he also wrote "Tarare" for Salieri and "L'Abore di Diana" for Martin y Soler.When he informed Joseph II of his plan to work simultaneously on these three libretti, the Emperor exclaimed: "You won't succed!"

"Perhaps not," Da Ponte replied, "but I shall try all the same. I shall write for Mozart at night, which will be like reading Dante's "Inferno". In the morning I shall write for Martin, and that will be like studying Petrarch. In the evening I will write for Salieri, and he will be my Tasso."

The last opera Mozart and Da Ponte worked on was "Cosi Fan Tutte". It received its premiere on 26th January 1790. In "Cosi" Da Ponte's skill in the use of rhyme reaches new heights. His libretto is inspired. It is his original work, not based on any other opera or a text by another writer. Designed for a carnival, it is charming, witty and perceptive.

Emperor Joseph II died on 20th February 1790. Da Ponte was shattered by the Emperor's death and it seems he mourned him for the rest of his life. Da Ponte's magical life in Vienna was virtually at an end. During the short reign of Emperor Leopold II, Da Ponte completed three libretti but he sensed a change was coming. Da Ponte's application to the Emperor to join Martin y Soler in St. Petersburg was denied. In the end, however, intrigues in the theatre and his own unfortunate affair with a married opera singer resulted in his reputation being tarnished in the eye of the new Emperor. His Semitic background and his bad reputation in Venice did not help either.

It is not clear whether Da Ponte was dismissed from his post as court poet to the Italian Opera or resigned of his own volition. Da Ponte found himself at the end of 1791 in Trieste where he experienced the bitterest moments of his life. He had fallen on hard times, and it had been a fall from a great height. His beloved Emperor and Mozart were dead and a new era descended upon Europe.

It was in Trieste that Da Ponte met his beautiful Nancy, who remained his great love until her death in America. He describes her in his autobiography:

I was introduced to a young English girl, the daughter of a rich merchand who had lately arrived in Trieste. She was said by everyone to be extremely beautiful, and to unite gentle manners with all the graces of a cultivated mind. Her face was covered with a black veil, which prevented me from seeing her, so, wanting to find out if the reality matched her reputation I said, as if in jest, 'Mademoiselle, the style in which you are wearing your veil is not a la mode'". Not realising what was in my mind,  she enquired: 'What is the present fashion?' 'This signorina' and taking her veil by the edge I drew it over her head".

The face he saw beneath the veil must have pleased him immensely, and although Nancy left the room offended by his boldness, she too was impressed by the still handsome man. It seems it was love at first sight.

Nancy's father, John Grahl, was born in Dresden and his wife was French. Grahl had converted from Judaism to Anglicanism and Nancy was born in England where she spent her first sixteen years. It is surprising that her family would have given her hand in marriage to an ageing, unemployed poet, who by his own admission possessed no more than five piastres in the whole world.

There are no records in Trieste to prove that a marriage actually took place between the former Roman Catholic priest and his "beautiful, fresh and loving companion", only Da Ponte's statement that she became his after "social ceremonies and formalities". From the verses that Da Ponte addressed to her after her death and from the trials and tribulations they faced together throughout their marriage, it seems that the love that bound them remained strong to the end. There is no evidence that Da Ponte was ever defrocked or gave up his priesthood. It is my personal belief that his priestly episode was one he remembered with distaste and it receded in his mind just as one life's experience amongst many.

For a short while they settled in London. After a period of financial difficulties, Da Ponte finally became poet to the King's Theatre in Haymarket. Here again he became embroiled in the theatre's many cabals. Nancy, however, ran the "coffee room" at the theatre so succefully that she amassed a small fortune. A bookselling business Da Ponte established while working at the theatre went bankrupt. The catalogue of his books is today in the British Library. It shows what a remarkable collection he had, with almost every author in the Italian language being represented.

Nancy's family emigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania. On 20th Septmber 1804 Nancy also departed for America with their four children. Da Ponte accompanied them as far as Gravesend. As he looked at his wife and children (he writes): "I seemed to feel a hand of ice seize my heart and tear it from my breast". He had given Nancy permission to stay in America for one year. She carried with her a considerable amount of money; it is just possible that Da Ponte wished this money to be kept in a safe place and not fall victim to his own bankruptcy.

Despite Da Ponte's entreaties to his wife to return to London, Nancy remained in America. Da Ponte's situation in London became intolerable and on 4th June 1805 he arrived in Philadelphia having lost all his money gambling with a fellow passenger on the journey.

Da Ponte found his family settled in New York. With the help of Nancy's money, he invested in a grocery shop, at first in New York and later in Elizabethtown in New Jersey, where he and his wife with their four children remained until 1807, by which time he had lost all his money.

Da Ponte returned to New York hoping to make a living for his family. In a bookshop he met Clement Clarke Moore, then a young man, who was later to become America's most distinguished Hebrew scholar and lexicographer, the founder of the General Theological Seminary and the Trustee of Columbia College. He is better remembered today as the author of the classic children's poem, "The Night Before Christmas". At Moore's suggestion, Da Ponte opened the "Manhattan Academy for Young Gentlemen". The school became immensely popular and soon Nacy opened "the Manhattan Academy for Young Ladies". Nancy taught French and Italian as well as the art of artificial flower making and engaged teachers to give lessons in drawing and music.

All in all the academies were a great success. Da ponte, full of intellectual enthusiasm, instructed his students in such an unforgettable way that they remembered his lectures for the rest of their lives.

Arthur Livingston, the American editor of Da Ponte's "Memoirs", wrote:"There is no doubt that this was an important momenfor the American mind. Da Ponte made Europe, poetry, painting, music the artistic spirit, classical lore, a creative classical education, live for many important Americans as no-one, I venture, had done before".

In 1811, Lorenzo Da Ponte became an American citizen and gave up his lucrative teaching career and the life he so thoroughly enjoyed and moved to Sunbury, Pennsylvania where he again opened a grocery shop. Nancy's aged parents lived in Sunbury, which was then a charming town set in a beautiful countryside. But Da Ponte hated every moment of the seven years he spent in Sunbury, longing for the bookshops and stimulation of New York.

Surprisingly, Da Ponte succeeded in business the second time around. He opened a millinery store, ran a carrier service between Sunbury and Philadelphia, established a distillery in Sunbury and in 1814 built there a thre-storey residence. He became the second highest taxpayer in the county.

By 1818 Da Ponte had wearied of the countryside and moved back to New York where he spent the rest of his life, selling and buying Italian books. In his teaching he had found he was hindered by the lack of good Italian books and imported them from Italy.

In 1825 he received a signal honour by being appointed Professor of Italian at Columbia University.He retained this title until his death.

On 29th November 1825 the first season of Italian opera in America opened at the Park Theatre. The Garcia family, a Spanish operatic company had just come from a successful opera season in London. On 23rd May 1826 Da Ponte was overjoyed when the Garcia company premiered Mozart's "Don Giovanni".

Following the success of the Garcia company's tour, Da Ponte undertook to provide a permanent home for Italian opera in New York. Da Ponte was able to raise a large amount of money which enabled the city to build its first Opera House. It was opened under Da Ponte's management on 18th November 1833. It was a magnificent theatre. The dome was painted with a represenation of the nine Muses by Italian artists especially brought to New York to execute it. It was a huge success. In 1836 the Italian Opera House was renamed the National Theatre and Da Ponte was replaced as manager. The National Theatre burned to the ground in 1839, but the idea of going to the opera had become so popular in New York that soon the Astor Place Opera House and later the Academy of Music staged many successful opera performances. Finally, the Metropolitan Opera House opened in 1883, in no small measure the result of the enthusiasm generated by Da Ponte's original vision of an opera house in New York.

In August 1838 the old man died. A priest was summoned and Da Ponte made peace with the church. Like Mozart, he was buried in an unmarked grave; in 1912 the coffins from the cemetery where he was laid to rest was removed to Calvary Cemetery to make room for 11th Street in New York.

Copyright Agnes Selby.
By courtesy of "Quadrant". This article was first published by "Quadrant" in January 1997.


Added  link: 

Here's a great review of Da Ponte, Mozart's librettist / Tel  


Nights at the Opera: The Life of the man who put words to Mozart. The NewYorker. Accessed 2 February 2007.  


(c) 2007.  Tel Asiado.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.