- Person
- Lorenzo Da Ponte
- Lived
- 1749–1838
- Field
- Opera librettist
- From
- Italian-American
The story
Lorenzo Da Ponte was born Emanuele Conegliano in 1749 in Ceneda, in the Republic of Venice, to a Jewish family that converted to Catholicism when he was a teenager. In Vienna he wrote the librettos for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. After debts and bankruptcy in London, he sailed for the United States in 1805, and the second half of his long life was devoted to sharing Italian culture with a young country that knew very little of it.
His early American business ventures failed, but introductions through the Moore family of New York, including Columbia College president Benjamin Moore, led to work tutoring Italian to New York families. Columbia's own account of his life describes how, in a New York bookshop in 1807, he was stung by a dismissive remark about Italian writers from the young Clement Clarke Moore. Sharing Italian language and literature with Americans became his mission.
In 1825, at the age of 76, he became the first professor of Italian at Columbia College, now Columbia University. The post came with no salary: his students paid him directly, and their numbers rose and fell. He also sold 264 of his books to the college, and seven of them, including works by Machiavelli, survive in Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Da Ponte worked just as hard to bring Italian opera to American audiences. In May 1826 he produced the first full performance of Don Giovanni in the United States, in New York. Together with the singer Manuel García he is credited with introducing Italian opera to America. In 1833, at 84, he founded the Italian Opera House at Leonard and Church Streets in New York, described as the first purpose-built opera theatre in the United States. Poor business management meant it lasted only two seasons, but it showed what was possible.
His influence outlasted his own ventures. Columbia created a Lorenzo Da Ponte chair in its Italian department in 1929, and his portrait hangs in the university's Casa Italiana. The study of Italian language and literature in American universities, and the place of Italian opera in American musical life, both owe something to his stubborn enthusiasm.
Why it matters
Students of Italian at American universities and opera audiences across the United States benefit from the foundations Da Ponte laid in New York two centuries ago.
About Lorenzo Da Ponte
Born Emanuele Conegliano in a Jewish family near Venice, he wrote the words for Mozart’s Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte, then brought Italian opera and Italian studies to America.
More about Lorenzo Da Ponte
Sources
- Lorenzo Da Ponte Wikipedia
- How Mozart's Librettist Became the Father of Italian Studies at Columbia Columbia Magazine
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.