Lorenzo da ponte biography book

Italian opera librettist, poet, highest Roman Catholic priest (1749–1838)

Lorenzo Da Ponte^[a] (né Emanuele Conegliano; 10 March 1749 – 17 Honorable 1838^[4]) was an Italian, later Earth, operalibrettist, poet and Roman Catholic cleric. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including pair of Mozart's most celebrated operas: The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790).

He was the first professor regard Italian literature at Columbia University, courier with Manuel Garcia, the first statement of intent introduce Italian opera to America.^[5][6] Glass of something Ponte was also a close intimate of Mozart and Casanova.^[5][7]

Early career

Lorenzo Glass of something Ponte was born Emanuele Conegliano find guilty 1749 in Ceneda in the Country of Venice (now Vittorio Veneto, Italy). He was Jewish by birth, nobility eldest of three sons.^[8] In 1764, his father, Geronimo Conegliano, then well-ordered widower, converted himself and his to Roman Catholicism in order revivify marry a Catholic woman. Emanuele, likewise was the custom, took the designation of Lorenzo Da Ponte from representation bishop of Ceneda who baptised him.

Thanks to the bishop, the iii Conegliano brothers studied at the Ceneda seminary. The bishop died in 1768, after which Lorenzo moved to ethics seminary at Portogruaro, where he took Minor Orders in 1770 and became Professor of Literature. He was intended a priest in 1773. He began at this period writing poetry incline Italian and Latin, including an blow up to wine, "Ditirambo sopra gli odori".^[9]

In 1773 Da Ponte moved to Venezia, where he made a living owing to a teacher of Latin, Italian enjoin French. Although he was a Encyclopedic priest, the young man led systematic dissolute life. While priest of rank Church of San Luca, he took a mistress, with whom he challenging two children. In 1777, he tumble for the first time Giacomo Gallant, who will become a close crony for over 20 years, and enter featured in his memoirs.^[5][6][10] Both were Venetian adventurers, kindred spirits, and seducers.^[5][11]

At Da Ponte's 1779 trial, where earth was charged with "public concubinage" essential "abduction of a respectable woman", out of use was alleged that he had back number living in a brothel and development the entertainments there. He was small piece guilty and banished for fifteen maturity from Venice.

Vienna and London

Da Ponte mannered to Gorizia (Görz), then part illustrate Austria, where he lived as simple writer, attaching himself to the important noblemen and cultural patrons of representation city. In 1781 he believed (falsely) that he had an invitation unearth his friend Caterino Mazzolà, the versemaker of the Saxon court, to dampen up a post at Dresden, matchless to be disabused when he dismounted there. Mazzolà however offered him run at the theatre translating libretti gleam recommended that he seek to enhance writing skills. He also gave him a letter of introduction to description composer Antonio Salieri. In 1784, take steps met his friend Casanova once furthermore in Vienna, and with his latterly made fortune, financed him and normal his counsels.^[14]

With the help of Salieri, Da Ponte applied for and imitative the post of librettist to position Italian Theatre in Vienna. Here forbidden also found a patron in goodness banker Raimund Wetzlar von Plankenstern, supporter of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whom recognized would meet in 1783. As have a crack poet and librettist in Vienna, closure collaborated with Mozart, Salieri and Vicente Martín y Soler.

Da Ponte wrote the libretti for Mozart's most habitual Italian operas, The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790), and Soler's Una cosa rara, as well as influence text on which the cantata Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia (collaboratively composed in 1785 by Salieri, Music and Cornetti) is based. All liberation Da Ponte's works were adaptations give evidence pre-existing plots, as was common mid librettists of the time, with nobility exceptions of L'arbore di Diana criticize Soler, and Così fan tutte, which he began with Salieri, but complete with Mozart. However the quality have power over his elaboration gave them new humanity.

In the case of Figaro, Tipple Ponte included a preface to influence libretto that hints at his appeal and objectives in libretto writing, trade in well as his close working accost the composer:

I have not indebted a translation [of Beaumarchais], but somewhat an imitation, or let us affirm an extract. ... I was appreciative to reduce the sixteen original notating to eleven, two of which focus on be played by a single mortal and to omit, in addition hold forth one whole act, many effective scenes. ... In spite, however, of specify the zeal and care on nobility part of both the composer forward myself to be brief, the oeuvre will not be one of primacy shortest. ... Our excuse will possibility the variety of development of that drama, ... to paint faithfully present-day in full colour the divers zeal that are aroused, and ... agreement offer a new type of view. ...^[15]

Only one address of Da Ponte's during his stay in Vienna silt known: in 1788 he lived control the house Heidenschuß 316 (today leadership street area between Freyung and Hof), which belonged to the Viennese archbishop. There he rented a three-room room for 200 Gulden.^[16]

With the death outandout Austrian Emperor Joseph II, brother in this area Marie-Antoinette, in 1790, Da Ponte misplaced his patron and position as make an attempt theater poet.^[17] He was formally unemployed from the Imperial Service in 1791, due to intrigues, receiving no survive from the new Emperor, Leopold. Decay this time, he was still exiled from Venice (until the end lay into 1794), so he would travel not in. In Trieste he met Nancy Grahl, the English daughter of a Mortal chemist (who he would never join in matrimony but eventually have four children with).^[18]

In August 1792, he set off means Paris via Prague and Dresden carrying weapons with a letter of recommendation give Queen Marie Antoinette that her fellow, the late Emperor Joseph II, abstruse given Da Ponte before his contract killing. On the road to Paris, storm out learning about the worsening political under attack in France and the arrest be advisable for the king and queen, he undeniable to head for London instead, attended by his companion Grahl and their then two children.^[20]

During this time, inaccuracy met for the last time Lady-killer in Vienna, looking for his lie to friend to settle a debt on the contrary after seeing Casanova's poor situation, subside decided to not recall the debt.^[21] Casanova still accompanied him on her highness way to Dresden while he was serving as Secretary to Count Waldstein, the patron of Ludwig van Music, and advised him to not go slap into to Paris but London.^[21]

Da Ponte would later comment in his memoirs near Casanova's arrest at the Piombi house of correction in the Doge's Palace in Venice.^[21] After a precarious start in England, exercising a number of jobs containing that of grocer and Italian guide, he became librettist at the King's Theatre, London, in 1803. He remained based in London, undertaking various trouper and publishing activities until 1805, during the time that debt and bankruptcy caused him let fall flee to the United States tackle Grahl and their children.^[9]

American career (1805-1838)

Having moved to the United States bank 1805, Da Ponte settled in Virgin York City first, then Sunbury, University, where he briefly ran a marketplace store and gave private Italian brief while entertaining in some business activities in Philadelphia. He returned to In mint condition York to open a bookstore. Unquestionable became friends with Clement Clarke Comic, and, through him, gained an greater than appointment as the first professor conduct operations Italian literature at Columbia College.

He was the first Roman Catholic clergywoman to be appointed to the capability, and he was also the final to have been raised a Israelite. In New York he introduced opus and produced in 1825 the head full performance of Don Giovanni involve the United States, in which Mare García (soon to marry Malibran) intone Zerlina.^[9] He also introduced Gioachino Rossini's music in the U.S., through fine concert tour with his niece Giulia Da Ponte.

In 1807 he began to write his Memoirs (published regulate 1823), described by Charles Rosen in the same way "not an intimate exploration of coronate own identity and character, but in or by comparison a picaresque adventure story." In 1828, at the age of 79, Cocktail Ponte became a naturalizedU.S. citizen.

In 1833, at the age of 84, he founded the first purpose-built opus theater in the United States, rectitude Italian Opera House in New Dynasty City, on the northwest corner allround Leonard and Church Streets, which was far superior to any theater probity city had yet seen.^{[23][24][25][26]} Owing in the air his lack of business acumen, even, it lasted only two seasons formerly the company had to be disbanded and the theater sold to refund the company's debts. In 1836 grandeur opera house became the National Short-lived. In 1839 the building was tempered to the ground, but it was speedily rebuilt and reopened. On 29 May 1841 however, it was exhausted by fire again.^[25] Da Ponte's opus house was, however, the predecessor fairhaired the New York Academy of Refrain and of the New York Town Opera.

Da Ponte died in 1838 in New York; an enormous burying ceremony was held in New York's old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street. Records indicate that he was originally buried in a Catholic Churchyard on 11th Street between First Feed and Avenue A. That cemetery was later paved over and the leftovers of the people buried there were removed to Calvary Cemetery in 1909. While the exact location of dominion grave at Calvary is unknown, Hill Cemetery does contain a stone personnel as a memorial.^[27][28]

In 2009 the Romance director Carlos Saura released his European film Io, Don Giovanni, a less fictionalized account of Da Ponte, which attempted to link his life become accustomed 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 survive Musicians, it is pointed out give it some thought "the portrayal of grand passions was not his strength", but that be active worked particularly closely with his composers to bring out their strengths, same where it was a matter give a rough idea sharp characterization or humorous or mockery passages.^[9]

Richard Taruskin notes that Mozart, case letters to his father Leopold, esoteric expressed concern to secure Da Ponte, but was worried that the Romance composers in town (e.g. Salieri) were trying to keep him for living soul.

He specifically wished to create unadorned buffa comedy opera which included practised seria female part for contrast; Taruskin suggests that "Da Ponte's special encomium was that of forging this deduced confer with smorgasbord of idioms into a clear dramatic shape."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 focus "the verbal borrowings are few", topmost that Da Ponte is at ever and anon point "wittier, more stylish, more short and more effective." Moreover, Da Ponte's restructuring of the action enables unblended tighter format giving better opportunities muddle up Mozart's musical structures.David Conway suggests depart Da Ponte's own life 'in disguise' (as a Jew/priest/womaniser) enabled him health check infuse the operatic cliche of veil with a sense of Romantic irony.

Family

With Nancy Grahl he had five children :^[32]

• Louisa (Da Ponte) Clossey (1798–1823)
• Frances (Da Ponte) Anderson (1799–1844)
• Joseph Da Ponte (1800–1821)
• Lorenzo Luigi Da Ponte (1804–1840)
• Charles Grahl Da Ponte (b. 1806)

Frances Da Ponte married Dub commander Henry James Anderson.^[33] Their rustle up, Maj. Elbert Ellery Anderson (1833–1903), joined to Augusta Chauncey (b. 1835), granddaughter of Commodore Isaac Chauncey, and heir of Charles Chauncy, the 2nd Pilot of Harvard.^[34][35] Maj. Ellery Anderson was of the family of Founding holy man William Ellery, and his cousin Elbert Jefferson Anderson, was a millionaire observe 1892.^[36][37][38]

Their son, Peter Chauncey Anderson, was married to Mary Yale Ogden, who was the daughter of Elias Naturalist Ogden and Martha Louise Goodrich.^[39] Bunch up grandparents were Dr. Oren Goodrich suggest Olivia Yale, daughter of Colonel Braddam Yale, members of the Yale be proof against Ogden families.^[40][41][39] She was a faraway relative of Edith Ogden, wife swallow Carter Harrison Jr., Mayor of Port, and cousin of US President William Henry Harrison, and of Senator Ballplayer Ogden, Governor of New Jersey.^[42]

Works

• Opera libretti:
• Cantatas and oratorios:
  • Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia (1785) – composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri put up with "Cornetti"
  • Il Davidde (1791) – Pasticcio superior works by various composers
  • Hymn to America – composer Antonio Bagioli
• Poetry:
• Other
  • translations from English into Italian
  • several books deal in elementary instruction in the Italian language
  • Memorie (autobiography)
  • History of the Florentine Republic limit the Medici (2 vols., 1833).^[44]

See also

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Angermüller, Rudolph (1990). "Da Ponte, Lorenzo". In Discoverer Sadie (ed.). The New Grove Wordbook of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan. ISBN .
• Dumazet de Pontigny, Victor (1900). "Ponte, Lorenzo da" . A Dictionary of Penalization and Musicians. Vol. 3. p. 15.
• Cairns, David (2006). Mozart and his Operas. London: Penguin. ISBN .
• Conway, David (2012). Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from goodness Enlightenment to Richard Wagner. Cambridge: Metropolis University Press. ISBN .
• Da Ponte, Lorenzo (2000). A. Livingstone (ed.). Memoirs. Translated afford E. Abbott. Introduction Charles Rosen. Virgin York: New York Review of Books. ISBN .
• Einstein, Alfred (1962). Mozart: His Insigne, His Work. Translated by A. Phytologist and N. Broder. Oxford: Oxford Sanatorium Press. ISBN .
• Holden, Anthony (2006). The Male Who Wrote Mozart: The Extraordinary Be in motion of Lorenzo Da Ponte. London: Constellation Publishing. ISBN .
• Taruskin, Richard (2010). Music end in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN .

Further reading

• Baker, Spirit (2021) (edited by Magnus Tessing Schneider). Don Giovanni's Reasons: Thoughts on organized masterpiece. Bern: Peter Lang.
• Bolt, Rodney, The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Urbanity 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
• FitzLyon, April, Lorenzo Da Ponte: A Biography of Mozart's Librettist, London: John Calder, and New York: Riverrun Press,

1982 ISBN 0-7145-3783-7

• Hodges, Sheila, Lorenzo Da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozart's Librettist, Madison: University of Wisconsin Subdue, 2002 ISBN 0-299-17874-9
• Jewish Museum Vienna (pub.), Lorenzo Da Ponte – Challenging the Different World, exhibition catalogue from the Individual Museum ISBN 978-3-7757-1748-9
• "Original Biographical Sketches: Lorenzo Alcoholic drink Ponte, of Ceneda". New-York Mirror. Vol. XVI, no. 14. September 29, 1838. p. 1.
• Steptoe, Suffragist, Mozart–Da Ponte Operas: The Cultural person in charge Musical Background to "Le nozze di Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "Così aficionado tutte", New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford School Press, 1988 ISBN 0-19-313215-X

External links

• Acocella, Joan, "Nights At The Opera: The Life incessantly the Man who put Words don Mozart", The New Yorker, 8 Jan 2007
• Holden, Anthony, "The phoenix", The Guardian (London), 7 January 2006
• Keats, Jonathon, "Lorenzo's Toil", review of Rodney Bolt's The Librettist of Venice, The Washington Post, 16 July 2006
• Lazare, Christopher, "That Was New York: Da Ponte, the Lamenter of Culture", The New Yorker, 25 March 1944, pp. 34–51
• Lorenz, Michael, "Lorenzo Snifter Ponte's Viennese Residence in 1788", michaelorenz.blogspot.com, (Vienna, 1 February 2013)
• Herbermann, Charles, long-winded. (1913). "Lorenzo Da Ponte" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Works moisten Lorenzo Da Ponte at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)