Da Ponte, Mozart Librettist
Wrote Mozart's 3 Best Operas - Figaro, Giovanni and Così Fan Tutte
Lorenzo da Ponte was a significant librettist of Mozart, for he wrote three texts of four Mozart's best Italian operas – Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro,) Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. Da Ponte also wrote Salieri and others. Most of his librettos, many adapted from other writers, are comic.
Early Years
Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian librettist, was born in 1749 at Cenega (now Vittorio Veneto), the son of an Italian Jew named Conegliano. In 1763, the whole family was received into the Catholic Church, and as the custom of the time, they assumed the name of the Bishop who performed the ceremony. Emmanuele Conegliano became Lorenzo da Ponte.
Adventurous Life and Travels
Da Ponte led an adventurous life, becoming a priest, and later, seek his fortune as a poet in Venice, Treviso, Gorizia, Dresden, and eventually in Vienna. His Memoirs tell the story of these years in great detail. They were not written until years later, but however distorted his Memoirs may be, it is clear from them that he was for ever escaping from scandals or his creditors, of one sort or another. His penchant for liberal politics and married women led to a ban on his teachings, and eventually a 15-year exile from Venice. Da Ponte went to Dresden, believing that his friend, the poet and librettist Caterino Mazzolá, would secure him a court post. Mazzolá did provide Da Ponte with a recommendation to Salieri in Vienna.
Vienna and the Salieri Connection
Da Ponte went to Vienna in 1781, thereabout. Through the influence of Antonio Salieri, he eventually obtained the post of poet to the Imperial Theatre. Da Ponte attracted the favor of Joseph II, and when Joseph abandoned his pursuit of German opera and revived the Italian company in 1783, Da Ponte was appointed poet to the court theatre.
Mozart's Operas and Migration to USA
Da Ponte first met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1783, and wrote for him the following libretti:
- Le Nozze di Figaro (1786)
- Don Giovanni (1787)
- Così fan tutte (1790).
In the same year, Da Ponte went to Trieste, having fallen out with his Viennese protectors. There he married an English girl. Then again, he was obliged to flee America in 1805 to escape his creditors, and eventually migrated to the US. He taught Italian in New York until his death in 1838.
Although an admirer of Mozart, he was less enthusiastic than one might expect, and while he praised Salieri to an extent as an educated and worthy maestro di cappella, his favourite composer seems to have been Martin y Soler.
Da Ponte's strength lies in being a poet and as a skilled improviser who also made use of existing works.
Related Links
Mozart in Opera History from 1781
Sources:
Mozart on the Stage by Christopher Benn, AMS edition (1976)
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan (1994)
Lorenzo da Ponte
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