{"id":100,"date":"2023-01-31T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T09:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/italian-american.com\/?p=100"},"modified":"2023-02-17T19:12:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T19:12:52","slug":"lorenzo-da-ponte-mozarts-librettist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/italian-american.com\/lorenzo-da-ponte-mozarts-librettist\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorenzo Da Ponte – Mozart\u2019s Librettist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Not often mentioned with the same reverence as the composer, the work of a librettist is no less important to a genre which, from its inception, sought to combine the magical forces of music and drama to create something greater than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Mozart is the very definition of a household name (even among folks who can\u2019t even name one of his works), his most successful collaborator is all-but-unknown to those who are not ardent opera fans. The Venetian writer, Lorenzo Da Ponte, wrote the libretti<\/em> for three of Mozart\u2019s most celebrated operas; The Marriage of Figaro<\/em>, Don Giovanni<\/em>, and Cosi Fan Tutte<\/em>. And yet you may have never heard of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Born in the Jewish ghetto of Venice, Lorenzo converted to Christianity as a youth when his widower father married a Catholic woman. Emboldened by an opportunity not yet given to Jews, he entered the priesthood to have access to higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But while a priest in name, he often \u201coverlooked\u201d the vows of his order to compete with his good friend Giacomo Casanova (yes, THAT Casanova) for being the most scandalous scoundrel in all of Venice. He allegedly lived in a brothel and organized \u201centertainment\u201d there for himself and other gentlemen of Venetian society on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually he was arrested, convicted, and banished from the city for \u201cpublic concubinage\u201d and \u201cabduction of a respectable woman.\u201d The \u201crespectable woman\u201d in question was probably the mistress with whom he, the ordained priest, had two children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So perhaps he knew what he was talking about from first-hand experience when he wrote the (in)famous \u201cCatalog Song\u201d from Don Giovanni<\/em>, in which the title character\u2019s servant lists the number of women his master has seduced:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Italy six hundred and forty; in Germany, two hundred and thirty-one. A hundred in France, in Turkey ninety-one, but in Spain already a thousand three!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Exile from Venice brought him to Vienna and to the court of Emperor Joseph II, who had just created an Italian opera company. There Da Ponte coaxed his way into the role of \u201ctheater poet\u201d without ever having written an opera in his entire life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it was in Vienna that Da Ponte first encountered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They were both living near the Stephansplatz at the time, neighbors in one of Vienna\u2019s most trendy quarters. While collaborating on Le nozze di Figaro<\/em> during a six week period in 1786, they scampered back and forth between Da Ponte\u2019s humble abode and Mozart\u2019s\u2019 opulent apartments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to The Librettist of Venice<\/a><\/em>, by Rodney Bolt:<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte<\/h2>\n\n\n\n