Ronald

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 21:32:04 -0800

Another really interesting thing about da Ponte is that he was born Jewish, converted (along with his father, who wanted to marry a Christian) and, as was customary in those days, took the name of his bishop. And when his patron, the bishop, died, da Ponte became a Catholic priest. Article about this in The New Yorker recently.

Joe

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:28:59 -0800

Well, a dramma giocoso traditionally requires an epilog that wraps up the loose ends in a major key finale. Which didn't stop many people -- including not a few in Mozart's day -- from insisting the opera would be far better without it. And many stagings have dropped it. Mozart's librettist on this work (as well as Le nozze de Figaro and Così fan tutte) was Lorenzo da Ponte, a rather fascinating character in his own right who ended his days in the United States, as a professor of Italian at Columbia University. I once made a point of walking through Columbia before riding the train to see a performance at the Met; Mozart seems so ethereal and distant and Columbia so concrete and immediate, yet this one man intimately links the two.

Seattlest: Operatic Consequences

Ronald

Joe