Lorenzo Da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozarts Librettist [Paperback]

Sheila Hodges (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2002

Three of the greatest operas ever written—The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte—join the exquisite music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with the perfectly matched libretti of Lorenzo Da Ponte. Da Ponte’s own long life (1749–1838), however, was more fantastic than any opera plot. A poor Jew who became a Catholic priest; a priest who became a young gambler and rake; a teacher, poet, and librettist of genius who became a Pennsylvania greengrocer; an impoverished immigrant to America who became professor of Italian at Columbia University—wherever Da Ponte went, he arrived a penniless fugitive and made a new and eventful life. Sheila Hodges follows him from the last glittering years of the Venetian Republic to the Vienna of Mozart and Salieri, and from George III’s London to New York City.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers of this engaging biography may be surprised to learn that Da Ponte, Mozart's librettist, opened a grocer's shop in New York in 1805, then went on to become professor of Italian at Columbia University and a champion of opera in the New World. Born Emanuele Conegliano of Jewish parents, baptized at age 14, Da Ponte was banished from Venice as a licentious priest. Wherever he wentVenice, Vienna, London, New Yorkhe arrived an almost penniless fugitive and built up a new life. Though he wrote or adapted nearly 50 libretti for Salieri, Mozart and other composers, it was Mozart's unrivaled genius that he recognized and helped promote, and if he was not a great poet, he was nevertheless an ideal creative partner. Hodges (Gollancz: The Story of a Publishing House, with the aid of much archival research, rescues Da Ponte from the lingering image of disreputable libertine and shows us a lover of language, a scholar, contradictory, big-hearted, as swift and many-sided as his libretti.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Although remembered today as Mozart's brilliant librettist for Le Nozze di Figaro , Don Giovanni , and Cosi Fan Tutte , Lorenzo da Ponte had an amazing career as writer, poet, impresario, and entrepreneur as well. After Mozart's death he came to the United States where, having failed as a grocer, he became professor of Italian at Columbia University. At the time, he was highly regarded for his efforts to introduce Italian culture to the New World. Hodges's well-documented account is both an appreciation of his many-faceted character and a moving sociological survey of 18th-century musical life. As the foreword states, this "is surely the most accurate portrayal of Da Ponte that we shall have in our generation." William Shank, CUNY Graduate Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (April 27, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299178749
• ISBN-13: 978-0299178741
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,990,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Da Ponte: librettist for 3 of Mozart's most famous operas, January 19, 2003

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R. Nicholson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lorenzo Da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozarts Librettist (Paperback)

This work by Sheila Hodges is a biography of the man who was the librettist for three of Mozart's most famous operas: Le Nozzi di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte.

The book traces Lorenzo Da Ponte's life from birth in Ceneda, Italy in 1749 to his death in America in 1838. The material used in this biography include Da Ponte's own memoirs and various others letters and text that documented his life in Europe and America. In the back, the book list chronologically dates that of were of importance to Da Ponte, dates of his writings (poems, letters etc.) and finally dates of his libretti. There is also an extensive bibliography and a complete index of the names of people in the book who were part of his life.

The book deals extensively with all sections of Da Ponte's life including his growing up, his work in Vienna, (where he met Mozart and worked for Emperor Joseph), his life in London, and finally his last years in America. Among these segments we see a young man who could not resist the fairer sex; a gullible soul who repeatedly lent money to people and rogues that could not or would not repay him, thus leaving him in an almost constant state of poverty throughout his entire lifetime. As that saying goes "he was his own worse enemy".

Personally, I had hoped to gain some insight into the working relationship between himself and Mozart but there is apparently little record of their actual association. What did come out, that is intriguing, is the apparent sway Da Ponte's skill with the libretti had in determining the music that Mozart eventually wrote for the three operas mentioned above. This ability seemed to arise from his upbringing and his education as a young man, where eventually he developed his talent to write these fabulous Italian libretti: libretti that were not only used by Mozart, but by many other composers of the day, including Salieri and Martin Y Soler, just to mention a few. It appears plausable, that without Da Ponte's influence on Mozart, that these three masterpieces would be substantially different than what we know today.

The book is well written, generally easy to read and will be appreciated by anyone interested in Da Ponte, Italian opera or the political intrigues of life in 18th century Vienna. Certainly a special interest book, but one that is an fascinating read.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a life!, August 29, 2003

By 

John C. Mucci (Wilton, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lorenzo Da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozarts Librettist (Paperback)

DaPonte was a bon-vivant; a scholar, a poet, a gentleman-rogue who was always disappointed that the world did not revere him for all the effort he put into Italian culture internationally. As librettist to Mozart (and Salieri and others), he initiated a brilliant new style of opera; as a book-publisher and friend of Casanova he lived life large, in Italy (where he was thrown out for his amorous adventures), in Vienna (where he had to leave because of court intrigue), in Trieste(where he had to leave because he was starving), in London (where he left because of theatrical machinations), in New York (where he left because of a lack of business), in Philadelphia (where he ran a grocery and book store)--he was eternally optimistic, eternally misused and misunderstood, but always the happy warrior. HIs autobiography, from which Hodges quotes extensively (and is a merciful editor to his prolix style), is sometimes a catena of complaints against his "enemies" -who were everywhere, apparently. A most interesting book. Anyone with an interest in theater or opera at the end of the 18th century will love it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Libretto is an Italian Word, December 16, 2010

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Peter P. Morgan - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lorenzo Da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozarts Librettist (Paperback)

With the movie on the creation of Don Giovanni coming on, I pulled Sheila Hodges' book out. Da Ponte careened through the classical period of opera, and reading it reminded me again of the debt all opera has to its Italian roots, and how the Germans and their kin took it a step or two further to light opera. A scholarly, and well-written book, and an enjoyable lesson in music history.
Peter Morgan