The legendary collaborations between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and renowned librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, produced three of Mozart’s enduring opera masterpieces. Opera scholar Saul Lilienstein and I discuss this fascinating collaboration and the extraordinary life of Lorenzo Da Ponte.
Linda Carducci: Lorenzo Da Ponte is quite an illustrious character from the 18th century –a rascal and libertine in his lifestyle but also a serious writer and opera librettist for major 18th century composers, including Mozart. And if that’s not significant enough, he made major contributions to arts and letters in 19th century America. Before we get into that, let’s first flesh out details of Da Ponte’s early life.
Saul Lilienstein: Da Ponte was named Emanuele Conegliano at his birth in Italy in 1749. He was born Jewish and was bar mitzvahed. But after his mother’s death, his father converted the family to Roman Catholicism in order to marry a young Catholic woman. Emanuele’s name was changed to Lorenzo Da Ponte at his Catholic baptism, and he was later ordained as a Catholic priest. But the religious life was not where his heart lay: his passion was writing, and after ordination he wrote poetry and became a professor of literature in Venice. Just as illustrious was his free and lascivious lifestyle, far from the teachings and lifestyle of the Church. He took a lover, with whom he had two children.
Let’s step back a minute and look at the larger picture of what was going on in Europe at the time. Da Ponte lived during the second half of the 18th century and into the early 19th century, considered to be the “Age of Enlightenment,” a social and intellectual movement in Europe that sought reason and rationalism, tolerance and progress, intellectualism and religious freedom. It was a reaction from the religiosity and monarchy that dominated earlier eras. But within every epoch like the Enlightenment are reactions against it, a movement to the opposite. Da Ponte lived his life in reaction to the Enlightenment -- an ordained priest who lived against Church rules, a man with multiple lovers and several children from various liaisons, a poet and writer who pursued intellectual thought with seriousness and humor, an adventurer and entrepreneur who lived in various places and eventually brought Italian culture to America. Da Ponte’s friends, such as the 18th century libertine and womanizer Giacomo Casanova (yes, that Casanova) and the charlatan/magician Alessandro Cagliostro, who work a mask, hypnotized multitudes at a time and dabbled in the supernatural and fortunetelling, lived a similar free lifestyle in rebellion against the rationality of the Enlightenment. Where did this rebellious idea come from? Italian comedy, specifically, commedia dell’arte, a popular 17th-18th century traveling comedic troupe whose characters wore masks, mocked society and portrayed outrageous behavior. Da Ponte led a life like a commedia dell’arte character, as if wearing a mask of a priest that disguised his true passions, whether sexual or artistic. We’ll see masks appear in his libretto for Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte.
LC: Da Ponte paid a price for his lifestyle but always persevered and triumphed. His writing talent brought him fame and the opportunity to forge collaborations with notable composers in Vienna, such as Mozart and Salieri. A remarkable accomplishment on its own, and that’s even before his arrival in America and the significant cultural contributions he made here.
SL: Yes, Da Ponte was always getting in some sort of trouble. He was banished from Venice when he was found guilty in 1779 of corrupting the morals of young women. He settled in Vienna, then the hot spot for music. What a fortuitous move it was! Consider the confluence of musicians living in Vienna at that time: Antonio Salieri (who was roughly the same age as Da Ponte), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, to name only a few. The Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, who supported musical arts, had just arrived in Vienna. Salieri helped Da Ponte get a post as poet and librettist at an Italian theater in Vienna, which led to Da Ponte writing libretti for five Salieri operas. During his more than 20 years in Vienna, Da Ponte’s fame spread and he became a popular librettist for several opera composers. He developed a reputation for understanding the interplay of words and music, and for perceiving what a composer wanted.
LC: We know from Mozart’s letters that he held strong opinions, but he must have thought highly of Da Ponte, given their collaboration on three of Mozart’s major operas. How did they connect?
SL: Mozart, who was seven years younger than Da Ponte, was aware of Da Ponte’s talent and his work with other composers. They lived near each other and ran in the same circles because librettists were in demand among composers. They met in 1783, possibly through Salieri or the Emperor Joseph II. And while we’re mentioning Salieri, it’s worth noting that he was a very influential and respected composer and teacher in his day, despite how he was portrayed in the play/film Amadeus. His students included Beethoven, Schubert, Hummel and Liszt.
The Mozart-Da Ponte collaboration began in 1786 and lasted a little over three years, and what a productive a period it was! They produced three of Mozart’s Italian operatic masterpieces: Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte*. Each is an extraordinary fusion of high-level music with concise and clever libretti. During the years they worked on Don Giovanni (1786) and Le nozze di Figaro (1787), Mozart and Da Ponte would meet at a neighborhood café and hash things out in Italian. They didn’t write down their conversations, unlike Giuseppe Verdi with his librettists, but we can well surmise that Mozart and Da Ponte relished working with each other. Mozart’s genius for opera was evident, so it’s probable that Da Ponte, as a poet and writer, enjoyed the challenge. In fact, Da Ponte’s three and one-half years with Mozart was the greatest period of his life. Maybe he didn’t know it at the time, but it was.
LC: Considering Da Ponte’s skill at crafting words to music, it would seem he had an innate talent for music himself.
SL: There’s no record of Da Ponte having musical talent or training, or that he played a musical instrument. In his memoirs, the focus is on his life; he barely mentions music, except for noting that he worked with Mozart. But it’s true that he was highly regarded for his sensitivity to what composers wanted and needed. Just look at the complex characterizations in the Mozart operas, with their blend of comedy and drama and poignancy expressed in verbally concise ways that complement Mozart’s perfect structures. Da Ponte knew all he needed without being musical.
LC: Giuseppe Verdi, when composing his operas, needed a libretto first before he could write the music. Did Mozart have the same requirement when working with Da Ponte?
SL: We’re not sure, but it’s probable that he and Da Ponte worked together, going back and forth with ideas for each scene’s music and words. We know they met in person to work on Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro, but their collaboration for Cosi fan tutte was different. Da Ponte had already completed the Cosi libretto for Salieri’s setting of the story, but Salieri abandoned the project. Emperor Joseph II wanted another opera from Mozart, so he used Da Ponte’s existing libretto, which tells the story of two men who are persuaded to test the fidelity of their fiancés. So there was no need for the two men to work out the details in person. An interesting side note about the Emperor Joseph is that he hadn’t objected to Mozart’s operatic setting of Beaumarchais’s anti-establishment play, Le Mariage de Figaro, because the Emperor considered it a mockery of aristocracy, not nobility. And, as a critic wrote at the time, “There are things you cannot say verbally but you can sing on the stage.”
LC: Aside from the origins of Da Ponte’s libretto for Cosi fan tutte, the opera is considered separately from Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s previous collaborations, even though it was written around the same time as the others.
SL: The figurative mask that Da Ponte wore during his life -- presenting himself as a priest and teacher while living a free lifestyle in an anti-establishment way -- pervades the story of Cosi. Cosi is on the same artistic level as Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro, but I think it stands apart because it shows us two faces, an inherent disconnect between the cynical and the sincere. The plot is set in motion by a cynical character, Don Alfonso, who challenges two men to test the loyalties of their fiancés, which leads to a trail of heartbreak and amorous adventures based on masquerades. Da Ponte’s libretto fills this dark comedy with the pessimism of Don Alfonso and the anger of the two men who witness the infidelity of their fiancés, yet Mozart’s music brims with sincerity and beautiful, poignant ensemble pieces. Two distinct faces.
Da Ponte’s original libretto title for Salieri’s setting of the story was “School for Lovers,” a title that was sometimes tacked on as an additional title to Mozart’s opera. Mozart, though, preferred the title Cosi fan tutte and he drove that idea in the overture, which boldly proclaims a rhythm that conforms to syllables of the words, “Cosi fan tutte.” Actually, Mozart took those words from Da Ponte’s libretto for Le nozze di Figaro: “Cosi fan tutte le belle.”
Cosi fell out of favor in the 19th century, maybe due to its cynicism and inconclusive ending; we’ve not quite sure whether the lovers reunite after the masquerades are removed. Most operas of that era ended in either reconciliation of lovers or the promise of marriage.
LC: In closing, let’s return to Da Ponte. His freewheeling lifestyle eventually caused him to lose his patronage in Vienna. He and his lover and their children then settled in London, where he taught Italian and published his writings. But more adventures were in store when he embarked on a new chapter in America.
SL: The United States was a relatively new nation at the time and held great promise for enterprise and adventure. Living in America was the other great period of Da Ponte’s life. He and his family settled in New York City in 1805. He became one of the few people at the time who brought Italian culture to America: He became a grocer in Pennsylvania, importing and introducing Italian foods; he ran a bookstore in New York City; and he taught Italian literature at Columbia University. And to cap a remarkable career, Da Ponte founded the first opera house in New York City, where he brought the first performances of Mozart and Rossini operas to the American public. He spent his last years in New York City and is buried there.
Da Ponte was not a frivolous character, even if much of his life was lived as a masquerade, conventional in part while running against the establishment and pursuing his passions. He simply couldn’t live in a careful, measured way. The life of this adventurer, scholar, romancer, writer, entrepreneur and Mozart collaborator would make a fascinating film!
*WETA Classical’s Opera Matinee will present Cosi fan tutte, a recorded performance from Wolf Trap Opera’s 2024 summer season at The Barns, on Saturday, June 14, 2025 at 1:00 pm.
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